Mark Hanis '05 and Yongjun Heo '09 to
Talk at Clinton Global Initiative

by Stacey Kutish
2/02/09

Mark Hanis '05 and Yongjun Heo '09 will speak at this year's Clinton Global Initiatve, which will take place Feb. 13-15 in Austin, Tex. Nick Gaw '09, executive director of STAND, will also present a workshop there, as well as join a panel about student activism with other leaders of student non-profits.

Hanis '05, with Sam Bell '05 and Andrew Sniderman '07, co-founded what is now the Genocide Intervention Network during his senior year to address the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Hanis, an Ashoka Fellow, will talk about the 101 of building organizations. "I think people will like that we started as a student group four to five years ago," he says, "and are now being invited to give presentations on how others should do it."

Heo, a biology and public policy major from Newburgh, Ind., will serve as a panelist and program participant for the session, "From Global to Local: How the Environment Impacts Health." As a sophomore, Heo received funding from the Swarthmore Foundation to work in a small medical clinic in Venezuela. He later founded Pemón Health to address preventative medicine and health issues there.

"I will be sharing my experiences on how I started programs for Pemón Health, specific health problems in the region, and how we started a waste management program in the area," he says. He will be joined by three other members of the organization - Ana Rosado '12, Sahiba Gill '12, and Vice President Elisa Lopez '11.