Faculty and Staff 2007 Highlights - Eastern Mennonite University

Practice Institute 

Local Leaders Flock 

To Leadership Training 

Residents in and around Harrisonburg (Va.) are flocking to enroll 

in a series of seven seminars designed to help persons sharpen 

their leadership and conflict management skills. 

“In the first weeks after we announced the seminars, 50 people 

signed up,” said Susan Landes Beck, the main organizer of the 

EMU-initiated series. “We are opening a second session of this 

series to handle the overflow of registrants.” 

EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP), Masters 

in Business Administration program (MBA), and Adult Degree 

Completion Program (ADCP) teamed up with the Harrisonburg- 

Rockingham Chamber of Commerce and the Shenandoah Valley 

Small Business Development Center to focus on topics ranging 

from negotiation skills for a “win-win outcome” to dealing with 

various personality types in the office. 

The seminars will begin in late January and run for seven 

Fridays, meeting either 9 a.m. until noon, or from 1 p.m. until 4 

p.m., in a large classroom on the EMU campus. 

“In my 30 years in business, I’ve noted that the vast majority of 

middle and senior managers are highly competent in their fields 

of expertise, but some lack the people-handling skills they need to 

be fully successful,” said Allon Lefever, a local entrepreneur and 

former director of the MBA program. “This seminar series will 

offer practical help in this arena.” 

Almost all of the instructors are seasoned faculty members from 

EMU programs – CJP, ADCP and STAR (Seminars on Trauma 

Awareness and Resilience) – as well as from James Madison 

University. A lawyer from the Wharton, Aldhizer and Weaver 

firm, who is also enrolled in EMU’s masters program in conflict 

transformation, co-teaches one of the workshops. 

18 ■ peacebuilder 

winter 2008 

Susan Landes Beck 

The schedule is: 

January 25 – Leading healthy organizations in a changing 

environment 

February 1 – Building your business and your integrity 

February 22 – Cultural awareness matters: effective 

communication in today’s diverse workplace 

February 29 – Personality and communication styles at work 

March 28 – Practical leadership: using your style to 

effectively lead 

april 11 – Transforming conflict among team members 

april 25 – Negotiation skills for leaders 

Persons attending the entire series will receive a certificate in 

organizational leadership. The cost is $59 per seminar, or $349 for 

the entire series, with a 10 percent discount for Chamber of Commerce 

members. 

For more information, visit www.emu.edu/seminarseries, 

e-mail pi@emu.edu, or call (540) 432-4651. 

Seminars on Trauma Awareness and Resilience 

youth STAR Manuals Published 

As a follow-up to successful pilot projects with young survivors 

of Hurricane Katrina and other youths dealing with trauma, the 

training methods used for the youth version of Seminars on 

Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) are now contained in 

a package of four manuals: an overall guide, plus a manual for 

facilitators, one for parents and one for youth. 

Attractive and “user-friendly,” the manuals are designed for 

distribution to those who attend or lead Youth STAR trainings. 

The creation of the Youth STAR training, materials, and publication 

of the manuals was made possible by a $38,000 grant from 

the U.S. Institute of Peace. 

To bring Youth STAR to your community or for other information, 

contact the STAR office at star@emu.edu or (540) 432-4651. 

PHOTO by Matthew Styer 

Faculty and 

Staff 2007 

Highlights 

Professor Barry 

Hart led a 

five-day course, 

“Healing Trauma 

and Conflict 

Transformation” 

as part of the 

“Tools for 

Change” conference in Caux, Switzerland, 

Aug. 5-10. Hart also led two 

workshops within another Caux 

conference, “Agenda for Reconciliation,” 

Aug. 13-19. The first was on 

peacebuilding for Somalis from the 

diaspora; the second was for 70 

conference participants called “Leadership 

from the Heart.” Hart has been 

academic director at Caux since 1997. 

Barry Hart and CJP grad Doreen 

Ruto facilitated the STAR workshop 

for ALARM (African Leadership and 

Reconciliation Ministries) in Burundi 

on Oct. 1-6. 

Practice Institute associate director 

Amy Potter and EMU physical 

plant staffer Will Hairston gave two 

presentations to the 70 participants 

who were on campus from the U.S. 

Dept. of Agriculture for their annual 

diversity day, Aug. 22. The topic of the 

presentations was “Coming to the 

Table: An approach to cross-cultural 

communication, understanding and 

relationships.” 

Amy Potter and CJP director of development 

Phoebe Kilby presented 

the Coming to the Table program Oct. 

26-27 at the Gandhi-King Conference 

on Peacemaking at Christian Brothers 

University, Memphis, Tenn. Kilby also 

presented with Paulette Moore, CJP 

MA student and filmmaker on film 

and peacebuilding. 

