Dr. Gregory Meyjes, founder of SOLIDARIS, is an intercultural consulting professional par excellence. That he is among the foremost specialists on global cultural relations and on the inclusion of cultural minorities is no accident, since he possesses over thirty years of academic and professional experience. Having lived, worked, and studied as a visible minority on cross-cultural issues on Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, his invaluable knowledge, research data, and insights are both keys to his success and that of the needed services Solidaris provides.

Dr. Meyjes resigned from North Carolina State University in 2001 to focus on culture and social and institutional development in his unique community-based, yet inclusive way. Previously, besides over a decade of teaching and research at universities in US, the Caribbean, Africa, and India, he created various intercultural and international programs, directed a US national Public Information office, trained nationally on community-based education, managed an international journal out of his office in France, and conducted global indigenous development research for the United Nations.

The following are some of his extraordinary intercultural contributions:

Event organizing: Putting on civic and professional conferences on aspects of culture in Europe, Africa, South- and North America

International Education: Realization of several international and development-country training programs in the Caribbean, Africa, and the US, focused on language, history, and culture

Outreach: Organizational outreach with Roma organizations in Bulgaria (Plovdiv area) for collaboration in European Union-funded socio-racial inclusion project

Project Design: Creation of an innovative & culturally appropriate literacy and social inclusion project involving low-income adults of Mexican, Haitian, and other ethnic origin in rural North Carolina

Program Design: Development of a culturally-competent Master's program in English for the Department of English at the University of Conakry, Republic of Guinea

Recruiting: Contracting competent translators from developing, Islamic, or otherwise security-sensitive countries

Research: Surveys on cultural attitudes towards Creole in the French Caribbean, towards French & English in francophone Africa, and towards English among Mexican immigrants to the US

Research design: Researcher to a UN-funded investigation of indigenous development organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas (research design, data collection, event organizing, editing)

Speaking: Public affairs and media work in dozens of countries, speaking on such topics as Preventing Ethnic Conflict, Race Relations, Women's Rights, Universal Education, Human Rights, Cultural Rights, etc.

Teaching: Teaching such courses as on a) the Risks and Rewards of English as an International Language, b) Multiculturalism in Germany Today, and c) The Identity and Political Status of Cultural Minorities Worldwide

Training: Training of, and the (co-)editing of culturally sensitive materials for Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, community-based education workers in the US, and rural adult literacy staff in North Carolina

Writing: Publishing on the creation of sustainable global cultural relations

Apart from his exceptional professional service, Greg Meyjes has been involved in international civic public affairs activities for over three decades. Specialized in indigenous and minority perspectives, he is a true world citizen who has lived in many countries and speaks French, German, Dutch, and English with near-equal fluency. He founded Solidaris after living in Africa in the late 1990s out of a particular concern for HIV/AIDS there. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1995 and he holds other graduate qualifications from the Netherlands Universities Foundations for International Co-Operation (NUFFIC) as well as from the Universities of Heidelberg, Lancaster, Essex, and Oxford.