Power Summit Speakers May 6, 2022
MARTHA ABRAHAM
Dr. Abraham was born in Haiti. She immigrated to the US during her High school years. She is a Board-Certified psychiatrist who graduated from Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo.She completed her residency program at Harlem Hospital/Columbia University. She hasmaintained an independent practice since 1997 and has worked in many different settings,including in-patient and out-patient programs. She has also held many positions throughout her career to have led her to the managerial level. Dr. Abraham is currently enjoying retirement and has reduced her private practice to a minimal.
EVAN AUGUSTE
Evan Auguste is an incoming Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His research is focused on the impact of racial trauma on justice-involved adolescents and on leveraging African-Centered psychology to optimize interventions. As a part of his clinical training, he has consulted and provided evaluations for justice-involved people seeking parole and provided treatment and advocacy to justice-involved people in forensic hospitals. He also writes on and advocates for leveraging the history of Haitian scholarship and practice for the well-being of Haitian people. He is currently the Co-Chair for the Association of Black Psychologists Select Implementation Group.
BENEDICK AUGUSTIN
I am Benedick Christian Augustin, I am 18 years old. I am a senior at “It Takes A Village Academy”. After graduating, I would like to go to college to pursue a career in Finance.
I migrated from Haiti in 2021. Initially, I came to the United States for leisure, but circumstances happening back home decided my fate. The level of insecurity and political instability kept me in the United States. Haiti is a country, where you need to be strong mentally, emotionally, physically in order to live and thrive. I was born and raise in Haiti. I lived there most of my life, but my mother judge it to be safer for me to stay abroad then to go back.
My life in Haiti was good but at the same time stressful. I went to a good school, played soccer, hung out with my friends, but most importantly, I was with my mother and sister. However, the fear of never making back home after leaving school was a part of daily life.
So now, here I am in the US. Adapting to the United States was not easy, but it wasn’t too difficult either. I had to learn to live without my mother and my sisters who have been my anchors since my father’s passing. I had to adapt to a new culture, language, and way of living. I started my senior year in November 2021, two months later than the beginning of the school year. Despite the slow start, I managed to be amongst the top students of ITAVA. It was all due to hard work, dedication and the discipline that I was taught in school in Haïti.
I migrated from Haiti in 2021. Initially, I came to the United States for leisure, but circumstances happening back home decided my fate. The level of insecurity and political instability kept me in the United States. Haiti is a country, where you need to be strong mentally, emotionally, physically in order to live and thrive. I was born and raise in Haiti. I lived there most of my life, but my mother judge it to be safer for me to stay abroad then to go back.
My life in Haiti was good but at the same time stressful. I went to a good school, played soccer, hung out with my friends, but most importantly, I was with my mother and sister. However, the fear of never making back home after leaving school was a part of daily life.
So now, here I am in the US. Adapting to the United States was not easy, but it wasn’t too difficult either. I had to learn to live without my mother and my sisters who have been my anchors since my father’s passing. I had to adapt to a new culture, language, and way of living. I started my senior year in November 2021, two months later than the beginning of the school year. Despite the slow start, I managed to be amongst the top students of ITAVA. It was all due to hard work, dedication and the discipline that I was taught in school in Haïti.
JEAN-LUD CADET
Jean Lud Cadet, M.D. graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1979. Dr. Cadet did residency training in Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University and in Neurology at the Department of Neurology at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He came to NIDA, IRP in 1992 where he is presently a NIH Tenured Senior Investigator and the Chief of the Molecular Neuropsychiatry Research Branch at the NIDA intramural research program (IRP). Dr. Cadet has co-authored more than 300 papers and book chapters on the molecular neurobiology of substance use disorders, cognitive aspects of cocaine and marijuana use disorders, as well as mechanisms involvedin models of neurodegeneration including Parkinsonism. Presently, his laboratory studies the epigenetic mechanisms that control stimulant-induced changes in theexpression of genes in specific neuronal cells within the brain reward pathways. Dr. Cadet has also shown that adverse consequences represented by contingent footshocks can separate rats that had escalated their intake of methamphetamine into shock-resistant (addicted) and shock-sensitive (non-addicted) rats. His lab has shown that there are differences in DNAhydroxymethylation in the gene bodies of potassium channels located in the nucleus accumbens when addicted rats are compared to non-addicted ones. Moreover, Dr. Cadet’s laboratory has shown that footshocks can also dichotomize oxycodone self-administering rats into addicted and non-addicted rats.
