Meet The Team
CEO/Founder & Chairman
James J. Owens
Founder & CEO
James J. Owens, Ed.D, is a professor of business communication at the USC Marshall School of Business. He founded The World is Just a Book Away (WIJABA) in 2008 to promote reading, literacy, and overall education to children in underserved communities. Since that time the organization has reached more than 1,000,000 children worldwide. His doctoral work focused on the impact of environmental education on primary school-aged children, which is seminal to WIJABA's mission and partnership with Dr. Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots. His award-winning anthology, The World is Just a Book Away, was published in 2017, featuring submissions from 60 prominent people about the books that inspired them and why. In 2018, he was awarded the highest honor accorded by his undergraduate alma mater, Bates College, The Benjamin E. Mays Medal for Distinguished Service to the World.
Salimah Shamji
Acting Chairperson
Ms. Shamji joined AIG in 2008, and is Vice President, Investment Product Management for Corebridge Financial. Ms. Shamji has responsibility for leading the Investment Product Management team supporting the Annuity, Individual Retirement segment of Corebridge Financial. These responsibilities include leading the fund/manager selection and monitoring processes. In addition, the group is also responsible for Fund Board reporting and fund manager relationship management, as well as internal partnerships throughout the organization, including Product, Risk Management, Marketing, Finance, Hedging, and Legal. Before joining AIG, Ms. Shamji was the Director of Research and Portfolio Manager at QIS Advisors, a fundamental based quantitative investment management firm. Prior to that, she was an integral part of the Wilshire Associates Inc. Analytics Division. As a Vice President leading client relationship management for Midwest and Western United States, Ms. Shamji was responsible for assisting advisory clients design and build quantitative models to manage equity portfolios, both domestic and international. She holds an MBA from the University of Southern California and is a CFA charter holder. Ms. Shamji serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Sub-Advisory Institute.
Chairman Emeritus
Emilio Diez Barroso
Emilio Diez Barroso is the Chairman of WIJABA and the Founder of NALA Investments, LLC, a private investment holding company with operations across various industries including communications, transportation, energy, media and technology. The company manages a portfolio comprised of multiple investment asset classes primarily in the United States and Latin America.
Programs Director
Darryl Macer, Ph.D.
Professor Darryl Macer is a New Zealander, and serves as President and Co-founder of American University of Sovereign Nations (AUSN), and moved to USA in 2013. Dr. Macer served from 2004 until early 2013 as UNESCO Regional Adviser for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific.He is credited with over three hundred academic publications (50 authored and edited books; 240 Peer Reviewed papers in academic journals and books; and other academic publications in academic journals). He was a Foreign Professor at University of Tsukuba, Japan, from 1990-2005, and also is a Affiliated Professor, University of Kumamoto, Japan (since 2007) and Director, Eubios Ethics Institute, (New Zealand; Thailand and Japan (since he founded it in 1990, and a Research Fellow at the Center for Ethics of Science and Technology, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Dr. Macer is also the Secretary of the Asian Bioethics Association.He has a B.Sc (Hons) in Biochemistry from Lincoln College, University of Canterbury, New Zealand; Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and Trinity College, University of Cambridge, U.K.,; and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from Kumamoto University, Japan in 2009.
International Directors
Arif Darmawan
Indonesia Country Director
Arif is the Country Manager of Indonesia. He has worked with WIJABA since 2008 and is responsible for project management, establishing relationships with government officials and schools, managing project rollouts and launches, and establishing systems and programs to ensure the sustainable success of WIJABA's projects in Indonesia.
Arif has a long-standing interest in technology, human development, reading, and education. He is currently leading teams in 5 different regions in Indonesia.
Farah Mustika Sari
Indonesia Assistant Director
Farah is WIJABA's Assistant Director. She has worked with WIJABA since 2015. She graduated from Universitas Negeri Surabaya as a Bachelor of Education. Farah has a great interest in education & personal development. She believes that every person, especially the young, will have a better future with a better education and know themself very well.
Daniella Diez Barroso
Mexico Country Director
Daniella is WIJABA's Country Director in Mexico. She oversees all 17 libraries which serve over 10,000 children in Chihuahua.
Arif Darmawan
Indonesia Country Director
Arif is the Country Manager of Indonesia. He has worked with WIJABA since 2008 and is responsible for project management, establishing relationships with government officials and schools, managing project rollouts and launches, and establishing systems and programs to ensure the sustainable success of WIJABA's projects in Indonesia.
