User:Gwbrown

                  CURRICULUM VITAE, DR. GORDON W. BROWN                                             (to Dec 2012) =======================================

Dr. Gordon W. Brown was born in Chicago in 1938, is married with two children and six grandchildren. His postal address is P.O. Box 1010, Penny Farms, FL 32079. His email address is gwbrown@ieee.org. Dr. Brown spent 30 years in Kenya, developing training materials in management and development and evaluating and advising Christian projects and organizations and running workshops and seminars in development and management. He occasionally gave presentations on lightning protection, his PhD thesis topic.

Dr. Brown has published an Insights newsletter every several months since 1996. He has over thirty years of experience helping institutions, organizations, programs and projects understand their potential and plan more effectively. Consulting areas include:

Agriculture and Livestock: Potential of arable land and rangeland; population carrying capacity; "sustainable" agriculture.

Community Development: In both urban and rural areas. Community-based development projects; needs assessments.

Project Development, with particular attention to costing and cost-effectiveness.

Entrepreneurial Development: Polytechnics, credit and business training programs, etc.

Health: Hospitals, community health; health service costing and financing; "sustainable" health care.

Organizational Development and Restructuring: Associations, councils, institutions. Operations, terms of service, etc.

Education and Training: Nursery, primary and secondary schools; adult training programs/institutions. Wrote training materials for hospital management, costing and "Theology for Management". Consulting Methods: Guidelines for writing proposals and carrying out evaluations, feasibility studies, and consultancies.

Fund Raising: Nearly every project and program needed to have a fund raising component.

Program Planning, Costing and Cost-Effectiveness. Nearly every evaluation has required program costing and financing.

Dr. and Mrs Brown are conversant in Kiswahili. The Browns retired in 2006, but he still actively publishes his Insights newsletter

WORK EXPERIENCE:

2006-present: Returned to USA in 2006, moving to Penney Retirement Community in 2007. He Continues to publish his Insights newsletter (list is below).

1997-2006, Independent Consultant team with wife. Included consulting for SOMIRENEC (Social Ministries Research Network of the Comboni Missionaries); serving as Rangeland and Livestock Specialist for sector study of water resources and irrigation potential for Eritrea. Carried out evaluations for (among others): Comboni Polytechnic, Gilgil, Kenya; St. Anne's Girls' High School, Kiriari (Embu), Kenya; St. Mark's Teacher Training College, Embu. Taught Economics of Wildlife Conservation for School for Field Studies, Nairobi. Facilitated strategic planning workshop for Imani Project (Marianists) and its MISEREOR Core Partners.

1979-1996, Senior Consultant, CORAT AFRICA, Nairobi, Kenya (seconded missionary, Presbyterian Church USA). Training and training materials development, consulting, organizational development. Developed methods for understanding costs of organizations and projects, and implications for organizational development, financing and operation. Organized first IEEE AFRICON conference.

1976-1979, Lecturer and Consultant, Industry and Commerce Programme, Mindolo Ecumenical Centre, Kitwe, Zambia. Developed management training programms for industrial companies, including business game; industrial consultancies (Zambia Railways, Ndola Copper Mines), including cost-effectiveness analyses. Developed management courses for church leaders.

Prior to 1976: Consultant, U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration, Washington, D.C. 1971-1972: Lecturer and Acting Head, Industry and Commerce Programme, Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation, Kitwe, Zambia. 1967-1975: Associate Professor (Assistant Professor, 1967-1970), Electrical Engineering Department, University of Pittsburgh.

1967-1978, Consultant to Companies: e.g., Westinghouse, Balfour Beatty, ITE Imperial, Zambia Electric Supply, Kenya Power and Light, chiefly in areas of lightning protection and in the cost-effective upgrading of high-voltage transmission lines.

PERSONAL INTERESTS:

Dr. Brown and his wife sang semi-professionally (now mostly at Nursing homes). They have translated numerous songs from English into Swahili. In the past, rock climbing and biking took the mind off work. They have been active in church.

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS: PhDEE, MSEE Illinois Institute of Technology; BSEE and BA (Applied Sciences), Lehigh University; Diploma in Theology, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS/ACTIVITIES:

Registered Professional Engineer, Kenya and USA; Life Senior Member, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers); past member, Management Society of the IEEE; Founder Member, East Africa Section of IEEE; Member, IEE (Institution of Engineers, Kenya); Member, Kenya Institute of Management (through 2004); Recipient of IEEE Centennial Award, 1984, for service to the IEEE; Who's Who in the World, 15th Edition, 1997; Member, WCC Sustainable Health Advisory Group; Invited author: Kenya "Range Management Handbook"; Invited author: International Health Network; Chairman, SOMIRENEC Board of Directors.

