| The JfJ Team |
title: Coordinator email: website: http://web.utk.edu/~rhackett Motivated by the horrendous suffering of the people of Northern Uganda, which she saw on her 2004 trip to the region, Informed by more than eight years of research and teaching in West Africa Blessed with a love of organizing and networking, Convinced of the need to see a greater role for the creative arts, especially music, in the rebuilding of lives and societies in post-conflict situations, Inspired by the spirit of jazz, especially the music and philosophy of South African jazz musician, Zim Ngqawana, as a force for personal and social liberation, Aided by talented students, colleagues, and local musicians, Rosalind conceived of the idea of holding a benefit concert in September 2006 to raise awareness of and support for war-torn Northern Uganda. The rest, as they say, is history! 
title: Music Manager email: Joshua Russell is a multi-instrumentalist musician and chef currently living in Knoxville, TN. He is also a former student of Cultural Anthropology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. After graduating in the Spring of 2005, he went on to pursue Culinary Arts and became the Executive Chef of two local restaurants, Pasta Trio and Thailand Express. Joshua has been with the Knoxville Jazz for Justice team since its inception during the Spring of 2006. It has long been Joshua's dream to investigate the role of music in the peace building/healing process. A series of events, the KJFJ 2006 Benefit Concert and the Summer 2007 KJFJ Musicians for Peace Initiative, has brought his vision of music as a peace-building/ healing process into reality. As part of the KJFJ team, he helped produce the Knoxville Jazz for Justice Benefit Concert 2006. Joshua was also a member of the KJFJ envoy to Uganda during the Summer of 2007. He has documented the aforementioned events on several forms of media, and plans to use this data for the creation of a multimedia presentation that will exhibit the peace building process being developed through the use of music. Also, this presentation will help raise cross-cultural awareness between the music communities of Knoxville, Tennessee, and Gulu, Uganda. - Back to Top - 
title: Schools Coordinator, Chief Fundraiser email: Erin Bernstein is a student at the University of Tennessee, majoring in College Scholars, an individualized program through which she has created a program called Reshaping Humanitarianism in Africa. Her curriculum incorporates the Global Studies, African Studies, and Journalism departments and aims to move the focus of humanitarianism away from Westernization and towards preserving the culture. Her passion for serving people has brought her to Hungary, Romania, and South Africa through the Rotary Club of Knoxville and to Botswana, Uganda, and back to South Africa (with a quick side stop in Great Britain) through the Knoxville Jazz for Justice Project in July 2007. Erin has been following the situation in northern Uganda since she entered the University of Tennessee in fall 2005. Her interest and knowledge have since then grown, leading her to become an active member of the Knoxville Jazz for Justice Project and the movement to bring peace and healing to the people of northern Uganda. She plans to return to Uganda in January 2008 to intern with the Northern Uganda Girls’ Education Network (NUGEN), where she will work alongside prominent Ugandan women in counseling young women and fighting for their right to a good education. She intends to incorporate her love for writing in her work with NUGEN by encouraging the girls and women to find peace through a hobby of her own: poetry. 
title: Campus Coordinator, Public Relations email: Lindsay McClain is a sophomore at the University of Tennessee majoring in an individualized program called College Scholars. Her concentration is focused on how the arts can enhance peacebuilding and conflict resolution in Africa, and she intends to use the situation in Northern Uganda as her primary case study for research. She is particularly interested in the plight of women and children in post-conflict reconciliation. Lindsay first got involved in ending the war in Northern Uganda spring 2006 and participated in the Global Night Commute in her hometown of Franklin, Tennessee. In addition to her efforts with KJfJ, Lindsay is the South’s Regional Coordinator for DC-based Resolve Uganda's student movement. Lindsay traveled with Knoxville Jazz for Justice to Uganda summer 2007, and she hopes to use the knowledge gained from that visit to educate students and build campus movements for Northern Uganda across her region of the southern United States. In addition to Uganda, Lindsay, with her incurable case of wanderlust, has also traveled to Botswana, South Africa, Haiti, Mexico, Jamaica, the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, Canada, and across the United States. She will be returning to Uganda for an internship with NUGEN in January and hopes to add more of east Africa to her list of places she has been. Her favorite quote, by the late Dan Eldon, embodies her outlook on life. - Back to Top - 
title: Fundraiser email: Ben Miller volunteered at the first annual KJFJ concert where he began his interest in music activism in Northern Uganda. He was more involved in the planning, promoting, and implementation of the 2007 KJFJ concert. He travelled to Uganda in spring 2008 to build overseas relationships and perform hands on activities in Uganda as a representative of the KJKJ project. 
title: Webmaster & Designer email: Scott Livingston is an undergraduate student of electrical engineering, computer science and mathematics at UTK. He was introduced to the Jazz for Justice Project at its first concert in 2007. 
title: Fundraiser email: The Reverend Patricia Lynes-Tway with the Diocese of East Tennessee has traveled to Uganda and is writing a manual for teachers to aid them in helping students suffering from emotional and spiritual needs caused by war experiences. She also researches and writes grants to benefit KJFJ partners. - Back to Top - |