Dr. Cadet has served on the Editorial Board of Synapse, is presently on the Editorial Board of Neurotoxicity Research, Current Neuropharmacology, International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, Scientific reports, and the Journal of Addictive Diseases. He is a reviewing editor for Scientific Reports. He has reviewed scientific articles for many Journals including Journal of Neuroscience, Biological Psychiatry, Brain, Molecular Psychiatry, JAMANeurology, JAMA Psychiatry, and Nature Biotechnology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among others. He has served on the program committee of the National Hispanic Science Network and had been a member of the Program Committee for the Society for Biological Psychiatry. Dr. Cadet is also a member of the Society for Neuroscience, ASPET, National Medical Association, Neurotoxicity Society, AMHE (Association des Medecins Haitiens a L’ Etranger), and Society of Haitian Neuroscientists. He is the co-chair of the scientific committee of the SHN.
NIARA CARRENARD
I’m a 1st Year Doctoral Student in Clinical-Community Psychology at Georgia State University. I’m Haitian-American, born and raised in Brooklyn, NY.
My research interests focus on examining the long-term effects of racial, interpersonal, and intergenerational trauma and their impact on PTSD outcomes in Black adults. I am also interested in understanding Black peoples' experiences in therapy and intervention modification and development. In the future, I want to start an organization that provides free access to mental health services for community members and continue to reduce the stigma of mental health through outreach and advocacy.
I am also a podcaster (Growing Gardenias) and an MMA fighter!
My research interests focus on examining the long-term effects of racial, interpersonal, and intergenerational trauma and their impact on PTSD outcomes in Black adults. I am also interested in understanding Black peoples' experiences in therapy and intervention modification and development. In the future, I want to start an organization that provides free access to mental health services for community members and continue to reduce the stigma of mental health through outreach and advocacy.
I am also a podcaster (Growing Gardenias) and an MMA fighter!
JACQUELINE CHARLES
Jacqueline Charles is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Emmy Award-winning foreign correspondent for the Miami Herald with responsibility for Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean. She began her journalism career at the Herald as a 14-year-old high school intern and was hired upon graduation from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her first overseas assignment – the Return of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide – came shortly after.
As the Herald’s Haiti correspondent, Jacqueline was again on the front lines for the (second) return of Aristide, and was the first journalist to inform readers of his arrival to the island-nation, just days before Haiti’s historic 2011 presidential runoff. While best known for her consistent and prolific coverage of Haiti, Jacqueline also made her mark as a local Herald reporter covering Miami’s impoverished communities, Broward County schools and government, the Florida Legislature, immigration and social services. Among her prize-winning work: a series of reports on the waste in Broward schools’ construction program and the impact of school crowding. She was a member of the education team that produced the Herald’s award-winning series Unequal Schools: Broward’s UnKept Promise. The three-day series detailed the inequities between predominately black and white schools in Broward County.
Jacqueline is as diverse as the communities she has covered: She was born in the English-speaking Turks and Caicos Islands of Haitian descent, and was partly raised in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood by her Haiti-born mother and Cuban-American stepfather.
In 2006, Jacqueline officially became a full-time member of the Herald’s World Desk. Her assignments have taken her throughout the Caribbean where she wrote about race in Cuba and whale hunting in St. Vincent, and as far away as Italy, Kenya and Liberia.