PERTINENT PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS, PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS

"Effectiveness of Health Service Delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa", Invited presentation to the International Health Network, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, November 1996; "Rangeland Productivity", CORAT AFRICA, 1991. [A modified version was published as an invited paper with the title "Factors to Consider in Development of ASAL", in Volume I of the Range Management Handbook of the Ministry of Livestock Development of Kenya, 1995, pp. 47-85.];"Maasai diet", letter to editor, The LANCET, Vol. 341, Feb 6, 1993; "Community health care in Kenya", letter to the editor, The LANCET, Vol. 338, November 9, 1991; "Cost-Effectiveness and Community Based-Health Care", an invited paper, AMREF/UNICEF conference, April 1989; "Limited Rainfall Availability: A Critical Resource for Kenya." This monograph is used in evaluations, February 1989; CORAT AFRICA Cost-Effectiveness Manual, May 1987; "Fundamental Management Problems in Hospitals", invited talk to the national, provincial and district medical officers and government hospital administrators and chief medical officers in government hospitals in Kenya. Nairobi, 13 February 1987; "Determining Cost-Effectiveness of CBHC/FP Programs", co-authored with Dr. Mark Jacobson, presented at national Community-Based Health Care Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, April 1986; "Management in Church Hospitals", with W. R. Temu, invited paper, International Hospital Federation Conference, Nairobi, 1984; "Contribution by and Future Potential of the Protestant Churches Medical Association (Kenya) in the Delivery of Health Services in Kenya", report for USAID, 1982.

Dr. Brown has over 20 refereed papers in technical journals on engineering topics. Some of these are: "Cost-Effective Upgrading of HV Lines - Experience in Africa", an invited paper presented at Imperial College, London, April 1983; "The Weibull Distribution: Some Dangers With its Use in Insulation Studies", IEEE Transactions [PAS], Sept 1982, pp. 3513-3522; "Joint Frequency Distributions of Stroke Current Rates of Rise and Crest Magnitude to Transmission Lines", IEEE PAS, Jan/Feb 1978; "A Critique of Extreme Value Analysis in Cable Insulation Research", invited paper presented at Imperial College, London, February 1977; "Frequency of Distribution Arrester Discharge Currents Due to Direct Strokes", co-authored with S. Thunander, IEEE PAS, Sept/Oct 1976; "Maximum Likelihood Methods Applied to Flashover Probability Data", IEEE PAS, Dec 1969.

Insights: Since late 1996, Dr. Brown has published a personal newsletter called "Insights, representing over 30 years of insights from consultancies he has led.

INSIGHTS PUBLISHED TO JUNE 2012

1. 1 Smallholder Self-Sufficiency (Arable Land)
2. 2 Rainfall and Agricultural Yield
3. 3 Maize verses Tomatoes: Importance of Dry Matter
4. 4 Sustainable Community Projects
5. 5 Financing Schools, Hospitals and Such
6. 6 Insights into Health Service Delivery
7. 7 Key Constraints on Pastoralist Culture
8. 8 Planning a Project for Evaluation
9. 9 Training Verses Job-Finding and Placement
10. 10 "Sustainable" Hospital Services
11. 11 Costs of Schooling
12. 12 Israel vs Kajiado: Improving Agricultural

      Productivity is Not Cheap

1. 13 Summaries of Previous Insights
2. 14 "Target Group" Income-Generating Projects
3. 15 Institutional Income-Generating Projects
4. 16 Costing and Financing
5. 17 Cost-Effectiveness
6. 18 Agropastoralism and Mixed

