Governance

Chommanat Ratanamanee is a retired professor from Suandusit University, Bangkok, Thailand, where she was the dean of the Faculty of Education and also taught Educational Administration. In retirement, she has continued to teach about education at various universities for many years, and she is still lending her expert advice on Teaching and Learning Methodology.  She is a senior advisor for the National Security Management Course. Chommanat is also involved in various projects relating to charities and corporate social responsibility in Thailand.

Originally a Jewelry Designer with degrees in Liberal Arts and in Fine Arts from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri (USA), Jinee D. Russell, now retired, has a long history of involvement in development work and fundraising for which she has been recognized and awarded various times. Prior to moving to Thailand, she was on the Board of Grosvenor Neighborhood House and a board member of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City, raising substantial funds for both organizations’ community development work. Since moving to Bangkok in 1990, she has been involved with the Soroptimist International Club of Bangkok (SIB). In 2004 she was recognized for her contributions with an “Outstanding Female Figure” award from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).  She attended the 71^st Commission Session of the UN Economics and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (2015), participated in the conference with UN women (United Nations for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women) and the National Council of Women of Thailand (2016), and was involved with the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) fundraising efforts for the N-Peace Award (2017). She is currently also active with the American Women’s Club of Thailand’s scholarships initiative and the scholarship fund of the International Women’s Club of Thailand (IWC). She remains active with SIB’s fundraising for schools and scholarships as well as the club’s UN liaison.

Nippon Limboonsuebsai is a specialist in Information Technology (IT) and Computer Science, in particular data science, database knowledge & knowhow. He has more than 15 years’ work experience in the field, including with IBM Thailand. He is currently the General Manager of an engineering-based company. He also performs a number of pro bono roles such as Deputy Secretary of the Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association (TAWA), Mediator in the Intellectual Property & International Trade Court (IPITC), and Advisor to the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), Samutprakarn Province. Driven by the concepts of transparency, trustworthiness and good governance, he is excited about also making a contribution to Aide et Action’s work as our board’s Treasurer.

Lieutenant commander Kittiya Evans graduated from the Naval Nursing College, 1st Class Honor, in Bangkok. After 5 years working as a professional nurse in ICU, she returned to studying, graduating with a Master in Nursing Education from Chulalongkorn University. She became a teacher at Thailand’s Naval Nurse Corps School. After 2 years of outstanding performance as a nursing teacher there, she received the Best Teacher Award and pursued her Ph.D. in Research Methodology in Education at Chulalongkorn University, graduating with an “Excellent Dissertation”. She worked as the Deputy Director of the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment for more than 2 years after which she was invited to become a Quality Assurance (QA) specialist for the Asia-Pacific Program of Education for All (APPEAL) Unit with UNESCO Thailand in 2012. In 2013, she was also invited to be a QA consultant for the Asian Development Bank. Currently Kittiya is the Deputy Director at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, International Demonstration School.

Pimjai Mestsuksai holds both a master degree and doctoral degree in Education Management from the University of the Philippines. He is currently working as a lecturer with the graduate program at Siam Technology College, Thonburi, Bangkok. Before that, he worked with the Office of Non-Formal and Informal Education of the Ministry of Education of Thailand. He has also been an advisor to the Finnish Refugee Council teaching the Thai language and he has also worked with the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) teaching Thai in Myanmar refugee camps along the Thailand-Myanmar border.
Besides his engagement with Aide et Action Association, Pimjai is also a member of the Education Committee and the Budget Committee of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, Thailand. In addition, he’s an expert on checking research instruments and a member of the Committee of Approval of the Master’s Degree Thesis and the Working Group of Study of the National Education Acts.

Sheldon Shaeffer was Director of UNESCO’s Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok for over seven years, retiring at the end of 2008. A citizen of Canada, he was educated in history (B.A.), anthropology (M.A.), and comparative international education (Ph.D.) at Stanford University. He has taught, done research, and worked in development programs in Southeast Asia for over 30 years including as the East Asia regional education advisor for UNICEF in Bangkok.  He was also a senior research fellow at the International Institute for Educational Planning (UNESCO) in Paris. Before moving back to Bangkok as Director of UNESCO’s Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, he was head of UNICEF’s global education program in New York for three years. His professional interests, in addition to early childhood development, include language policy in education, child-friendly and inclusive education, and teacher development and management. He is currently also serving as the Chair of the Board of the Asia-Pacific Regional Network on Early Childhood (ARNEC).

Kathy Barnett is a retired teacher with a Diploma of Education from Otago University, New Zealand. Her teaching career involved, among others, working in the field of special needs (with a focus on reading) and she was also seconded to helping out with the music syllabus in schools. Kathy was also the managing director of two companies in New Zealand.
Her 20 years of living in Bangkok have been filled with charity work benefiting children. She also represented Thailand at the last Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference held in the country. She’s a past President of the Australian New Zealand Women’s Group (ANZWG), the Soroptimist International Club of Dusit, Bangkok. In partnership with Soroptimist South West Pacific a school and hospital were rebuilt for the “Hands Across Borders” project in Cambodia, an 8-year project from Soroptimist International. She is also active in the International Women’s Club Scholarship Fund.

Narongsak Boonyamalik is one of founding members of Aide et Action Southeast Asia & China.
In Thailand, he is the Secretary General of the Thai-Russian Cultural, Technology and Economics Association of which he is also one of the founding members. He also sits on Executive Board of the Thai-Chinese Cultural and Economics Association (2016-present). As an educator, he worked with Thai Ministry of Education for more than 20 years as Director of Policy & Planning for Private Education. He has also been Vice President of the World Boxing Organization, Thailand.  Narongsak has also been the Deputy Permanent Delegate of Thailand to the UNESCO, Paris, France (2014-2015).

Prasert Tepanart is currently working as the Deputy Director (Administration & Communication) with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Secretariat (SEAMEO) based in Bangkok, Thailand. Prior to working with the SEAMEO Secretariat, he was the Regional Director of Aide et Action International – Southeast Asia & China, for nine years.  He worked with a number of UN agencies, namely UNICEF Thailand and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for Asia Pacific. He also worked with donor agencies such as the European Union (EU) under the intellectual property rights program and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) on projects in the areas of joint venture initiatives between Thailand and Canada as well as institutional and legal development in human rights, democratic development and governance in Southeast Asia. Prasert holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Institut Supérieur de Gestion from Paris, and completed a number of management courses from various countries in Asia, Europe and South America.

Tin Win currently works as a freelance translator. He has ample experience working in the education sector. His previous positions include Director – English Program at the Faculty of Business Administration, St. John`s University, Bangkok, and Head of the Mathematics Section, Sanabal Private School, Manama City, Bahrain. He has also been a Mathematics and Physics Teacher at St. John`s International School. Tin also has worked as a Program Officer, Teaching Thai Language in Myanmar Refugee Camps, and as an Advisor on Advisor, Teaching Myanmar literacy in Myanmar Refugee Camps. He holds both a Ph. D. and a M. Sc. in Meteorology from the University of the Philippines.