ROTARY ACTION GROUP FOR REFUGEES, FORCED DISPLACEMENT, AND MIGRATION
RAG Board
QUENTIN WODON (CHAIR)
Quentin Wodon is a Lead Economist at the World Bank. Previously, he managed the Bank’s unit on values, faith, and development, and served as Lead Poverty Specialist for Africa and Economist/Senior Economist for Latin America. Before joining the Bank, he taught with tenure at the University of Namur. He also taught at American University and Georgetown University. Trained in business engineering, he first worked in brand management for Procter & Gamble before shifting career and joining a non-profit working with the extreme poor. He has tried to remain faithful to the cause of ending extreme poverty ever since. He holds four PhDs, served as President of two economics associations, and has 500+ publications. His research has been covered by leading news media globally. In his volunteer work, he focuses on poverty reduction, service clubs (Rotary), and education. Married, he has two daughters.
DIANE RISH (SECRETARY)
Diane currently serves as Secretary of the Rotary Club of Capitol Hill. Prior to becoming a Rotarian, she was an Ambassadorial Scholar for a year in Concepción where she helped coordinate district and global grant projects between the United States and Chile. Diane has more than 11 years of experience working in the field of immigration law, policy, and advocacy. She currently serves as Associate Director of Government Relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Prior to joining AILA, she practiced as an immigration attorney for several years in North Carolina and Virginia. Throughout her career, Diane has volunteered with refugees and asylum seekers through a variety of organizations including the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Capitol Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition (CAIR), and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center. She spent her early years in Canada, France, and Switzerland, and is a citizen of Canada and the United States.
RICK OLSON
Rick Olson is a retired professional with a variety of educational and life experiences. He has worked as an economist, an attorney, a certified financial planner, an agricultural loan officer, an agricultural cooperative president, a State Representative in Michigan and a public school business manager. He obtained a Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School and completed the coursework in two Ph.D. programs (Agricultural Economics and Education Administration). As an active Rotarian since early 2017, he has flown to the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda three times since February 2020 to guide a non-profit organization he founded to assist the refugees at Best Future School and led the effort on two Rotary International Global Grants for Nakivale.
KYLE HAUGEN
Kyle Haugen has been a member of the Rotary Club of Prior Lake, MN since 2003, acting as Club President in 2009-10. Since then, Kyle has been very active at the District & Regional levels, including serving as District 5960 Governor in 2017-18, District Rotary Foundation Chair from 2019-21, and Region 36 (Zones 25B & 29) Rotary Public Image Coordinator beginning July 2021 until 2024. In June of 2019, Kyle traveled with staff from Alight (formerly American Refugee Committee) to Uganda and Rwanda to visit Nakivale Refugee Settlement and Nyabiheke Refugee Camp to develop relationships and expand partnerships between refugees, Rotaractors and Rotarians. Since his trip, his passion for helping refugees has continued to grow and Kyle and fellow club members are working on several projects, including two Global Grants, to benefit the residents of Nakivale Refugee Settlement. Kyle is married to Carrie, and they have two children: Cooper (6) and Quinn (3.5), and he owns Haugen Insurance & Financial Solutions with his father, and fellow Rotarian, Jack.
ROSE CARDARELLI
Rose is the Rotary International Representative with UNICEF. A former Army Medical Service Corps Officer and Professor of Human Security, she is currently the CEO of the Education for All Coalition. She serves as Director on various nonprofit boards. Her work has focused on meeting the needs of displaced children living in refugee camps through education, wellness, and related activities. She has coordinated humanitarian, medical assistance, or education missions in: Haiti, Jordan, Turkey, Algeria, Thailand, Greece, Lebanon and on the U.S.-Mexico border. Her organization is a Global Refugee Forum partner with the UNHCR, and she was a delegate to the OXFAM International Refugee Congress in Istanbul, Turkey that developed the Global Compact on Refugees.
MADHUMITA BISHNU
Madhumita (Madu) Bishnu is Past President of the Rotary E-Club of Melbourne in Australia, a club she has been a member of since 2013. She has been active in a number of Rotary Fellowships and Action Groups. She currently serves as Immediate Past Chair of the Educators Fellowship and previously served as Past Chair of ROTI (Rotarians On The Internet) from 2017-2019. She is also President Elect & VP (East India & Bangladesh) of the ITHF (International Travel & Hosting Fellowship). Madu is a Rotary Volunteer and is a TRF Cadre member for BEL (Basic Education & Literacy). Madu was Technical Coordinator for Education & Literacy on behalf of TRF as Cadre Member between 2009-2012.With a Masters in Islamic History from University of Calcutta, Madu works in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (with a focus on health activities for women and children) for the Ambuja Cement Foundation located in India.
PAUL MUSHAHO
Paul Mushaho is a Rotaractor from the refugee settlement of Nakivale in Uganda where he founded the first Rotaract club in the settlement. He is a social entrepreneur aiming to unleash opportunities for both refugees and non-refugees alike. He is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He received awards from Rotary for his work with refugees, as well as a Change maker award from the American Refugee Committee and Office of the Prime Minister of Uganda. He was the recipient of a Rotary Peace Fellowship to pursue his studies at the Makerere Peace Center in Kampala, Uganda.
MARK HARBISON
Mark Harbison is a member of the Rotary Club of Kihei-Wailea, serving as Club President in 2005-06. Mark has served as District 5000 (Hawaii) Rotary Foundation Vice-Chair and Grants Subcommittee Chair since 2014. A charter member of the Rotary Action Group for Peace, he is also a member of Mediators Beyond Borders and an Institute for Economics and Peace Global Ambassador. As a Global Grants administrator, Mark has experience across the Rotary Foundation Areas of Focus. Mark served on the selection committee for the Rotary Peace Projects Incubator finalist awards in 2020-21 and is on the “expert” subcommittee for 2021-22 and is currently mentoring two of the Incubator finalists in the Rotary Foundation grants process, including finding international partners and funding. Mark is married to Lisa Oyama and works in real estate investment in Maui, Hawaii.