Vesna Hart, STAR facilitator and CJP 

graduate, and Susan Landes Beck, 

marketing director for the Practice 

Institute, presented a workshop on 

“Exploring the Effects of Trauma and 

Violence on our Youth” to 25 direct 

service providers of the Harrisonburg 

City Public Schools, Aug. 22. 

STAR trainer Carolyn Heggen, who 

resigned her position at CJP in November 

due to family health issues, 

presented the “pre-pilot” trial run of a 

Healing the Wounds of War workshop 

in Albuquerque, N.M., for 28 participants 

from Catholic, Methodist, Quaker, 

Disciples of Christ, Mennonite and 

Jewish communities of faith, July 28. 

STAR director Elaine Zook Barge, 

Carolyn Heggen, and CJP grad 

Babu Ayindo were facilitators for 

CJP’s “Leaders in Peacebuilding” program, 

under contract with Catholic 

Relief Services. This CRS/STAR 

workshop in Ikotos, Sudan, Oct. 12-16, 

was the second of six workshops for 

43 local and state leaders in Eastern 

Equatoria state in Southern Sudan. 

Robert Roche, CJP student doing his 

practicum with Catholic Relief Service-South 

Sudan, was also involved. 

Elaine and Doreen Ruto facilitated an 

additional workshop in Torit, Sudan, 

Nov. 7-10 for 10 peace directors of the 

South Sudanese Peace Commission. 

Professor 

David Anderson 

Hooker, 

along with CJP 

grad Cosmas 

Lam, and 

student Roche, 

facilitated the 

third in the series of six workshops 

– this one on restorative justice — in 

Ikotos, South Sudan, Nov. 12 - 16. 

Following that workshop, Hooker 

attended a meeting of key community 

and political leaders in Abyei, 

South Sudan, to work on setting up a 

similar training series. 

David Anderson Hooker was 

ordained on Oct. 7 into the ministry in 

the United Church of Christ. He is now 

“Reverend Hooker.” 

Elaine Zook Barge attended the 

Mennonite Health Assembly in 

Pittsburgh, Pa., March 29 - April 1, and 

led a workshop for 50 people on “The 

Trauma Healing Journey: Breaking 

the Cycles of Violence.” Barge and 

Carolyn Heggen facilitated Level I 

STAR training for the United Church of 

Christ Worcester Area Mission Society 

in Sterling, Mass., Oct. 28-31. Heggen 

and CJP alumni coordinator Margaret 

Foth facilitated a STAR workshop 

on campus, Nov. 12-16. 

peacebuilder ■ 19 

emu.edu/cjp

Professor 

Jayne Seminare 

Docherty 

conducted 

training in 

conflict 

analysis and 

peacebuilding 

at Lebanese American University in 

Byblos, Aug. 17-19. The students were 

from Lebanon, Yemen, Palestine, 

Egypt and Kuwait. She also visited 

with the MCC Lebanon office to 

discuss possible future projects and 

she spoke at AMIDEAST in Beirut 

about careers in peacebuilding and 

conflict transformation. Docherty was 

a presenter on teaching methodologies 

for the field of conflict transformation 

at the Alumni Symposium at 

the Institute for Conflict Analysis and 

Resolution at George Mason University 

on Sept. 15. Docherty attended 

the Association for Conflict Resolution 

Conference, Oct. 24-27. As chair 

of the ACR’s research section, she 

organized a series of workshops 

examining the implications of new 

research in the neurosciences for the 

practice of conflict resolution. 

Professor 

Nancy Good 

Sider presented 

“Activism, 

Connection, 

and Peace – 

Sustainable 

Solutions for 

the Community” at the American 

Psychological Association’s annual 

convention in San Francisco, Calif., 

Aug. 17. In the spring of 2007, Sider 

spent two weeks in Bosnia-Herzegovina 

teaching a graduate course on 

Trauma Awareness and Reconciliation 

at the Franciscan Theological Seminary 

in Sarajevo. This course followed 

up Nancy’s consultation the previous 

summer (2006) and was co-taught 

with MCC Southeast Europe co-directors, 

Amela and Randy Puljek- 

Shenk. In October 2007 Sider led a 

seminar on facilitated dialogue for 

marital conflict at the Association for 


winter 2008 

Conflict Resolution conference in 

Phoenix, Ariz. The spring issue of ACR 

Magazine published her article 

“Integrating Trauma Healing in 

Conflict Resolution Education.” 

CJP academic 

director David 

Brubaker 

received his 

PhD in sociology 

from the 

University of 

Arizona in May, 

following his successful defense and 

revision of his dissertation entitled 

“Change and Conflict in Congregations.” 

