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Partners in Education Team
Bruce Horwitz
Founder and Board Member
Bruce and his wife Kelly went to Haiti for the first time in 2006 to meet the children they would eventually adopt two years later. That two-year period involved multiple trips to the island, and fostered a relationship with the people and the country that continue to this day. When the dust settled, they found themselves returning home in 2008 with Viergela, age 6 and Suzette, age 11.
Bruce has always felt that adoption is, by it’s nature, a paradox. It is a blessing to offer children opportunities and a family they would not have had otherwise. Simultaneously, adoption cannot happen without the tragedy of a broken family back home. For Bruce, the story couldn’t end with his kids safe in Venice, California. He had to do more. What was true then, is even more true in post earthquake Haiti: international adoption is a solution, but only for a tiny fraction of the millions of orphaned and poverty stricken Haitian children.
For Bruce, his way of doing more, was to create Partners In Education/Kozefó, which has been supporting Rock Cayo in his tireless endeavor to reinvent his orphanage into a school for kids in his Petionville neighborhood. Through Partners In Education/Kozefó, he hopes to assist in creating a center that will nurture a handful of capable kids into the next generation of Haitian leaders.
Everest Mueller
Program Director
Everest Mueller, originally from Big Bear Lake, California is a graduate student at the School for International Training in Vermont. As a youth Everest spent most of his time tuning his athletic skills in the sport of hockey. By the age of 21 Everest had acquired one State Championship and 4 National Titles.
“Hockey, as with any other sport, when misunderstood, can represent war and conflict. One team trying to dominate over all others. But when we break it down into its parts we begin to see its true nature, one that emphasizes passion, hard work, leadership, teamwork and cooperation. These are the qualities that Hockey ingrained in me and the qualities I seek to ingrain in any projects I develop.” -Everest
After completing his undergrad at UCLA in Cultural Anthropology he spent three years developing youth athletic programs for the city of Mar Vista, a suburb in Los Angeles. Mar Vista had a Youth and Adult Hockey Program of over 500 participants but after several years of mismanagement the program had dwindled to nothing.
“A public space, lit at night, and was completely unpopulated the hockey rink was a perfect grounds for gang activity. The rink surface was littered with garbage, the nets were torn apart and the public equipment shed had become a makeshift house for a homeless person. Needless to say I came to Mar Vista’s Hockey program in a dire time. Nevertheless, after three years of passionate dedicated hard work I rebuilt the Hockey Program. Where there was nothing, Mar Vista now has a populated and thriving Youth and Adult Hockey program with over 300 participants.” – Everest
Once fulfilling his duties at Mar Vista, Everest decided to move on to Graduate School. Currently, he is in the middle of a two year graduate program in Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management.
“My intention for going to SIT was to expand upon my prior personal and professional experiences. To breach the world of Hockey but carry with me the qualities and competencies I had gained and would need to develop community projects just as successfully in the future.” – Everest
Everest is the Project Coordinator at Partners In Education/Kozefó and is working feverishly on his first community development project.
Edwidge Vilburn
Program Director
Edwige Vilbrun is a young Haitian man, who was born with the strong conception that something is not right in the world and it has to be fixed, or rather that something is not right in Haiti and has to be fixed.
It is this conception that forges his life: a life of service. Serving others by helping them to grasp the realities that they are facing and plan to solve their problems. This has been his work and his passion for years.
Having a diploma in teaching, Edwige has been serving his compatriots for years in education, by helping them to understand that Haiti, even if it is poor, is our country, believing that we have to unite to make it grow. As a citizen, he has been working for years to build community-based organizations to encourage Haitian people to get organized and educate themselves so that they can find solutions to their problems.
Having a master’s degree in Sustainable Development with a specialty in Development management, his work has been intensified and has been shared between studies, community work and teaching. He believes that it is through education that Haiti can know a better future. His hope, my dear reader, is that you will contribute to this work so that we can make it true. It’s our duty to make the world a better place.
Rock Cayo
A New Arrival Director
Rock Erick Cayo was born in Haiti on January 4th, 1963 from a very poor family. Most people in his situation received no education at all and he had to work very hard just to finish high school. He was 27 when he finally graduated. Most higher education in Haiti is offered through expensive French private schools so in order to move forward in his education, he came to America as an illegal resident. He received his GED and enrolled in college as a computer science major. Unfortunately he had to stop after the first semester because he could not afford it. He could not receive financial aid because he was not an American citizen.
