Dr. Anele Heiges
Leader for "The Beauty and Courage of Sudan"
Dr. Anele Heiges is a Dominican Sister who serves at the United Nations as the
Main Representative and President of the International Public Policy Institute. She
is also Vice President of the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations and has a long and active history of liaison work with NGOs and the United Nations.
In 1991 Dr. Heiges worked as the International Communications Facilitator for a United Nations' Bureau comprising UNESCO, UNICEF, UNIFEM, World Bank and NGOs. In 1994 Dr Heiges became the first United States Coordinator of ECPAT-USA, the Campaign to End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism. As ECPAT Coordinator she organized many local and regional groups in the Campaign; inspired help for ECPAT in church, university and United Nations forums; and worked with others to begin the process of getting U.S. lawmakers to make sexual trafficking of children across national borders a felony punishable by lengthy prison terms.
Dr. Heiges received her doctoral degree in Religion and Global Peace Education from Columbia University where her dissertation was entitled, “Doing Justice to Make Peace." She holds an MA in Theology from the University of San Francisco and a BA in Life Sciences and Social Sciences from Siena Heights University.
She has worked in a number of academic settings as an adjunct faculty member: - Iona College (New York), Caldwell College (New Jersey), - Mount Saint Mary's College (New York), Saint John's College Seminary (Los Angeles). As well as this she has directed campus ministry at the University of Michigan, Adrian College, California State University at Northridge and most recently at Saint Peter’s Jesuit College in Now Jersey. In all of these assignments Dr. Heiges has organized programs and students in international solidarity work that coalesces with those on the underside of history.
Dr. Heiges has directed international seminars on history, justice, environment, development and women’s issues and has also participated with a study group of specialists concerned with local and global aspects of environment, justice development and women’s issues.
Presently she organizes her work and teaching within the framework of the Earth Charter. Her passion is for those who live on the underside of history and therefore frequently do not have access to beneficial processes on this earth, especially in political, policy-making and economic matters.