Dr. Alix Cantave
PhD in Public Policy 2007
Turn the calendar back to the mid 1990's. The Public Policy Program was a new doctoral program at UMass Boston seeking to attract high caliber, mid-career professionals with experience as policy practitioners. The school was looking for (and still is!) socially-conscious, critical-thinking scholar-activists who could dialogue with faculty and peers, making the classroom a two-way learning vehicle in a multi-disciplinary setting.
When Alix Cantave applied to the program in 1989, the admissions committee did not have a difficult decision on their hands. Alix had an educational background in city and regional planning (MS, Pratt Institute in New York) and environmental design (BA, SUNY Buffalo) and years of experience as a demographer and an economic development planner. Alix also held a leadership position in the Boston Chapter of TransAfrica, an African-American lobby for Africa and the Caribbean working closely with policy makers in Washington, D.C.
Alix recalls, "From 1983 to 1986, my professional, intellectual, and extra curricular activities were focused on urban economic development policy, poverty and urban decay. On February 7, 1986, Jean-Claude Duvalier, President-for-life of Haiti, was disposed by a popular uprising. That event brought hope to many Haitians expatriates, and promises of social and economic justice in Haiti. Like many young Haitian-Americans, I got involved in the pro-democracy movement in the Haitian Diaspora."
"For the first time, a rift occurred between my professional and extra-curricular activities. I was professionally committed to urban economic development while most of my extra-curricular activities were on Haitian politics and US-Haiti relations. I was also distressed by the fact there were no institutions in the US focusing on Haitian policy, studies or analysis." Cantave relocated to Boston in January 1988, and the following year founded the Haitian Studies Association (HSA), an organization designed to promote scientific research on Haiti and Haitians, and applied to the McCormack School.
Fast forward to June 2006 when Alix defended his dissertation, "Non-Governmental Organizations and Local Economic Development in Haiti." Alix noted "that Haiti is a non-developmental state that lacks the necessary public policy and bureaucratic infrastructure to support and sustain local economic development and that NGOs function within that context and to a larger degree profit from it." In concluding Alix proposes basic, sound, systemic changes in the structure of the Haitian state, the manner in which NGOs operate, and the allocation of foreign aid in order to facilitate and create a climate conducive to local economic development.
Professor Jemardi Kamara, a founding faculty member of the PhD Program in Public Policy and a member of Alix's dissertation committee, describes Alix as "one of the most outstanding young leaders with whom I have worked. His dedication, high quality, leadership skills and consistency distinguish him from many other young scholars. A concerned advocate for the Haitian plight, Alix is certainly a true pioneer in Haitian studies and affairs."
Alix Cantave
PhD in Public Policy 2007
Current Employment: Associate Director,
William Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture, University of Massachusetts Boston