Arif has a long-standing interest in technology, human development, reading, and education. He is currently leading teams in 5 different regions in Indonesia.
Farah Mustika Sari
Indonesia Programs Director
Farah is WIJABA Roots & Shoots Program Director. She has worked with WIJABA since 2015. She graduated from Universitas Negeri Surabaya as a Bachelor of Education. Farah has a great interest in education & personal development. She believes that every person, especially the young, will have a better future with a better education and know themself very well.
Daniella Diez Barroso
Mexico Country Director
Daniella is WIJABA's Country Director in Mexico. She oversees all 17 libraries which serve over 10,000 children in Chihuahua.
Staff Members
Qurrotul Ainiyah
Lead Roots & Shoots Teacher
Nur Azis
Padang Regional Manager
Septian Fikri F.
Mobile Library Manager
I Putu Agus Gunawan
Bali Regional Manager
Januarius Harmiyanto
Flores Regional Manager
Dini Nadaria N.I.
Indonesia Program Director
Agnes Pradityana
Children's Literacy Manager
Ridwan Sururi
Horse Library Regional Manager
Board Members
Alexandria Diez Barroso
Board Member
As founder of TransGnosis, Alexandra Diez Barroso is an internationally renowned life coach, facilitator, and writer. She is the author of 13 Qualities For Authentic Living. Alexandra has 20+ years of experience deeply engaged with philanthropic work related to education, health, the arts, and children on 4 continents. She holds a BA in Communications from St. Edwards University and a Masters in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica.
Drew Boyles
Board Member
Outside of currently serving as El Segundo’s Mayor, Drew Boyles is an entrepreneur and veteran. Drew achieved his Bachelor’s Degree by the age of 21, while fully enlisted in the US Navy. After the military, Drew quickly progressed through the leadership ranks at Brunswick Corporation and Starbucks Coffee, while solely raising his two sons. Drew went on to get his MBA in Finance from USC, and became a Big 5 Management Consultant.
Drew has co-founded a dry cleaning start-up and owned and operated as many as three dozen 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchises. He owns and operates You Move Me, a local moving company, in Southern California and Drew founded HazAwayToday.com, which provides the first of its kind residential and commercial hazardous waste removal services. Drew’s latest ventures involve a patented consumer product for the action sports industry and developing a best in class wave pool.
Drew’s personal passions are spending time with his wife, Lee and his five children, working hard to leave the world better than when he found it, and surfing, skiing and snowboarding as hard and as often as possible. Drew has a goal of surfing every country in the world, somehow even the land locked ones! As of January 2020, he has surfed 18 countries.
A.G.S Johnson
Board Member
A former banker, Mrs. Johnson specialized in international cash management for mid- and large-cap corporations and major banks, including a 6-year stint as Vice President and Region Manager, Citibank, Global Products and Services. Upon retirement, she went back to USC, earning a Masters of Professional Writing degree in 2001. She earned her BS in Marketing Management from Drake University. An avid writer, she has published the first of her two completed novels, The Sausage Makers Daughters.
Clare Manz
Board Member
Dr. Clare Manz is a veterinarian who has worked in emergency medicine as an intern, and as a small animal practitioner in private practice for 20 years. She graduated from Bates College and went on to earn a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Prince Edward Island in 1998.
She has served on the board of the YMVA in Greenfield Massachusetts and has participated in other philanthropic charity work throughout her life.
Clare enjoys reading, yoga, travel, gardening and spending time with her 11-year-old daughter and husband.
Lee Ann Daly
Board Member
Lee Ann Daly is a globally recognized American marketing and media executive. She provides strategic,
trans-media, creative advice and action plans to a broad range of early-stage and established private
and public companies.
At ESPN, Reuters and Thomson Reuters Markets she was a member of the executive committee,
Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer; leading global marketing and communications
teams.
She was North American Chairman of The Talent Business, a UK based executive search firm. She is a
member of the Dean’s Board of Advisors at The Media School at Indiana University where she graduated with a BA in Journalism. She is a Distinguished Alumni Fellow at The Kelley School of Business at Indiana and is graduate Chef de Cuisine, of The French Culinary Institute and University of Santa
Monica.
She has been a member of the board at Avenues For Justice in New York City, President and Chairman
of the Board of The American Marketing Association and is a special advisor to the founder of MFK:
Haiti.
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and sons.
