Christina Hulet currently serves as the Process Improvement Manager at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center.  In this role, she assists the organization in implementing projects that target financial and operational improvements, while providing high-quality services. 

She graduated in 1999 with a BA in Public Policy and a concentration in Health Policy from Duke University.  Since that time, she has remained involved in various community groups and professional programs.  She serves on the Seattle Center Advisory Commission assisting the city in providing cultural, art, athletic and educational programming. She also works with Seattle’s Leadership Tomorrow program providing ongoing leadership development for public and private sector professionals. 

Her family is originally from Belgium where she returns periodically to visit relatives.  She is thrilled to have an opportunity to experience East Africa and participate in Rotary’s cultural exchange efforts.

Robert is a metro columnist for a metropolitan daily newspaper in Seattle.

Susan Liu is a QA Engineer for Blue Nile, Inc. Blue Nile is located in Seattle and is the online leader in the diamond and fine jewelry category. 

Susan was born and raised in the Seattle area, spending her school years in Renton, Washington.  Susan graduated from Seattle University with a degree in Business Administration and a concentration in International Business.  Upon graduation, she fell into the technology field after a last minute decision to not attend Law school.  After working for a few other dot-coms, she decided to come work at Blue Nile in 2000 and has been there ever since.

On the weekends, she teaches Sunday school and mentors at University Presbyterian Church.  After teaching only 4^th grade girls for 3 years, she decided to move up in grades with one special group of girls and has been moving up with them for the last few years and continues growing with her special group of girls.

She is excited and honored to be part of the GSE group going to East Africa.  The trip will be a reality to a dream she has had since a child after being touched by the famine in Ethiopia in the early 80’s.  Since her first introduction to Africa, she has spent numerous hours researching the countries, culture, people, and government to better understand a continent touched by so many hardships.  She is looking forward to having a first hand view of the country and all that it has to offer.

Anne E. Raftis, DVM

Annie is small animal veterinarian practicing in Seattle Washington. She was born and raised in Seattle until the age of 12 when she moved with her family to Summit New Jersey.  After graduating in 1987 from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. with a degree in business, Annie moved to Paris France to explore an international marketing internship. She returned to the U.S. a year later to continue her business career in men’s shirt design and business analysis for Ralph Lauren in New York City.

In 1996 she left her career to follow her dream of going to veterinary school.  While attending Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, she earned a grant to work on a research project for a cattle vaccine in Brazil, and volunteered at a non-profit veterinary hospital in the Cook Islands.  After graduating from veterinary school she joined Elliott Bay Animal Hospital, a large hospital near downtown Seattle, where she continues to fulfill her dream of providing high quality animal care to her community. 

In 2002 she was extremely fortunate to join the Rotary polio vaccination project in Ethiopia.  She greatly looks forward to returning to east Africa on this exchange.   

Jack T. Danforth, P.E.
Alternate Team Leader

Upon arriving to Seattle, his invested interest in working with people with developmental disabilities translated into researching graduate school programs for Special Education.  During this period, he worked in Facilities Management at AT&T Wireless in Kirkland, Washington where he had the opportunity to supervise several high school volunteers with developmental disabilities.  This work experience steered him away from the education arena and into the employment sector in 1998, where he enjoys creating and maintaining partnerships with diverse business leaders that provide paid jobs for his job candidates.  In addition, he provides on-going employee relations support and diversity training to private and public sector businesses.