      Agriculture/Livestock Economies

1. 19 Self-Sustaining Community Development Project

#20 Fish Farming: Not for Protein #21 Community Ownership? #22 Problems with PRAs #23 Major Polytechnic Goal: Keeping Kids off the Streets #24 Discipline and Academic Performance #25 Donors and the Long Haul #26 Regional or Functional? #27 Strategic Planning Workshops #28 A Fundamental Management Tension: The Two Sides of Human Nature #29 Cattle: Games Boys Play? #30 Strategic Assumptions: Street Children Programs #31 Consider the Costs of Networking #32 Costing Primary School Construction #33 Rainfall: Arable vs Semi-Arid Areas #34 Revisiting Primary School Construction #35 Small-Scale Credit Programs #36 Long-Term Funding of Projects #37 Fundamental Issues for CBHC #38 Networks of Trust #39 Planning: Vision Might Come Later #40 Ritualization #41 Chores with Consequences #42 REVISITING HUMAN WATER REQUIREMENTS #43 Policy for small groups #44 Hospital Catchments #45 Rangeland Planning Ratios: Forage & Carrying Capcty #46:Rangeland Planning Ratios: Water Needs and Drought #47 Perseverance #48 Capped Soils #49 How Donors Often Prevent Self-Reliance #50 Using Commercial Banks in Credit Schemes #51 Cost of Building and Running a Dispensary. #48 Capped Soils #49 How Donors Often Prevent Self-Reliance #50 Using Commercial Banks in Credit Schemes #51 Cost of Building and Running a Dispensary. #52. Planning Ratios Applied #53-55 Summaries of Insights #14-52

        #56 Land Constraints or Rainfall Constraints?
        #57 Experience and Disagreement
        #58 The Cost of Supervising Volunteer Projects
        #59 Contemplation:Be still and know that I am God.
        #60 God is God: The Sovereignty of God

SOME OF THE CONSULTANCIES LED

St. Anne's Girls' High School: Formative evaluation. Highlight: A secondary school should focus first on developing responsibility through discipline. Direct focus on academic performance is of lesser importance. It will follow discipline.

Baraka Agricultural College: Definition of "sustainable agriculture"; long-range planning; developing models for estimation of agricultural potential; fund raising; etc. Highlight: Since generation time is about half of lifespan, the prototype family to be sustained is six: two grandparents, two adults and two children On arable land, 5-15 acres will be required to sustain a family. Actual agricultural yields, expressed as dry matter per unit of applied water (e.g., 4kgDM/ha-mm), show little variation--regardless of crop.

The New Sudan Council of Churches: Organizational restructure as a council vs. development agency. Highlight: Human flexibility makes sectoral structures (health, agriculture, etc.) less efficient than regional officer having multi-sector responsibility.

Imani Programme of the Society of Mary, Region of Eastern Africa: An analysis of two polytechnics and an entrepreneurial development and credit program. Role of program vision and mission. Highlight: Beyond minimal training, placement efforts are much more cost-effective interventions than additional training.

Regional Training Programme of the African Evangelistic Enterprise: A full evaluation of quality and impact of training programme, overall vision and mission. Highlight: Pressures toward community development activities (vs. evangelistic) will be almost insurmountable. They will need to manage those pressures.

Kabarnet Area Development Programme, World Vision Kenya: An analysis of the agricultural potential, population, health needs, etc., in an area having steep landforms and wide variation in rainfall. Highlight: Drier lowlands are less costly to develop than elsewhere. Water from fragile steeplands can be "mined" for use on lowlands.

Nairobi East Area Development Programme, World Vision Kenya: A review of vast numbers of surveys, areas of potential activity, "SWOT" analysis, limits to potential, etc., in huge, poor urban area. Highlight: Pressures to save money have challenged social workers to become exceptionally creative and cost-effective in keeping children in school. Many other insights.

Kaloleni Area Development Programme, World Vision Kenya: Assessment of the needs and potential for programme in a coastal area dominated by rapidly changing culture, uncertain agricultural potential and very uncertain fresh-water potential. Highlight: People interviewed stressed the importance of "traditional healer", but surveys show that people actually first stop at the clinic. Culture has changed.

Youth Polytechnic Programme of Catholic Diocese of Nakuru: Assessment of ten polytechnics of vastly differing potentials. Highlight: As found with many other programmes, until the ratio of the per capita wealth-generating capacity to the cost of education is much higher, major financing will need to be international fund raising.

Project Implementation Capacity of Development Office of the Church of Uganda-Karamoja: Critical review of capacity of church to implement a UNDP-designed development programme. Highlight: Paravet programmes are very unlikely to be cost-effective.

Fish Farming Development Programme of the Church of the Province of Tanzania: Assessment of viability of fish farming project near Dodoma. Highlight: Fish farming uses water at open pan evaporation rate--much more than crops would transpire over a similar area of land.

PCEA Hospitals, Kenya: Rapid assessment of catchment and the costs of operation of three church-related hospitals in Kenya for discussion at partners' consultation. Highlight: The inpatient costs at church-related hospitals are similar to elsewhere in Africa: $10-20/inpatient-day (mid-'90s).