Advisory Board Members
Roselle Chartock, Ed.D
Advisory Board Member
Dr. Chartock is Professor Emerita of Education at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, MA. Prior to teaching on the college level, she taught high school history at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington, MA, and before that middle and elementary school. She has authored several books and journal articles that promote interdisciplinary instructional approaches and call for multi-cultural and global perspectives as the bases for nurturing critical thinking and tolerance. She has also provided professional development for in-service teachers and lectured on a wide variety of topics related to education throughout her career.
Nina Houghton
Advisory Board Member
Nina is a researcher and consultant with Inverness Research Inc., an educational research and consulting firm based in northern California. As a consultant with the firm since 1995, Ms. Houghton has worked to provide insight into the design, quality and effectiveness of educational reform initiatives in schools and districts across the country. She holds a BA from Stanford University and a Masters of Education from Lesley University.
Emmanuel Kelly
Advisory Board Member
Emmanuel Kelly was found in a box as an infant in war-torn Iraq by nuns and taken to a Mother Teresa orphanage where he was adopted into Australia by Moira Kelly. He rose to prominence after he performed his rendition of "Imagine" by John Lennon on Australia's X-Factor in 2011. Emmanuel is known as the first differently-abled pop star and has performed duets with David Foster and Coldplay, opened for Snoop Dogg to a sold-out audience, and performed a set of concerts in Juarez Mexico to sold out audiences, becoming the 1st non latino pop artist to do so.
Riz Khan
Advisory Board Member
Riz Khan is a recognized media journalist, host, and producer, following extensive careers with the BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera English. In 2005, he was recruited by the Al Jazeera network to set-up its English-language channel and to host a daily, live, interactive show featuring the world's top newsmakers. He also gained recognition for his flagship, weekly profile show, Riz Khan's "One on One". Riz attended the University of Wales in Cardiff, where he earned an honors degree in Medical Physiology and switched to Journalism for his post-graduate studies.
Mary Lewis
Advisory Board Member
As Vice President of Outreach, Office of the Founder-Global, and Assistant to Dr. Jane Goodall, Ph.D., DBE at the Jane Goodall Institute, Mary has been engaged in environmental awareness and protection efforts for many years.
Selina Tusitala Marsh
Advisory Board Member
Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh is an Auckland-based Pacific poet and scholar of Samoan, Tuvaluan, English, Scottish and French descent. She was the first person of Pacific descent to graduate with a PhD in English from the University of Auckland, where she now lectures in both creative writing and Māori and Pacific literary studies. Selina’s work has been widely published and has appeared in a range of online and hardcopy literary journals and anthologies including Blackmail Press, Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poetry in English, Mauri Ola: Contemporary Polynesian Poetry in English–Whetu Moana II (Auckland University Press/UHP), Best New Zealand Poems 2006, Niu Voices: Contemporary Pacific Fiction 1 and The Contemporary Pacific (UHP). Her first collection of poems, Fast Talking PI, was published by Auckland University Press in 2009, and subsequently won the 2010 NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry. Tusitala Marsh was named the Commonwealth Poet for 2016. In August 2017 Marsh was awarded the New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2017–2019.
Jenny Ming
Advisory Board Member
Jenny became President & CEO of Charlotte Russe Holding, Inc. in 2009. Jenny joined Gap, Inc. in 1986, serving in various executive capacities in its San Francisco headquarters. In 1994, she was a member of the executive team that launched Old Navy. From March 1999 to October 2006 she served as President of Old Navy. Jenny was included in Fortune magazine's 2003 & 2004 lists of "50 most powerful women in American business."She received her Bachelor of Art's Degree in Clothing Merchandising from San Jose State University.
Tim Monich
Advisory Board Member
Tim is a speech and dialect coach with over 35 years' experience in theater and film. Having trained with Edith Skinner at Carnegie Mellon University, he was on the faculty of The Juilliard School for 12 years. Tim has coached more than 135 professional theater productions and has worked on over 135 feature films.
Andru Subowo
Advisory Board Member & President WIJABA Indonesia
Andru is the Managing Director & Co-Founder of Bramadi Capital with over 15 years experience in investment management. He started his career with the Salimgroup's Indofood, one of Indonesia's leading food companies. He served on the Board of Commissioners of Indosiar, one of Indonesia's largest national TV & media companies from 2003-2012. He is currently the Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (KADIN) –Asia Pacific Committee and served as Chairman of the East ASEAN Business Council from 2010-2012. He represented Indonesia at the APEC Young Leaders Forum in Monterey, Mexico in 2006 and was one of the Asia Society's Asia21 Fellowship receipients. He received both his MBA in Finance and BA in Economics from USC.