Reynold Bloom - Peace Corps Country Director, Argentina – 1991 to 1993
Reynold Bloom
International Educator, Fund Raiser, Entrepreneur -- 30 years of experience (over twelve years living and working abroad). Strong background in undergraduate and graduate education, student and faculty exchanges, joint degree programs, and development assistance project design and implementation. Accomplished fundraiser, skilled at project design and proposal preparation. Senior management positions with the State University of New York (SUNY), the Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United States Peace Corps. Experience working with private foundations and all of the major international donor agencies.
Education:
Ph.D., Economic Geography, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). 1973. Dissertation: "The Influence of Agrarian Reform on Small Holder Communities in Chile’s Central Valley, 1965-1970."
MA/BA/General Secondary Education Credential, Long Beach State University, Long Beach California, 1959 to 1964. Major Fields: economics, geography, European history and education.
Current Employment:
Consultant - August 1997 to present.
Since retiring from the State University of New York (SUNY) in 1997, I have maintained an active consulting schedule with both Universities and NGOs. Clients include Michigan State University, Florida International University, the Grupo Santander, (a 52-member European university consortium based in Brussels), the Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (Madrid), the Euro-Balkan Institute/Freedom House (Macedonia), and the University of Malmo (Sweden). My consulting has focussed principally on issues of institutional development, international academic programs, student/faculty exchange, and fund raising.
Employment History:
Associate Vice Chancellor (Provost) for International Programs, State University of New York (SUNY), System Administration, Albany, N.Y. – 1986 to 1997. The top international position for the 64-campus State University of New York System.
Responsibilities – International Education: Coordinated all of SUNY’s international education activities. Developed policy for and approved all overseas academic programs. Served as liaison for international programs with SUNY’s 64 campuses and supervised the on-campus Directors of International Education (DIEs). Represented international education to top SUNY management, State Government, and the SUNY Board of Trustees. Represented SUNY on the Governor’s International Partnership Program (Italy, Ireland, Hungary, and Japan). Represented the university at international and national conferences. Did ad hoc independent consulting with USAID and the Ford Foundation. Held committee positions with the Institute for International Education, NAFSA, Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) and NASULGC.
Accomplishments: Significantly Increased enrollment in SUNY’s overseas programs with important emphasis on non-traditional students (students in the professions and sciences) and new (non-European) venues. Designed and Implemented a new budgeting/funding mode for SUNY’s overseas academic programs which led to a three-fold increase in the number of these programs (287 separate programs in 50 different countries) and a doubling of the number of SUNY students studying abroad. Greatly increased the visibility of international programs at SUNY, System Administration. Secured funding for pilot projects from the State Office for Economic Development and private foundations. Signed the first exchange agreement between SUNY and a major European university consortium -- the Grupo Santander.
Responsibilities – International Development Assistance: Responsible for developing and managing a completely new, SUNY-wide initiative in international development assistance contracting.
Accomplishments: During my tenure at SUNY, I increased the university’s centrally-managed, externally-funded overseas development assistance portfolio from zero in 1986 to over $200 million in 1997. During this time, I transformed the Office of International Programs (OIP) at SUNY, System Administration from a traditional, university, international education office with four employees, to a highly diversified, highly entrepreneurial international operation with over 50 employees – Albany and in seven overseas offices. Indirect cost recovery and fees generated millions of dollars in revenue for the university, made SUNY a key USAID contractor in the area of democracy and governance (DG), and won for SUNY dozens of contracts and grants in other technical areas. I designed, wrote successful proposals for, and managed directly development assistance projects in Hungary, Chile, Guatemala, Mozambique, Paraguay, Brazil, the GDR, and Argentina. Funding was received from the IBRD, USAID, USIA, OAS, IDB, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trust, and the Soros Foundation.
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Peace Corps Country Director, Argentina – 1991 to 1993 (on leave from SUNY). Top management responsibility for a new Peace Corps start-up in Argentina which focussed on education and the environment and involved developing close working relationships with the, the U.S. Embassy, the Argentine Foreign Ministry, other Argentine government agencies, the university community, and public and private foundations and research centers.
Finance Officer/Human Resource Development Officer -- United States Agency for International Development (USAID), 1983 to 1986. Management positions in AID Washington and with the Regional Office for Central America and Panama (ROCAP) with headquarters in Guatemala City. I managed a diversified project portfolio focused on training and education. I directly managed the highly successful INCAE (Instituto Centroamericano de Administracion de Empresas) Institutional Development project in Costa Rica. In addition, I was involved in the planning stages – especially the financial planning -- for the EARTH (Escuela Agricola para los Tropicos Humidos) school project, also in Costa Rica, and helped design an institutional development project with the Escuela Agricola Panamericana in Zamerano, Honduras. Finally, I supervised the regional Central American Peace Scholarships (CAPS) program.
