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We Are Non-Profit.
Tales from a Small Planet's mission is to enrich and share the experience
of living abroad through literature, humor and the arts, as well as by
providing information and education on what it is really like to live
in a foreign country and how to cope with the challenges that may come
along. We are a 503(c)(3) registered non-profit organization. Pleae consider
making a donation to support our operations.
Our Staff
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 CEO: Susan Shirley is a management consultant for nonprofit organizations and USAID-funded programs. With an MBA from the University of Kentucky, Susan began living and working overseas in Egypt in 1990. After 10 years working in a variety of private sector and business development programs, she returned to the US, where she began a consulting business. She raised funds for educational and arts organizations, and was Acting Chairman of the Board for Friends of Brooklyn New School, an educational fundraising organization. She continued to travel, supporting programs in Egypt and Eritrea.
With her husband and two children (one toddler, one teen), Susan has lived in Venezuela and El Salvador since they became a Foreign Service family in 2004. She writes proposals and builds capacity in her client organizations, which has sent her to Mozambique and Lebanon. Susan has served on the Board of Directors for The American Embassy Employee Association in Venezuela, and is working with two local organizations in El Salvador to develop strategic and fundraising plans. With her love for world travel and international employment, Susan was very excited to accept the challenge of the CEO position at Tales from a Small Planet.
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 Editor
in Chief: Patricia Linderman is co-author of The Expert Expatriate:
Your Guide to Successful Relocation Abroad (Nicholas Brealey Intercultural
2002, see www.expatguide.info
), and co-editor of Realities of Foreign Service Life (AAFSW 2002,
see www.aafsw.org
). With her Foreign Service husband and two sons, she has lived in
Trinidad, Chile, Cuba and Germany, where she learned skills such as
disinfecting vegetables, identifying Communist spies and amusing small
children on 10-hour flights. She has an M.A. in German literature,
works as a translator from Spanish into English, and writes the "Personal
and Confidential" advice column for www.aafsw.org
. Contact her at editor@talesmag.com. |
Editor, Real Post Reports: Terry Anderson has a Ph.D. in Physical
Chemistry and did research and engineering in the field of photonics
for three decades. He now accompanies his partner who is in the Foreign
Commercial Service. They have spent four years in Warsaw, Poland, three years in Mexico City, and are now in Bratislava, Slovakia for four years. Terry maintains a website (Global
Perspectives) with photos from their travels. He is also maintains websites for several other not-for-profit organizations. Contact him at terry@talesmag.com.
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 Contributing
Editor: Sarah Fogarty has lived in the Turks and Caicos Islands
since 1996. Her on-island careers have included managing the marina
and a land development company, but she is most proud of teaching
first aid through the Red Cross, learning to play soccer at the age
of 48 (a sport she has since abandoned after tragically tearing her
ACL) and having her pieces published in Skirt! Magazine, Tales From
a Small Planet and Family Life Abroad. She is in awe of people who
live in really foreign places that aren't a plane hop away from Miami. |
 Webmaster:
Mike Schwefler doesn't know anything about foreign lands and he couldn't
write his way out of a paper bag. His wife is a foreign service hot-shot,
though, and he's hoping it rubs off. Liz is currently on her second
assignment (hot-shot may be a little strong) to Banjul, The Gambia and Mike and
their four kids are making the most of it. Mike has worked as a developer
for Sandbox.com for the past few years and is happy to help out Tales
From a Small Planet as webmaster. Contact him at webmaster@talesmag.com. |
Our Founders
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 Founding
Editor: Francesca Huemer Kelly is a professional free-lance writer,
published regularly in American and international magazines. In 1991
she and fellow Foreign Service spouse Fritz Galt launched a small
photocopied publication called the Spouses' Underground Newsletter
(SUN), which served as a forum and showcase for the talents of Foreign
Service spouses around the world. The publication grew, and in 1999
the SUN website was launched, followed by Tales from a Small Planet
in 2000, of which Ms. Kelly served as editor-in-chief until December
2003. She is still serving in an advisory capacity and as moderator
of the abroadview e-group. Ms. Kelly, who is also a trained concert
singer, has lived in Milan, Leningrad, Moscow, Belgrade,
Vienna, Ankara, Rome and Brussels, and is the mother of four children. Contact her at francesca@talesmag.com.
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Creative Consultant & Co-Founder: Fritz Galt is a writer
and editor who has worked in educational and technical publishing.
He has lived in Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.
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Creator of the Online Real Post Reports:
Victoria H. Hess is a writer, editor, and website designer. Before her husband joined the Foreign Service in 1988, Victoria practiced law and was a reporter for a small daily newspaper. Since 1988, Victoria has borne two sons, lived in Iraq, Germany, India, the U.S., Pakistan, and Zimbabwe, traveled to dozens of other countries, and been involved in no less than four evacuations. She presently lives in Wyoming. Contact her at victoria@talesmag.com.
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Our Board of Directors
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Chair of
the Board: Francesca Huemer Kelly
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 Secretary:
Fatimah Mateen, an attorney with Regan Associates in Washington, D.C.,
has lived in Mexico City and Asunción, Paraguay, with her U.S.
Diplomat husband. While living abroad, she has worked in various banal
jobs and has embarked on other interests such as mountain biking,
human rights work and writing travel articles, one of which was published
in Amistad, an expatriate magazine in Mexico. |
| Co-Chair Fundraising Committee: Annette
Hallowell began her expatriate experience as a college student in
Switzerland. She has since lived in London, Liberia W. Africa, and
the Ivory Coast. Currently living in the Chicago suburbs, Annette
is a photo/artist as well as an Independent Contractor for merchandising
and mystery shopping.Waiting for word on a possible posting to Malaysia,
Annette enjoys continuing her involvement with the expatriate community.
Annette has been a volunteer moderator for expatriate discussion groups
and has served on the Tales board for the last two years with emphasis
on marketing/fundraising. |
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Treasurer: Linda Mason-Hahn
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 Board Member: Shawn Dorman is Associate Editor of the Foreign Service
Journal. She was a Foreign Service political officer from 1993 until
2000. Her Foreign Service assignments were to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan;
Jakarta, Indonesia; and the State Department Operations Center in
Washington, D.C. Shawn has also lived and worked in Moscow and St.
Petersburg, Russia and in Changchun, China. She is the editor of Inside
a U.S. Embassy, published in 2003 by the American Foreign Service
Association. |
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