 Sylvia Clute
As a young woman, Sylvia Clute studied in Paris, France, when a unified Europe was a distant dream. She watched as French Prime Minister Charles de Gaulle urged his country to cooperate economically with the rest of Europe and Germany, an example of leadership and a vision of unity that greatly influenced her. After serving as an early Peace Corps volunteer in a remote Himalayan village in Nepal, Sylvia earned her law degree and later co-founded the only women’s bank in the South.
In her career as a trial attorney, she found that clients often came to her with broken relationships. They were hoping to find solutions in a legal system in which all too often justice meant vengeance. Her legal training provided her with no tools to help heal the breach.
She watched as this nation’s criminal justice system grew to incarcerate more than 25% of all the people behind bars in the world, opening new prisons at a rate of 1 every 15 days in the decade of the 1990s. This vengeance model permeates much of our worldforeign policy, politics, corporate culture and even family life.
Disillusioned with the legal system, Sylvia began to search for a better way. She founded, led and served as an advisor to numerous community and statewide initiatives. A pioneer in legal reform, she spearheaded changes in Virginia’s laws relating to women and children. In 2001, she ran in the race for Virginia attorney general.
Sylvia holds an MA in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law, and an MA in Public Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.
She lives with her family in Richmond, Virginia.
Melanie St.James, MPA
Melanie’s life-long dedication to social justice, hands on international policy research and private sector entrepreneurialism in environmental technology and health fuels her passionate dedication to multi-sector collaboration, and functional vision of The Global Summit.
At 20, she began advancing theories linking population, environmental scarcity and poverty, advocating multi-sector collaboration and community empowerment. Inspired by research and related programs in Africa, she founded Empowerment Works (EW) in 2001. Her training in transformational mediation and international negotiations further contributed to EW’s 7 Stages of sustainable development & PIE approach.
Melanie advances The Global Summit holistic approach through workshops and speaking at international conferences. Highlights include the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto as co-Founder of the Coalition for a Sustainable Africa; unveiling her Population Theory at the 2004 Sustainable Resources Conference in Boulder; presenting PIE and moderating at the 5th International Symposium on Digital Earth, the 2008 Global Sound Conference and Lightning in a Bottle Eco-Festival, May 2008.
In April 2007, Melanie produced the first national press-conference on Colony Collapse Disorder, “Bees, Bio diversity and Food Security”. As an EW Responsible Media Forum, recognizing media that responds to issues that matter, it brought world renowned expert insights on sustainable agriculture, critical food security and bio-diversity to the mainstream media via immediate coverage in the LA Times and Live on NBC.
In concert with building Empowerment Works’ grass-roots programs in Africa, Melanie has deepened her private sector insights as Founder/CEO of BioNova™ Medical Corporation, through which she has authored various patents HIV/AIDS treatments and other life threatening diseases, managed treatment protocols in Africa and supporting research with City of Hope’s Beckman Research Institute and UCLA AIDS Institute.
Starting in high school, Ms. St.James worked closely with her father whose breakthrough inventions later launched Advanced Propulsion Institute, which recently partnered with Khosla Ventures to create Eco-Motors, LLC, a leading edge clean technology corporation.
Melanie holds a Masters degree of Public Administration in International Management from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and BA in International Relations & Diplomacy from Schiller International University in Madrid, Spain. Fluent in French and Spanish, Ms. St.James has lived and conducted research throughout Asia, Europe, Africa and Central America. Melanie resides in Venice Beach, California with her dog, Jackson.About The Global Summit
The Global Summit™ (TGS) is a new world-wide call to action consciously shaping a global citizen-driven policy system, synergistic philanthropy model, and advancing the most effective technologies for a sustainable world.
The Global Summit
Launching as a planning symposium in November 2008, followed by seven annual events in seven world regions, The Global Summit empowers people, organizations and businesses to work together around the world and around the year through a synchronized collaboration system, known as 1PIE.
As donor budgets shrink in a global recession just when their programs are needed most, The Global Summit calls upon the unique strength of each individual member and economic sector to help turn the tide.
Primary Outcomes & Vehicles of Change
Dedicated to addressing root causes of humanity’s most critical challenges, The Global Summit delivers a whole system approach to elevate the primary vehicles of social, economic and environmental change:
POLICY ACTION
World’s first global citizen voter platform empowers all voices to be heard in shaping the global policies and local solutions to the issues that affect them most. TGS Policy Sessions apply advances in conflict mediation and information technology for transparent, equitable and measurable results.
PHILANTHROPY
1PIE strategic, partnership network supporting local programs unifies private, public and civil society initiatives to reduce duplication & increase collective social, economic and environmental impact achieving the Millennium Development Goals and The Earth Charter.
TECHNOLOGY
Catalyze immediate climate change solutions & economic development through the promotion of sustainable technologies in energy, communications, transportation, agriculture, health & education. Deliverables: Sustainable Technology Expo’s peer review awards, investment forums and education and ensure that what works best is delivered to where its needed most, promoting the Kyoto Protocol/Copenhagen targets. |
