Contact: Carla Anderson, NJIT Director of Public Relations, (973) 596-3436
Contact: Bob Cottingham, district representative for Congressman Payne, (973) 645-3213
Contact: Kerry McKinney, Washington press officer for Congressman Payne, (202)-225-3436NEWARK -- Wednesday, May 27, 1988: Congressman Donald Payne will host "Focus on Africa," a Town Hall Meeting on Africa at the New Jersey Institute of Technology on Thursday, May 28 at 9 a.m. NJIT Hosts Congressman Payne for Meeting on Africa
Payne, a member of the House Subcommittee on Africa, seeks open discussion about the wealth of opportunities which will be created by the "Africa Trade and Investment Act," passed by Congress on March 11, 1988.
"This bill must still pass through the Senate," said Payne. "This town hall meeting will provide a forum for these opportunities to be discussed with diplomats from Africa as well as federal officials."
Payne was one of 16 members of Congress who traveled with President Clinton on a U.S. trade mission and tour of six African countries in late March and early April. He will feature a slide show in his special report, held in the University Hall Theater, as well as several panel discussions with guests that will include U.S. ambassadors and delegates to African countries.
Payne will open the meeting with remarks by Melvin Foote, director of The Constituency for Africa; Djibril Diallo, director of public affairs for the United Nations Development Programme, and H.E. Edith Ssempela, U.S. Ambassador to Uganda.
He will follow with a discussion about building public and private support for Africa in New Jersey, and several panels, which will include representatives from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce.
The first panel, "The African Growth and Opportunity Act: Doing Business with Africa," will feature Rosa Whitaker, assistant U.S. trade representative for Africa; Judith Aidoo, President of Aidoo Capital Markets in New York; Rameline Kamga, President of Cofina RK in Bethsesda, Md.; and H.E. Archibald Mogwe, U.S. Ambassador to Botswana.
The second panel, "Educational and Cultural Linkages with Africa," will include Sheila Walker, director of the Center for African and African-American studies at the University of Texas; Patrick J. En'Piere, director of the Inter-America and Pacific Region U.S. Peace Corps; Rose Dios, NJIT math professor; and H.E. Ahmed Ould Sid'Ahmed, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Mauritania.
The third panel, "Health and Women's issues in the African Diaspora," will feature Nancy Collil or Vivian Belafatono of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey; Melanie Duckworth of the Centers of Disease Control in Atlanta; and a representative of the World Health Organization.
Dios is an associate professor of mathematics at NJIT, is actively involved in NJIT's African Virtual University Project. She mentors and teaches students from 17 universities in six African countries through a combination video and real-time education program.
NJIT is a public research university enrolling nearly 8,200 undergraduate, master's and doctoral students in 76 degree programs through its five colleges: Newark College of Engineering, School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, the School of Management, and the Albert Dorman Honors College. Research initiatives include manufacturing, microelectronics, transportation, computer science, solar astrophysics, environmental engineering and science, and architecture and building science. Yahoo! Internet Life Magazine ranked NJIT the second "most wired" campus in the nation; U.S. News and World Report's "1998 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges" ranked NJIT top 175 national universities; and Money Magazine's "Best College Buys 1998" rated NJIT as the sixth best value among U.S. science and technology schools.
-end- #3364
{Back to News Releases Index}