He got his American residency in January 2001 and went back to school at Medega Ever College in Brooklyn, NY, completing a computer science degree. During the next few years a lot happened in a short period of time. He got married and had a family. He worked several jobs, most notably at United Presbyterian Church with elderly people, until March of 2003 when he got a call from his brother who lives in Washington State asking if he wanted to work in Haiti. His brother told Rock, “An Agency in Washington wants to open an orphanage in Haiti.” Although Rock did not know much about running an orphanage, he said, “Yes, I will try it.”
In May of 2003, Rock went to Haiti and on July 14th A New Arrival Center (ANA) was opened. For two years, they focused solely on adoptions. But as time passed Rock felt it was not what he really wanted to do to help his country’s children and their families. He realized that the people of Haiti needed more. So, he decided to make A New Arrival more than just an orphanage. He wanted to build a community center that would focus on improving the lives of families in our community. As the director of ANA, Rock works to provide the community with education, food security, shelter and health. He works to build a better Haiti.
Sara Lein
Board Member
Sara Lein is an auntie to two sweet nephews, who spent their earliest years at A New Arrival, before being adopted by Sara’s sister and brother-in-law. Eli joined their family in 2005 at 1-1/2 years of age and JP arrived at age 12, following the earthquake in 2010. Since their arrival, Sara has had a heart for the people of Haiti and desired to spend time in Port au Prince, learning and living among the people that first cared for these boys. In the summer of 2011, Sara and her daughter Breelynn spent a month living in the orphanage, teaching an English class to the children in the Primary school. She desires to be a light to those she interacts with, in order to give hope through the possibilities that come from being loved, cared for, and educated.
Sara has worked with children and teenagers in the public school system, as well as through church sponsored programs. She developed curriculum and coordinated a weekly Girls Club program at her community church that empowered girls age 4-12, to use the gifts that God has given them to be all that they were designed to be. She continues to volunteer weekly with the youth group, and co-lead a small group study for senior high girls. Sara has been a teacher for over 20 years across various settings, from southern California, to rural North Dakota, and to the urban district of St. Paul, Minnesota. She has Bachelor Degrees in Elementary Education and Physical Education from Jamestown College, and a Masters Degree in Special Education from the University of North Dakota. She is currently a Special Education Resource Coordinator for St. Paul Public Schools, supporting staff in the areas of curriculum, instruction, behavior management and Due Process guidelines. Her husband Bob is a 6th grade teacher in a St. Paul Public School classroom that currently has students from several different countries: Thailand, Myanmar, Somalia, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Nepal and Sierra Leone. He is also a partner with World Relief Minnesota, assisting refugee families arriving to the U.S. Their daughter Breelynn is a college sophomore at UWEC, studying social work.
Barbara Einstein
Board Member
Barbara was born and raised in Switzerland where she lived until she was 27 years old. She obtained a degree as an elementary school teacher and taught 1-4 grade. In 1988 she moved to Venice, CA and their oldest son Max was born. A year later they had twin boys Sam and Simon. Together with a friend, Barbara and her husband started a furniture import business. They import from many countries in Asia and are fortunate to travel extensively.
In 2003, they adopted their youngest daughter Stephanie. She was 2 years old at the time of the adoption. Soon after, they decided to adopt for a second time and were waiting for Magdaline to come home when they found out that the biological sister of Stephanie had become available for adoption. They acted very fast and were thrilled to expand their family to 3 boys and 3 girls. Two years later they were contacted again with the news that the adoption of the biological cousin of Magdaline had failed and so they were very happy to add their last (definitely last) daughter to our family! Their girls are now 12,12,11 and 10 years old. Barbara wishes to stay connected to Haiti and hopes to be able to help make a difference by supporting and building a school.
Marco Petruzzi
Board Member
Marco Petruzzi is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Green Dot Public Schools. During Marco’s tenure, Green Dot won Los Angeles Unified’s School Board approval to turnaround Locke High School in Watts and began operating it in fall 2008, re-structuring it into five smaller, college-prep schools. Green Dot also established itself as a leading agent of reform, creating a world-class school and instructional leadership model as well as an efficient central office to support the schools in many areas. The Locke Transformation Project is the realization of Marco’s work on Green Dot’s Board of Directors, where he served from 2002 until 2006, in which he led a pro bono consulting project to develop a model for the transformation of overcrowded, under-performing urban public schools. In 2011, Green Dot was asked by the Los Angeles Unified School District to help turnaround two more of its lowest performing schools, Jordan High School and Clay Middle School. Green Dot currently serves 10,000 secondary students in 18 schools in low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
Prior to joining Green Dot, Marco was a Partner at Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm. Marco has fifteen years of consulting experience working with top management of major international in the USA, South America, and Europe. Marco earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering at Columbia University, where he also earned an M.B.A. He has extensive international experience, having lived in six different countries, and is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. Marco, an active community member, is married and has two children, both attending public schools.