TELECONFERENCE PANELIST BIOGRAPHIES


Cohen, Eric
Chair of Fidelity Out of Sudan

Eric Cohen is chair of the Fidelity Out of Sudan campaign, a citizen-led initiative launched in January 2007 to pressure Fidelity Investments and other American investment firms to divest from certain oil companies that are operating in Sudan and thereby helping to fund genocide in Darfur. Cohen is also co-chair of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur, an alliance of organizations from across Massachusetts working to stop the genocide and protect civilians in Sudan.

Cohen is a retired information technology executive with a 20 year career at Digital Equipment Corporation.  He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts and is a former Fidelity customer.

Farrow, Mia
Actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador

Mia Farrow, award-winning actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, has traveled three times the region affected by the genocide in Darfur.  During her most recent trip in Chad, Farrow visited several refugee camps with David Rubenstein, the Executive Director of the Save Darfur Coalition, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the Coalition’s documentary film crew currently stationed in eastern Chad. 

Farrow traveled to the western Darfur region of Sudan with her son, Ronan (UNICEF Spokesperson for Youth), during June of 2006. The goal of her mission was to heighten awareness in the international community concerning the genocide.  While in Darfur, Farrow met with representatives of the Sudanese Government and encouraged them to take stronger action to ensure protection for the people of Darfur.  She and her son visited camps for internally displaced persons and several UNICEF-sponsored field programs.  Farrow previously traveled to Darfur during November of 2004. 

Appointed as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador on September 27, 2000, Farrow has been an outspoken advocate for many humanitarian causes.  She has traveled extensively in Africa, including a trip to Nigeria in 2001, where she helped to launch a national polio immunization day; and to Angola in August 2002, to highlight the plight of women and children in a country ravaged by war for almost three decades. 

Kirk, Crispian
Director of International Affairs for the NAACP

Crispian Kirk presently serves as the Director of International Affairs for the NAACP.  Mr. Kirk is responsible for marshalling the NAACP’s efforts to increase the capacity of the NAACP partner institutions in civil society to address issues such as global health, human rights, and trade and sustainable development.  Mr. Kirk is also responsible for developing and facilitating advocacy strategies and campaigns to close the gap of  disparities faced by people of color across the globe by promoting fair and equitable human rights and economic justice.

Previously Mr. Kirk served as Bureau Counsel to the Washington Bureau of the NAACP where he was charged with providing legislative advocacy and mobilization in support of the NAACP issue agenda.  Mr. Kirk also served as the NAACP National Election Protection Director during the 2004 Presidential Election were he was responsible training and mobilization of lawyers and poll monitors across the nation in support of protecting the right to vote.  Mr. Kirk also served as a NAACP Staff Attorney where his responsibilities included redistricting and the Cuba Goodwill Initiative. Prior to the NAACP, Mr. Kirk was with Grubb & Ellis, an international commercial real estate company.

Mr. Kirk also served as a fellow, with the Center for Violence and Reconciliation in Johannesburg, South Africa. In this capacity, Crispian served as counsel for victims of apartheid who had initially been denied victim status under the guidelines of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  Mr. Kirk secured victim status for 80% of his clients and developed a comprehensive empowerment program for victims to secure victim status and also built a coalition of legal advocates to provide free legal services for victims of apartheid. 

Mr. Kirk is currently Vice Chair of the American Bar Associations Subcommittee on African Human Rights.  He is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University and the University of Maryland School of Law and a member of the Maryland Bar and the American Bar Association.

Rubenstein, David
Executive Director of the Save Darfur Coalition

David Rubenstein is the executive director of the Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of more than 180 faith-based and advocacy organizations united to raise public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and to mobilize a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of more than two million people in the Darfur region. 

Rubenstein helped found the coalition in 2004 and has worked since then to raise awareness about the crisis and to advocate for the protection of the people of Darfur. Rubenstein has visited refugee and displaced persons camps in eastern Chad and met with world leaders, noted global advocates, and hundreds of allied organizations to discuss the crisis and how to spur the world community to action. His meetings have included those with diplomats and government officials worldwide.    

Rubenstein has been interviewed frequently about the crisis in Darfur and is a regular speaker at Darfur-focused events. Rubenstein was honored for his work with the 2007 Peace and Justice Award given by the Center for African Peace and Conflict Resolution at California State University, Sacramento. 

Prior to his work with the coalition, Rubenstein advised Washington area nonprofit groups, providing guidance on a wide range of organizational issues. He founded and directed the EnvironMentors Project, which helps urban teenagers focus on their futures by working with professionals on individual environmental projects. 

Sterling, Adam
Director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force

Adam Sterling is the director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, a project of the Genocide Intervention Network. Adam is a recent graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles with degrees in African American Studies and Political Science. Adam has received a number of humanitarian awards and serves as an advisor on Sudan engagement issues to numerous state pension funds, state legislators, and federal representatives. His writings and work have appeared extensively in the press, including contributions to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The LA Times, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The SF Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, and National Public Radio.  Additionally, Adam has provided testimony for numerous state legislatures, the United States Congress and the United Nations Global Compact.

As the coordinating entity for the Sudan divestment movement, the Sudan Divestment Task Force, a project of the Genocide Intervention Network, is actively involved in dozens of successful and developing targeted Sudan divestment campaigns around the world at the university, asset manager, city, state, and national levels. With pro bono legal support from Cooley Godward Kronish LLP and analytical support from Calvert, the Sudan Divestment Task Force has developed a unique approach to shareholder engagement and divestment, focusing its efforts on the most egregiously offending companies in Sudan. This approach, termed "targeted divestment", helps to maximize impact on the Sudanese government, while minimizing potential harm to both innocent Sudanese civilians and investment returns.