Jacqueline is a founding member of the Carolina Association of Black Journalists; a past president and scholarship chairwoman of the South Florida Association of Black Journalists and a former assistant director of the University of Miami/Dow Jones High School Journalism Workshop. She currently serves on the University of North Carolina’s School of Media and Journalism’s Board of Advisers.
Jacqueline is a founding member of the Carolina Association of Black Journalists; a past president and scholarship chairwoman of the South Florida Association of Black Journalists and a former assistant director of the University of Miami/Dow Jones High School Journalism Workshop. She currently serves on the University of North Carolina’s School of Media and Journalism’s Board of Advisers.
EDWIDGE DANTICAT
Edwidge Danticat is the author of several books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, The Farming of Bones, Claire of the Sea Light, as well as Brother, I'm Dying, a National Books Critics Circle winner. She is a two time winner of The Story Prize and a 2009 MacArthur Fellow, and a 2020 winner of the Vilceck Prize. Her most recent book, Everything Inside: Stories, is a 2020 winner of the Bocas Fiction Prize, The Story Prize, and the National Books Critics Circle Fiction Prize. She is a Member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS
Vladimir Duthiers is a CBS News correspondent based in New York. Duthiers is part of the team delivering the first look at the day's top stories for "CBS Mornings." He also serves as anchor for the CBS News Streaming Network, CBS News' premier 24/7 anchored streaming news service. His work has been featured on "CBS This Morning," the "CBS Evening News," "CBS Sunday Morning," "48 Hours" and all CBS News platforms.
The Peabody Award and Emmy Award-winning journalist has covered a wide range of breaking and feature stories since joining CBS News in 2014. He spent a month covering the protests against police in the in the aftermath of a white police officer shooting an unarmed African American man in Ferguson, Mo. and spent several weeks reporting on the police manhunt for Eric Matthew Frein, who allegedly killed a Pennsylvania State Police officer.
He began his career at CNN in 2009 as a production assistant on the news program "Amanpour" before going on to serve as an associate producer for "Anderson Cooper 360°." He was among the first journalists to arrive in Haiti to cover the 2010 earthquake and was part of the team that won two Emmy Awards for their coverage.
LIONEL JEAN-BAPTISTE, JUDGE
As a lawyer he worked on special cases such as the major African American reparations case against 17 U.S. corporations in federal court, Walker’s application noted. In 2001 when he joined the Evanston City Council, he became the first Haitian-American electedin the state of Illinois to that type of municipal position. He won two other terms of office, including an election where he was forced to wage a write-in campaign after a ballot challenge.
In March of 2011, he became the first Haitian-American to be sworn in as a Cook County Circuit judge. Beyond his career, “Jean-Baptiste has always maintained his activism,” the application continued. His service in support of Haiti included “a seven-year internationalcampaign to amend the Haitian Constitution to secure dual citizenship for all Haitians born, anywhere in the world, to a Haitian mother or a Haitian father,” she noted. He is dedicated to mobilizing Haitians in the Diaspora, helping our brothers and sisters develop the nationEvanston City Council members approved on Dec. 13, 2021 an honorary street name, a portion of McDaniel Avenue between Crain Street and Dempster Street as “Honorable Lionel Jean-Baptiste Way, for Cook County Circuit Court Judge Lionel Jean-Baptiste, recognizinghis contributions as the City’s first Haitian-American alderman, as well as the early light he shined on the issue of reparations.
In March of 2011, he became the first Haitian-American to be sworn in as a Cook County Circuit judge. Beyond his career, “Jean-Baptiste has always maintained his activism,” the application continued. His service in support of Haiti included “a seven-year internationalcampaign to amend the Haitian Constitution to secure dual citizenship for all Haitians born, anywhere in the world, to a Haitian mother or a Haitian father,” she noted. He is dedicated to mobilizing Haitians in the Diaspora, helping our brothers and sisters develop the nationEvanston City Council members approved on Dec. 13, 2021 an honorary street name, a portion of McDaniel Avenue between Crain Street and Dempster Street as “Honorable Lionel Jean-Baptiste Way, for Cook County Circuit Court Judge Lionel Jean-Baptiste, recognizinghis contributions as the City’s first Haitian-American alderman, as well as the early light he shined on the issue of reparations.
