UUA-UUSC Supporter Journey to Tanzania and Burundi: Itinerary and Trip Leaders

Current Itinerary

Please note that this schedule is subject to change.

Trip Leaders

Trip leaders include UUSC and UUA staff who have experience working with nongovernmental organizations in Africa and leading trip delegations.

Patricia Jones is manager of UUSC's Environmental Justice Program, which promotes the human right to water in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Her work includes research, drafting law and policy, working with civil society organizations on campaigns and litigation, advocacy with national and international human-rights bodies, and shareholder advocacy. Before joining UUSC, Jones was a researcher working with international donor agencies and governments on legal tools for resolving conflicts over transboundary water resources. She has published reports in her field of international water law.

Jones holds a PhD and master of law (LLM) degree in international water law from the Centre for Water Law, Policy, and Science at the University of Dundee (United Kingdom). She earned her law degree (JD) from the Washington College of Law, American University, working for its Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law. She worked for 18 years at El Centro de la Raza, a multiracial community-based organization in Seattle, Wash., focusing on development and social justice locally and nationally and U.S. foreign policy in Latin America.

Rev. Eric Cherry has been the director of the Unitarian Universalist Association's International Office since August 2007. In this position, Cherry manages the UUA's relationships with UU and interfaith partners around the world, provides resources for congregational international engagement, and supervises the staff of the UU Holdeen India Proram and UU United Nations Office. Prior to accepting this position, Eric served for 12 years as a parish minister with UU congregations in Burlington, Iowa, and N. Easton, Massachusetts. Cherry has long been involved in the UU Partner Church movement, serving as the English teacher for Unitarian Seminarians in Kolozsvár, Transylvania in 1998. He earned a bachelor's degree from Earlham College and a master of divinity degree from Meadville Lombard Theological School.

Evan Seitz is the associate for experiential learning and youth services in the UU College of Social Justice. His responsibilities include developing the Haiti Volunteer Program and leading JustWorks service-learning trips. Prior to joining UUSC, Seitz worked as a community planner, helping neighborhoods rebuild after catastrophic natural disasters. He holds a bachelor's degree in environmental design from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Maxine Neil has been the director of the Institutional Advancement Department at UUSC since 2007 and came to UUSC with almost three decades of fundraising experience. Neil is responsible for the strategic direction of fundraising for the organization. Before joining UUSC, Neil served on the fundraising staff of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and was a member of that organization's diversity council for six years. She has served on the board of the Direct Marketing Fundraising Association and on the conference committee for the Massachusetts Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Boston.