AAF’s Trustees bring to the Board a wide range of professional background and diverse skills and talents for operating a Foundation. Bound by shared visions of providing an alternative venue of individual reflection and an additional tool for social building, the Board voluntarily commits their time and energy to developing AAF over the next few years until the fruition of their Mission and Goals, guided by AAF’s Values.
Associate Professor at the Management and Professional Education Department, Bicol University College of Education. Buemia teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses on pedagogy, assessment, special education, and mathematics. Prior to 2018, he was an Education Specialist for Monitoring and Evaluation at the Department of Education Albay. He journeyed with poetry but decided to concentrate on teaching mathematics and how to teach mathematics.
A lawyer, a real estate broker, and an educator. Most of all, he is a devoted student of life. He is a lover and avid fan of written and spoken arts. His lifestyle, like his workstyle, is flexible to fit the current needs of the organizations he serve and the community he lives in. His unrelenting goal is to help create positive changes in order to build better communities for everyone.
Allan Schapira is a medical doctor from Denmark. His work on malaria research and control for the World Health Organization brought him to a number of duty stations including Manila, where in 2002 he met Rafael Buemia from Legazpi City. After retirement, in 2010, he settled in Legazpi City, together with Rafael, where he has been involved in a variety of civic activities such as marine conservation, concert arrangements, and the revitalization of Albay Yacht Club.
She is an educator and trainer. Although a graduate of a State University, her fourteen-year Ignatian formation from a Jesuit school, Ateneo de Naga University, was the foundation of her vocation. Her international career as an educator, mid-level administrator and trainer started in 2005. She worked in several Cambridge International Schools in Indonesia and in Myanmar until 2015. She had short projects as a trainer for German development agencies in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2012. She has since come back to the Philippines to put up a few microbusinesses but is still connected to Cambridge University as an Assistant Examiner.`
Leni Velasco is co-founder and Secretary General of the artist-activist collective DAKILA, a group creatively building a movement of heroism towards social formation. She is currently the Executive Director of its institution, the Active Vista Center which organizes the annual Active Vista International Human Rights Festival in the Philippines. Her many years of work in human rights advocacy earned her the nomination for the Most Distinguished Human Rights Defender for the Ignite Awards of Amnesty International in 2018. She also serves as part of the Global Governance Circle of the Innovation for Change representing its East Asia hub.
Cynthia worked on international refugee, migration, human rights, and civil rights issues in Southeast Asia and the U.S. She is the Executive Director of the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC). She was the Policy Director of ACLU San Diego and the Policy and Advocacy Director at CHIRLA. Before moving to the United States, she worked in senior positions with various international organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Open Society Institute-Burma Education Project in Thailand, and the Jesuit Refugee Service. In June, 2003, she co-authored the book Anywhere But War, about the armed conflict and internal displacement in the Indonesian Province of Aceh. In August 2022, she published her debut poetry collection, The Future is a Country I Do Not Live in.
Marylou Duka-Castillo current serves as the Provincial Information Officer of Albay. With a Juris Doctor degree, she served as the Albay Chapter President of Integrated Bar of the Philippines, She was also the Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission for Regions 5 and 7. Her civil and society engagement had been varied, serving as President or Chairperson of various organizations. In addition, she is a law professor at the University of Santo Tomas Legazpi as well as Bicol University School of Law.
Atty. Duka-Castillo is also a 2013 Philippine Navy Reservist.
Regine Eina Calisin is a self-taught visual artist residing in Legazpi City. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree major in Political Science, Juris Doctor, and is currently finishing her master’s degree in Public Administration. She works in the corporate world and at the same finds time to take on her interests in the fields of sports such as ultra distance running and dragon boat. She also organizes and participates in different art exhibitions and is an active volunteer-advocate of animal welfare.
Lily is a radio broadcaster since the 1980s, working with DWRC-FM/DZRC-AM until 1998, and Angel Radyo-Makati in 2003-2004 . She has been working with Zagitsit News FM since 2016.
As an educator, she was the Associate Dean of BU College of Arts and Letters.
She is also a member of KapArte Bikol, Alpha Phi Omega, Mayon Vinyl Society, and Kiwanis Club Bitoon kan Albay.
She is a lover of music and literature.
Chris Newhall and his wife Glenda, long-time residents of Barangay Salvacion, founded Mirisbiris Garden and Nature Center, AAF’s neighbor to the west. Mirisbiris is an NGO promoting nature appreciation and protection, and helping Barangay Salvacion’s young kids to read, teens to find their inner identity and strength, and then to finish college. Goals of Mirisbiris Garden and the AAF are complementary and there will be many synergies of the two.
Victor Dennis T. Nierva is the founder and editor of the Bikol language advocacy Magbikol Kita. He is a writer, translator, designer, and an entrepreneur. His two books in the Bikol language—poetry and translations—both won the National Book Awards. He contributes as an editor and validator of DepEd’s MTBMLE textbooks in Bikol, and in the literacy programs of The Asia Foundation and RTI International.
He does curation, research, and design works for Philippine museums. He is the co-founder of the creative content startup Creative Coconut Ph, the education startup Alab Ideas, as well as the history-oriented organization, Saysay Bikol.
Emil Tapnio currently serves as the Senior Youth Leadership Development Specialist at The Asia Foundation. He earned a Public Administration degree from the University of the Philippines – Diliman. He was appointed as one of the Global Ambassadors of the International Young Leaders Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. He completed his Professional Fellowship at the US Department of State’s Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) in Hawaii and Washington DC. He was conferred with a Presidential Award from The Asia Foundation headquarters in San Francisco, USA for his mentorship to younger development workers and his contributions to developing strategies in higher education and youth leadership.
A true Bicolano by heart and mind, he continuously ushers in development programs for the Bicol region. He is a modest art collector, a gardener, and a fur dad to Alab.
Born in Catanduanes, Victor Barnuevo Velasco finished all his education in Albay, where he earned a degree in Electrical Engineering. When not working as an I.T. Consultant, he writes poetry and fiction which have appeared in online and print journals and anthologies in the Philippines and abroad. He also curates art shows, including an exhibit of vintage photographs on Martial Law that toured U.S. cities. He currently lives in Miami Gardens, Florida.
A vibrant cultural center for visual, performing, and literary arts in Albay province.
Established 2022. All rights reserved.
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A vibrant cultural center for visual, performing, and literary arts in Albay province.
Established 2022. All rights reserved.
For information about being part of the AAF community, email us here.
We care about your digital security. Read the AAF Privacy Policy.