Associate Director – The National Association of Partners of the Americas, Washington, D.C., 1982 to 1983. New project design and funding for projects in Central America and the Caribbean.
Programming and Training Officer (and acting Director), Peace Corps-Chile, 1979 to 1982. Top management responsibility for a 125 Volunteer/12 staff diversified Peace Corps program in Chile.
Associate Professor (with tenure) of Geography, State University of New York College at Oswego, 1971 to 1979. Active in college governance. Served on all of the major councils of the faculty assembly – budget, academic policies, promotion and tenure, and international education. Chaired, for many years, the Tenure and Promotions Committee for the Division of Social Sciences. Designed and administered a certificate program in Latin American Studies – the college’s first regional studies program. Faculty Advisor to the Black and Latin Student Union.
Teaching Associate and Chancellor’s Fellow, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 1969 to 1971.
Researcher, FAO-funded Instituto de capacitacion e investigacion en reforma agraria (ICIRA), Santiago, Chile, 1968.
Peace Corps Volunteer in rural development and self-help housing, Corporacion de la Reforma Agraria (CORA), Duao, Chile, 1966-68.
Research/Project Planning
Articles and papers on small holder communities in Latin America, rural and regional development, and agrarian reform. Scores of project plans, evaluations, and consulting reports, prepared for Peace Corps, USAID, the Ford Foundation, and FAO.
Other Professional Experience:
Chief-of-Party – "Public Hearings and Improved Public Policy in Bulgaria", a Grupo Santander project funded by the European Commission and administered jointly with the Center for the Study of Democracy, Sofia, Bulgaria, 1998 to 1999.
Freedom House – AVID Volunteer, EuroBalkan Institute, Skopje, Macedonia. General consulting in institutional development and fund raising, Spring, 2002.
Visiting Administrator – U. of Malmo (Sweden) -- and Project Design Coordinator – "A Partnership Program with Historically Disadvantaged Universities in South Africa," the Oresund Network, Malmo/Lund, Sweden, Spring, 1999.
Project Design/Management – "Legislative Strengthening Project, Mozambique." A USAID funded project designed to improve the efficiency of the Mozambique legislature. 1995-1997.
Co-Founder, Project Manager – "Centro de Estudios y Asistencia Legislativa (CEAL)," the Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, project funded by USAID, 1988-1991 and 1993 to 1995. The CEAL project became the standard for subsequent USAID-funded legislative assistance projects in Latin America.
Project/Design/Coordination, Technical Education in El Salvador. An AID-funded project to improve technical secondary and post-secondary education in El Salvador. The project twined the SUNY College of Technology at Alfred with FEPADE to create a model, post-secondary technical education institute in San Salvador.
Project Design/Management – "The Center for Private Enterprise Development (CEPED)," A diversified, multi-year project to assist Hungary in the transition to a demand economy. In addition to a wide variety of training and consulting activities, the project involved developing exchange and joint degree programs between the Technical University of Budapest (TUB) and various SUNY campuses – principally SUNY-Buffalo. The project was initially funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and later by USAID, Budapest, 1989-1997.
Advisory Committee, Institute for International Education, IIE, New York, New York.
International Education Committee, National Association of Sate Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC).
Project Coordinator, South African University Administrative training (with African American Institute), State University of New York, 1995-96.
Consultant, The University of the North, School of Business, Pietersburg, South Africa, 1996.
Consultant for the Ford Foundation with the Consejo Superior de Universidades
Centroamericanas (CSUCA), San Jose, Costa Rica, 1987.
Consultant, the Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1989 to present. General consulting in institutional development and international joint degree programs.
Disertante del Seminario, "La Crisis de la Representacion Politica y el Poder Legislativo", a conference in Santa Fe, Argentina funded by the OAS, October, 1993.
Disertante del Seminario, "Tratamiento Presupuestario en el Poder Legislativo," a special seminar co-sponsored by the OAS and the Argentine Centro de Estudios y Cooperacion Legislativa (CECOL), Cordoba, Argentina, 27-29 March, 1996.
Chair, Panel on Legislative Assistance. "Conferencia Internacional Sobre Modernizacion Legislativa." A USAID-funded conference organized and managed by the State University of N.Y. Santa Cruz, Bolivia. February 4-7, 1996.
Workshop Leader. Workshop for Development Cooperation. Grupo Santander, Universidad de Murcia, Facultad de Derecho, Campus Merced, 12-13 Noviembre, 1999.
Languages:
English – Native
Spanish – Fluent