CAROLE BEROTTE JOSEPH
Dr. Carole M. Berotte Joseph retired from CUNY as University Professor and past President of the Bronx Community College. She became the 5th President of BCC in July 2011. Prior to returning to CUNY, she served as President of Massachusetts Bay Community College in 2005 in Wellesley Hills, MA and became the first person of Haitian descent to become a college president in the US. Currently, she is available for Consultant work through Berotte Associates Consultancy, LLC.
An expert in the field of bilingual/multicultural education, she is a socio-linguist by discipline. She co-edited a groundbreaking book entitled "The Haitian Creole Language: History, Structure, Use and Education," (2010). She has lectured extensively, and has authored, translated and edited articles on educational and immigration & language policy issues facing Haitian communities in the United States as well as in Haiti. She was among the pioneers who advocated for, conceptualized and implemented the original Dreamer's legislation w/President Obama's staff and a host of national leaders in Washington, DC to support higher education for undocumented students. She served on the Advisory Board of the Community College Research Center (CCRC), at Teachers College Columbia University and AACC's Presidents' Academy, to plan professional development for community college presidents throughout the US. She was one of 12 community college presidents selected by the US State Department to travel to various countries to assist in the implementation of the community college model internationally.
Dr. Berotte Joseph was born in Haiti and grew up in New York City. She is fluent in four (4) languages. She has been featured in several Who's Who publications and has received numerous prestigious awards, including the “Big Picture Gandi Award" from the City School Program in Boston, MA and the NYS Bilingual Educator of the Year Gladys Correa Award. She earned a bachelor's degree in Spanish with minors in French and Education from York College, CUNY; a master's in Bilingual Education, specializing in curriculum development from Fordham University, completed advanced graduate coursework in administration and supervision at NYU which led to NYS Certifications as Principal and Superintendent of Schools. Her doctoral research focused on language attitudes among Haitians in the Greater NY Metropolitan area She holds a doctorate in Sociolinguistics and Bilingual Education from the Department of Teaching and Learning at New York University,
NYAH LAMARRE
Nyah Lamarre was born and raised in Great Neck, New York. She is 18 years old and completed High school in three years as the Salutatorian in Saratoga Springs, New York, where she moved with her parents. Nyah is a first semester junior Political Science major and Legal Communications minor at Howard University and is on the Honors roll with a 4.0 average. She enjoys reading, watching tv, and doing yoga with friends. She was the captain of her Mock Trial team this past year. Nyah is very engaged in the Haitian culture and has visited Haiti on a few occassions
GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE
Garry Pierre-Pierre is a Pulitzer-prize winning, multimedia and entrepreneurial journalist. In 1999, he left the New York Times to launch the Haitian Times, a New York-based English-language publication serving the Haitian Diaspora. He is also the co-founder of the City University Graduate School of Journalism‘s Center for Community and Ethnic Media and a senior producer at CUNY TV.
He is a leading voice on Haiti, the Haitian diaspora and community media whose perspectives are often featured in multi-national media outlets. Connect with Garry on Twitter @Pierre2Garry.
