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Vernita Pearl Fort builds on her expertise as an evolutionary systems

ecologist, a political economist, and a former United States diplomat,

who for over 25 years worked in 40 countries across Africa, Asia, the

Middle East, the Caribbean, and Latin America. She managed and

implemented programs with annual budgets of up to two billion dollars.

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Now as a Research Scholar with the Illinois Global Institute at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Vernita carries out international human rights research with an emphasis on the 1.5 billion people across the world’s Africana diaspora, including its women, girls, and female leaders. She pays special attention to several upcoming international and high-stakes milestone events including the 15th Quadrennial Session of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in October 2020. For the first time since UNCTAD's 1964 inception, it will take place in the Caribbean, specifically in Barbados. The Chair of the Caribbean Community, CARICOM, is Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the first female Prime Minister of Barbados.  Among her concerns is an UNCTAD priority initiated in 1972, the call for an international order that works for everyone. This 2020 UNCTAD session takes place during the same month as the 75th anniversary of the United Nations (UN). But the UN's most powerful body, its Security Council of 5 permanent members, is not democratically constituted, and thus cannot serve the will of the world's majority. 

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In addition, Vernita is the Founding Director, Lead Researcher, and Producer of the Music and Human Rights Project (MHRP). This international non-profit organization synthesizes state of the art research concerned with the intersection of music and human rights, and uses it to collaborate with communities to develop policies and programs that address the systemic causes of human rights failures. MHRP supports communities in deepening their democratic participation, in defining and designing their future, and in steering our urgent civilizational shift that Vernita names "The People's Great Turning,"  the subject of her book-length manuscript nearing completion.

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Vernita earned a Master of Science degree from Yale University and Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley in evolutionary systems ecology. She trained as an economist  through the US Foreign Service Institute and as a National Economics Association Fellow at the University of Maryland. Throughout, she studied performance, including at the Berklee College of Music in Massachussettes and the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica.

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EXPERIENCE

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Research Scholar, Illinois Global Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, February 2020 - Present

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• Transdisciplinary systems researcher who investigates international human rights and The People's Great Turning, through the lenses of the arts, sciences, and humanities;

• This research also purposefully and centrally engages gender and race, as do the two divisions through which she holds her appointments at the Illinois Global Institute. These two divisions are:

  • The Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program (WGGP); and 

  • The Center for African Studies (CAS) 

 

Founding Director of the the Music and Human Rights Project, 2004-Present

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• Won International Communication Association Award, Best Display of Research;

• Designed a transdisciplinary University of Illinois Human Rights Institute; 

• Gave presentations/led facilitations on music and human rights in diverse countries in four continents;

• Scripted Music and Human Rights Performative Documentary;

• Directed and produced film shorts, including one on the Jamaica Youth Orchestra modeled after the esteemed El Sistema orchestra in Venezuela;

• Special Advisor to Principal, Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Art​s, a Caribbean regional institution;

• Designed the International Human Rights Festival based on my ongoing research and supported the Jamaican Human Rights Community in creating the Jamaican Human Rights Network and in implementing core elements of the proposed Festival;

• Currently finalizing transdisciplinary research that informed the above listed initiatives listed above, for book publication. Title: Music and Human Rights in the People's Great Turning

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United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Career Diplomat,

40 countries, 1976-2003. Served as:

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• Acting Director, Office of Southern African Affairs;

• Deputy Director, Office of Middle Eastern Affairs;

• Economist for the Caribbean Regional Program and the Jamaica Bilateral Program;

• Economist for the Eastern Caribbean, Organization of Eastern Caribbean States;

• Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean;

• Economist for the Africa Region;

• Natural Resources Management Specialist for Asia and the Near East;

• Watershed Management Instructor, University of Chaing Mai, Thailand;

• Regional Environmental and Natural Resources Advisor for West and Central Africa;

• Ecologist for the Bureau of Science and Technology;

• First diplomat ecologist​ with the United States Agency for International Development, (USAID), US Department of State

 

EDUCATION

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• MS, Yale University, Systems Ecology, Evolutionary Biology;

• BS, University of California Berkeley, Systems Ecology and Management;

• Economics: U.S. Foreign Service Institute; National Economics Association Fellow;

• Doctoral Researcher, International Communication Philosophy, Minors in Film and Dance, University of Illinois, Institute of Communications Research, College of Media, Urbana, Champaign;

• Music: Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA; Musicians Institute, Los Angeles, CA;

• Music and Dance: Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts, Jamaica;

• Additional Skills; Scuba Diver (NAUI), French fluency while working in West Africa.

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PUBLICATIONS AND INVITED PAPERS, LECTURES, AND PRESENTATIONS

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• Published on ecology and environmental management.

• Presented multiple lectures globally across the arts, sciences, and humanities focused on international development and 

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FILMWORKS

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• Directed and produced multiple film shorts related to music and human rights 

• Directed and produced biographical film shorts capturing The Project's genesis

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REPRESENTATIVE PERFORMANCE WORKS

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• Opera Stage Director, Freierian/Boalian repurposing, La Púrpura de la Rosa, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• Assistant Choral Director for Dr. Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey and the Rock, New York 

• Dancer, Urban Bush Women, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

• Dancer, Tyrone Murray Dance Company, Washington, DC

• Choral Vocalist, Black Chorus, African American Sacred Music, University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign

• Solo Vocalist -  Jazz, Classical, Rhythm and Blues, World, Broadway

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LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vernitapearlfort/

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