Your Trainers

Program Director: Professor Michael Shafer

Professor D. Michael Shafer received his BA from Yale and his PhD from Harvard. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of highly regarded books on American foreign policy and international political economy. For the past decade and a half, Dr. Shafer has directed higher education reform programs in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as in Lebanon and South Africa. He has taught international relations and the international political economy of development at Rutgers University for 24 years where he is director of the Rutgers Center for Global Security and Democracy. He was the first winner of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Teaching, a finalist in the national Ehrlich teaching award competition and is currently a Carnegie Presidential Teaching Fellow. Prof. Shafer has been voted "Best Teacher" by Rutgers students on many occasions. He is founder of Global PACT and has led Global PACT programs in Croatia (2004, 2005, 2006) and Thailand (2007, 2008). He will direct Global PACT's first program in Cambodia in 2008.

Senior Trainer: Carole Ketnourath

Carole holds a BA in Asian Studies (Honors) from Hamilton College. She has worked in Thailand for the past two years, first as the Volunteer Manager at DEPDC in Mae Sai and now as Vice President of Warm Heart, a community development NGO in Phrao. Carole is Director of Southeast Asia Operations for Global PACT. She was senior translator and trainer for Global PACT - Thailand, 2007, and will serve as senior trainer for Thailand 2008 and Cambodia 2008.

Thai Cultural Consultant: Chatree SaoKaew

Chatree - or P'Tee as he is known to most of us - is Executive Director of the Warm Heart Foundation, a community development NGO serving Phrao District and principal of the Warm Heart School. A longtime resident of Phrao, P'Tee received his B.Ed. from Rajabhat University in Chiang Mai. He began his teaching career at Maejedee Wattayakom School in nearby Wiang Pa Pao District before becoming head teacher at the DEPDC Half Day School in Mae Sai. In January 2008, he left DEPDC to assume the leadership of Warm Heart.