The People Behind This Project

Marky Jean-Pierre earned a doctoral degree (EdD) in Education with a focus on Language, Literacy and Culture from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass) for his research on how language practices and educational practices intersect with academic achievement and social mobility in Haiti as a post-colonial society. Building on this foundation, he earned a second doctoral degree in French and Francophone Studies from the University of Connecticut, Storrs. For this dissertation, defended with distinction, he focused on “Language Re-appropriation in the francophone Caribbean region - Challenges and Perspectives.” His activities with the Haitian Creole Academy reflect his engagement with the dialectical relationship between language and reality, and how language informs post-colonial relations of power in the Caribbean and other regions.

Doctor Jean-Pierre taught at the University of Massachussets in Boston, the University of Massachussets in Amherst, Westfield University, and Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is currently a faculty member at the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of The Bahamas in Nassau, The Bahamas.

His research has centered on language, culture, language ideology, and educational practices in ‘postcolonial’ contexts (especially Haiti and the Francophone Caribbean Region), francophone and ‘postcolonial’ literature, 20th Century French Literature, and Contemporary Literary Theory.

Marky Jean-Pierre has made numerous presentations in the US, France, Haiti, Jamaica, Brasil, and Canada on issues pertaining to language. He has made numerous publications. For a complete list of publications 

Dr. Desrosiers received her medical degree from The New York College of Osteopathic Medicine.  She completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Good Samaritan University Hospital in New York. She completed her subspecialty training in Female

Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive surgery at the ICAHN School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. She is a board-certified urogynecologist who currently splits her time working as an attending physician at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans and at Doctors Hospital in The Bahamas in the division of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive surgery.  Her areas of research include the structural and biomechanical changes which occur in pelvic organ prolapse and incontinence. She is an expert in minimally invasive surgeries.  Dr. Desrosiers has engaged in the practical aspect of Rive’s project implementation phases. She has worked in Kenya, Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, El Salvador, and Haiti.

Bio: Rebecca Zarch meat Marky in 2010 through a mutual friend.  With an offer to help complete the non-profit paperwork for what was the FONHOH, she became fully invested in the vision and has remained part of the core team.  

Professionally, Rebecca has spent  nearly 20 years evaluating projects supporting young adults moving through STEM pathways and workforce development projects. She particularly loves projects that involve complex organizational change, the infusion of innovation and entrepreneurship into the educational environment, and those that promote underrepresented groups in the STEM fields. Rebecca received her MBA in nonprofit management at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management and her M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.