Ray was raised on a potato farm in south-central
Ontario. After graduating from Calvin College (B.Sc.
– Biology) and Michigan State University (M.Sc. – Crop
and Soil Sciences), he went to work in Haiti with the
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee. During the
first five years in Haiti, he worked in a rural community
development program, supporting local staff and community
groups involved in agriculture, reforestation, cooperative,
literacy, water, and leadership activities. The next
three years he worked in Port-au-Prince giving overall
leadership to three CRWRC programs in Haiti.
Returning to Canada, he earned an M.A. in International Affairs (Development Studies) and a Ph.D. (Geography) at Carleton University. His dissertation involved 11 months of field research on NGO/local community relations in rural Haiti. Ray then worked for a year for the Canadian International Development Agency as a project officer in the Southeast Asia Regional Program before joining CMU’s faculty. Ray also teaches one course per year in the IDS program at Menno Simons College, CMU’s campus at the University of Winnipeg.
Ray and his wife Jayne have four children. They are members of Good News Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Winnipeg. He enjoys playing hockey, canoe camping and doing home renovations in his off time.
In addition to Ray, the following are professors of International Development Studies at Menno Simons College, CMU's campus at the University of Winnipeg:
Jerry Buckland, Professor, International
Development Studies
Kenton Lobe,
Lecturer in International Development Studies
Ruth Rempel, Assistant
Professor, International Development Studies
Kirit Patel, Associate Professor, International
Development Studies
Jonathan Sears, Associate Professor, International
Development Studies