MARIO SAINT-LAURENT
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dr. Saint-Laurent migrated to the United States to join his parents in 1965. After receiving an Associate Degree in Science at NYCCC, he transferred to CUNY in Harlem. In 1973 he attended The University Autonomous of Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico where he successfully passed his (ECFMG) Medical Equivalency Exam in his last year as medical student. Upon graduation, Dr. Saint-Laurent did his rotating internship at Cornwall Regional Medical Center in Montego Bay Jamaica, WI. After which he returned to Guanajuato, Mexico for one year of Social Service practicing Community Medicine.In 1980, after a successful accomplishment in Mexico, he did his residencies in Medical College/ Metropolitan Hospital, Einstein Bronx Lebanon. After completing residency in 1983 he started his private practice in Jackson Heights. In 1988 he merged his practice with his old roommate from medical school. He and Dr. Boursiquot opened up two practices, one in Corona, Queens and Queens Village.While in private practice he has had the opportunities to cover pediatric emergency in multiple major hospitals such as Woodhull, St. Mary’s, Brookdale University Hospital, Interfaith Medical Center, and Wyckoff Medical Center until November 2019. He is Board Certified and currently a volunteer attending at New York Presbyterian and Flushing Hospital Medical Center. He supported New York City Relief for the Homeless. He has served as treasurer and President of Pediatric Society of Queens. He was also secretary and president of the (AMHE), Haitian Medical Association Abroad. He has been an active board member of the (USFCH) United States Foundation for the Children of Haiti for the past 27 years. He has also participated in multiple missionary trips in the Battey of Dominican Republic and Haiti. He has been married to his lovely wife Carmel. For the past 38 years. He has 4 beautiful children and 2 grandchildren.For his Community effort he has been recognized and recipient of numerous awards and citations, including: -Good Samaritan by the NY Post-Outstanding Community Health Services by Councilman Nick Perry-Citation from County Executive Ed Mangano
YOLETTE WILLIAMS
Yolette Williams, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Licensed Psychotherapist, Licensed Bilingual Haitian Creole School Social Worker. She is Board Certified in Neurofeedback, and is a Certified School District Administrator. She holds a Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University. Yolette Williams has spent many years working in different capacities with the NYC Department of Education (DOE), primarily serving bilingual children, students with special needs and their families. Her expertise extends to the neurological based disorders, including Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, Learning Disability and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Many of her roles at the DOE, included, but not limited to Mediator, Impartial Hearing Litigator, counseling services, consultant to school principals and teachers.
For the last 20 years, as president of CSW Brain Enhancement and Psychotherapy, Ms. Williams has simultaneously maintained a private practice, providing psychotherapy services to patients diagnosed primarily with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Adjustment Disorder,Intergenerational / family difficulties and neurological based disorders. In 2010, following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, she was called upon by Partners in Health to provide counseling support, and train mental health professionals, alongside Zanmi Lasante, their sister organization in Haiti.
Since July 2018, Ms. Williams has assumed the position of Chief Executive Officer of the non-profit organization, Haitian American Alliance of NewYork, an organization she has been affiliated with the past 25 years. From 2009, through 2016, she has co-led yearly, medicalmissions to Haiti, including a couple of additional mental health specific missions. From the onset of the pandemic, Ms. Williams rallied community partners, leaders and other Community Based Organizations to form a COVID Taskforce in order to appropriately coordinate service and respond to our community during this most difficult period. Ms. Williams was the recipient of the Ford Freedom Unsung “Heroes of COVID- 19” award from the Ford Rainbow Push Coalition. She has also received other accolades for her dedication to community services, leadership, efforts, and commitment.
BENJAMIN ROY
Dr Roy is the Immediate Past President of the Black Psychiatrists of America. Hereceived his medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine andserved his internship in internal medicine at Harlem Hospital and a psychiatryresidency at St. Vincent’s Hospital, both in New York, NY. He then completed aclinical fellowship in neuropharmacology at the National Institute of MentalHealth and in neuroimmunology at the National Institute of Neurological,Communicative Disorders and Stroke, NIH, both in Bethesda, MD. He is adiplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and Fellow of theAmerican Psychiatric Association.Dr Roy discovered human antibodies for endorphins and the opiate receptor inpatients with psychiatric disorders and holds 2 US patents on methods ofdetecting certain antibodies in human body fluids. He has participated innumerous phase 2-4 clinical trials in neuropharmacology and neuroimmunology.He exposed the purpose of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to develop syphilisdiagnostic tests that were patented and commercialized.
