Meet our new Board of Trustees members

In 1992, Isis International Manila elected two new members to the Board of Trustees - Noeleen Heyzer and Maria Villariba. Both women have been longtime associates of Isis International and are active in work on women's issues. We would like to welcome them and introduce them to our read

Noeleen Heyzer

Noeleen Heyzer, Singaporean citizen, has an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Singapore and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, England.

She is currently coordinator of the Gender and development Programme of the Asian and Pacific Development Centre (APDC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Author and editor of various publications, she has written extensively on women's issues in the Asia-Pacific region.

For the past nine years, she has worked on policy-centred research, handled policy dialogue, planning meetings and seminars and done policy formulation with governments to include gender issues in development planning, implementation and evaluation.

In her training work with NGOs and government ministries, she initiated, designed and implemented (in consultation and with the involvement of numerous women's networks and donor agencies) eight regional, sub-regional and national training courses involving nearly 500 participants from 23 countries.

Noeleen has twin daughters, aged 15 years.

Maria Villariba

Maria "Girlie" Villariba has a BA in Sociology from the University of the Philippines and an MA in Social Psychology from Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.

Girlie has worked in various nongovernment organizations in the Philippines. She was a founding member of Gabriela, a women's coalition and founding executive director and currently board member of the Center for Women's Resources (CWR).

While based in Europe, Girlie worked as popular education consultant of the Commission for Filipino Migrant Worker in London and Amsterdam from 1989-1990 and the Philippine Resource Centre in London from 1988-1989.

In 1992, Girlie moved back to the Philippines. She is a founding member and trainor of Education for Life Foundation (ELF) which collectively conceptualized the Philippine-Danish Folk School.

Describing herself as "an encyclopedia of pressures and joys," Girlie divides her creative energy between work and mothering two year old daughter Laraine.