Kibara Hospital, Tanzania: A study of the costs of operation and of the rehabilitation of a church-related hospital in Tanzania. Catchment study. Hospital is on peninsula of uncertain agricultural potential. Highlight: New construction costs about $250/sq.mtr. Significant renovation costs about $40/sq.mtr. over a wide range of conditions and years. Christian Industrial Training Centre, Thika, Kenya: An assessment of the management, costs and potential for this well-known polytechnic in Kenya. Highlight: Affirmed that the true cost of polytechnic training is about $500/trainee/year. Production units of polytechnics are very unlikely to generate a surplus--but are necessary for training.

Nyeri Consolata Hospital, Kenya: Assessment of structure, operation, costs and financing of major church-related hospital having excellent reputation. Catchment study. Highlight: Due to wider availability of outstation and other primary health care services, hospital outpatient services can no longer be expected to subsidize inpatient services (early 1990s).

"CBHC" Project of the Christian Community Services Department of the Diocese of Nakuru, Kenya: Assessment of development project in an area of varying agricultural potential. Highlight: "Health" label applied to all development was misleading. Meaning of the word "health" was broadened to the point where it lost its meaning, even becoming confusing.

Maasai Rural Training Centre, Kajiado, Kenya: Extensive evaluation of the structure, operation and potential of a vast project (covering 22000 sq. km.). Assessment of livestock and human population carrying capacity. Highlight: Cattle--except for milk production with large herds and excellent existing transport infrastructure--are unlikely to be able to pay for their own costs.

Eastleigh Community Centre, Nairobi, Kenya: Assessed potential and viability of well-known centre. Highlight: Affirmed that "income-generating" projects are very unlikely to generate profits.

Ilkerin Loita Integral Development Project, Narok, Kenya: Evaluation of this community development project allowed estimation of the project activity required to achieve impact. Highlight: It requires about 1/2 contact-day (mix of classroom/field) annually per person in the population for many years to yield significant impact on community self-development.

Joint Medical Store, Kampala, Uganda: A study of the viability of a church-related medical stores facility. Highlight: Affirmed the need to manage pricing and costs on the basis of the "unofficial" exchange rate in a highly inflationary situation.

Oxfam Salary Study, Kenya: Review of terms of service, salary scales, job assessment, etc. Highlight: Factor analysis can be very useful, but can also be dangerous.

Shirati Hospital, Tanzania: An assessment of potential, costs of operation, efficiency and effectiveness. Assessed relation to church. Highlight: With rapid inflation, well managed institutions will have stable expenditures if they are expressed in a stable currency at the "unofficial" exchange rate.

Christian Industrial Training Centre, Mombasa: A study of current and potential viability of institution, terms of service and management of the institution.

Development Department of Diocese of Mt. Kenya South: Potential for development activities (health, agriculture, etc.) in area of sharp variations in agricultural potential. Highlight: There is a very marked transition in population density carrying capacity at a rainfall level of about 1000 mm/yr.

Christian Health Association of Kenya: A major study of the vision, mission, activities, costing, viability of an association dominated by major donor development funding. Highlight: Affirmed the need for an "association" to provide information (e.g., relative fee structures, relative performance, etc.) of substantial value to its members.

Twendelee Project of the Social Services Department of Lavington Church, Nairobi, Kenya: Assessment of one of the few viable target-group income-generating projects ever studied. Highlight: Toughness in control of quality--to the point of sending knitted products back to women to redo--was essential.

Christian Community Services programme of Diocese of Mt. Kenya East (CPK): Assessment of viability and potential of one of the then most advanced projects of its kind. Highlight: The ability to raise funds is an appropriate aspect of "self-reliance".

Thika Maternity Hospital, Kenya: Costing of services and various expansion options; implications for financing. Highlight: Outpatient services should help support inpatient services financially. [This changed later--see Nyeri Consolata above.]

Monitoring Church-Related CBHC/FP Projects: Eight years monitoring impact and cost-effectiveness of six CBHC/FP USAID funded projects--with the oversight of Johns Hopkins University--throughout the higher population density areas of Kenya. Highlight: The actual cost of enabling a CHW to visit a neighbor is about $5/visit--contrasting with about $2-3 to visit a clinic. Cost of a couple-year of protection in CBHC projects in which contraceptive-based FP was a component was estimated to be about $5-$8/CYP and of order $25-$50/CYP with "natural family planning. [Data from early 1990s.]