SHERLEE SKAI
World Music singer-songwriter World Music singer-songwriter Sherlee Skai brings a unique sound shaped by multicultural influences from Haitian folklore to American jazz and soul. She sings from the soul combining art, story, and song in perfect unison.
Based in New York where she graced the stages of Harlem Week, New-York Marathon, and more, Sherlee Skai's music celebrates her origin and culture, shares her vision as an immigrant, a woman standing in front of life, hence the title of her previous album "TOUTOUNI" (Bare Naked).
Currently working on her 2nd album which will be released this year, Sherlee Skai is using her music and voice as tools to bring awareness about social justice issues, notably immigration policies in the US. As a volunteers for different organizations Sherlee has seen 1st hands the treatment black migrants receive at the US/Mexico border, and makes it her duty to advocate for more humaines treatment for those in need of protection.
Based in New York where she graced the stages of Harlem Week, New-York Marathon, and more, Sherlee Skai's music celebrates her origin and culture, shares her vision as an immigrant, a woman standing in front of life, hence the title of her previous album "TOUTOUNI" (Bare Naked).
Currently working on her 2nd album which will be released this year, Sherlee Skai is using her music and voice as tools to bring awareness about social justice issues, notably immigration policies in the US. As a volunteers for different organizations Sherlee has seen 1st hands the treatment black migrants receive at the US/Mexico border, and makes it her duty to advocate for more humaines treatment for those in need of protection.
Planning Committee:
Yolette Williams, LCSW-R (Chair) HAA Chief Executive OfficerMarie E. Lemy, PhD, MPH (Co-Chair) HAA SecretaryMarie Mombrum, Esq. (Co-Chair) HAA Legal AdvisorJudith W. Williams,DNP/PMHNP-BC HAA Chair, Mental Health CommitteeKathleen Luma, DNP HAA Chair, Development & ITEvan Auguste, Ph.D HAA Chair, Emerging Leaders Committee Niara Carrenard, B.A HAA MemberCarole Pierre, DDS HAA Chair, Social Committee
Yolette Williams, LCSW-R (Chair) HAA Chief Executive OfficerMarie E. Lemy, PhD, MPH (Co-Chair) HAA SecretaryMarie Mombrum, Esq. (Co-Chair) HAA Legal AdvisorJudith W. Williams,DNP/PMHNP-BC HAA Chair, Mental Health CommitteeKathleen Luma, DNP HAA Chair, Development & ITEvan Auguste, Ph.D HAA Chair, Emerging Leaders Committee Niara Carrenard, B.A HAA MemberCarole Pierre, DDS HAA Chair, Social Committee
Special Thanks to:
All the panelists who have volunteered their precious time.
Margaret Alexandre, DNP HAA Member
Judite Blanc, PhD HAA MemberGregory Cassagnol HAA MemberJean-Claude Compas, MD HAA Vice PresidentHenri Desrosiers Friend of HAAGiardin Jean-Louis, PhD HAA Chair, Research Committee
Sarah Kuril Friend of HAAGary Pierre-Pierre Haitian TimesMario Saint Laurent, MD HAA Chair, Health CommitteeLaurie W. Moise (Zoe's Key) Technical Support Peter U. Moise (Zoe's Key) Technical Support
Fred Williams, PhD Friend of HAA
Adele Williams Friend of HAA
Evangelical Crusade Church
Haitian Times
Haiti Observateur
Radio Africa 1804 (Pawol Lave Je W)
Une Nouvelle Haiti
Donate or volunteer to help our Haitian community; please call or email today!
Contact
Address
486 Lincoln PlaceBrooklyn, NY, 11238
Service Area
New York, NY