The Alban Institute will publish 

his dissertation in a format accessible 

to congregations. Brubaker and 

graduate student Matthew Hartman, 

along with colleagues from Goshen 

College and Canadian Mennonite 

University, traveled to Mar Elias 

College in Galilee to help develop the 

first undergraduate peace program in 

Israel. Brubaker also provided conflict 

transformation training for religious 

and lay leaders in Egypt, organized by 

the Coptic Organization for Social 

Services, and in Myanmar/Burma, 

organized by Hope International. 

Professor 

Howard Zehr 

was in New 

Zealand Aug. 8 

- Sept 21. As a 

Fulbright 

Senior Specialist, 

Howard 

worked with Auckland University’s 

new Restorative Justice Centre, which 

was inspired by EMU’s program. Zehr 

also had multiple speaking engagements: 

radio and television presentations, 

workshops and conferences 

open to the public. In the United 

Kingdom on Oct. 4, Zehr did the 

closing keynote for an international 

restorative justice conference and, on 

Oct. 6, a photo and meditation 

seminar at London Mennonite Centre. 

Zehr preached at East Bend Mennonite 

Church and gave a keynote at a 

state-wide juvenile justice conference 

in Ill., Oct. 31-Nov. 5. Later in November, 

Zehr gave the Salzman Lecture at 

the Lewinsville Presbyterian Church, 

McLean, Va. He also gave lectures at 

Penn State University, Roberts 

Wesleyan College, and a workshop at 

the annual Pathways for Victims 

Services conference in Pennsylvania. 

In conjunction with EMU’s Marketing 

and Communications department, 

Howard Zehr and SPI director Pat 

Hostetter Martin had op-ed pieces 

in the Daily News Record (Harrisonburg, 

Va.), in the Richmond Time Dispatch, 

and in the online newspaper 

Inside Higher Education. Zehr also 

had an op-ed piece in the Atlanta 

Journal Constitution and was the subject 

of a short article in Sojourners. 

In March, SPI Director, Pat Hostetter 

Martin spent two weeks in Iran with 

a Fellowship of Reconciliation Civilian 

Diplomacy Delegation. She also represented 

EMU and MCC in a September 

meeting of religious persons and 

institutions with Iranian President 

Mahmoud Amadinejad. 

Professor Lisa 

Schirch’s 

peacebuilding 

efforts took her 

to Sri Lanka 

and Indonesia 

as well as the 

Army War 

College, the Pentagon, and the halls 

of Congress. In May, Schirch gave a 

sermon and presentations in Franconia 

(Pa.) Mennonite Conference area 

churches. She facilitated a media and 

peacebuilding seminar in the Netherlands 

Oct. 6-9 and was a keynote 

speaker at three national conferences. 

With former SPI professor David 

Campt, she published the Little Book 

of Dialogue on Difficult Subjects. 

Schirch’s sabbatical activities on 

behalf of the 3D Security Initiative are 

outlined on pages 5 and 6 of this 

magazine and can be explored in 

detail at www.3DSecurity.org. 

People of CJP 

Africa, sub-Sahara 

Michel Shyirahayo, MA ‘02, works 

with African Leadership and Reconciliation 

Ministries (ALARM) as Africa 

coordinator of the Peacebuilding 

and Reconciliation Program. Michel 

writes: “It is very demanding as 

we are involved in eight countries, 

including Sudan and Democratic 

Republic of Congo where the conflict 

is overt and still hot. I need your 

prayers and encouragement as I seek 

a good and appropriate way to deal 

with the issue.” Michel is also the volunteer 

head of the Rwandan National 

Forum’s Commission on Policy and 

Strategy. 

Zihindula Mulegwa, MA ‘05, has 

started a think tank called the Center 

for Political and Strategic Studies 

in the Democratic Republic of the 

Congo. The center makes contextual 

analysis and every Wednesday 

has a discussion forum that brings 

together diplomats, politicians and 

the population from the grassroots 

to discuss and make recommendations 

on issues affecting the country. 

During the elections last year, the 

Center played a role in building a 

bridge between the two candidates, 

helping to prevent the violence that 

everyone feared from recent history. 

Mulegwa hopes to pursue a PhD in 

political science and to return to SPI 

“as often as possible to brush up on 

what I learned during my wonderful 

years at EMU.” 

Simon Badi Kefachew, MA ‘01, is a 

private consultant in Ethiopia on 

conflict management, democracy 

and good governance, socioeconomic 

justice, export and import 

promotion sector, and value chains 

development. 

Brian Gilchrest, MA ‘04, works in Addis 

Ababa, Ethiopia, as deputy chief 

in the Democracy and Governance 

Office of the USAID-Ethiopia Mission. 

He provides office and program 

management as well as technical 

expertise, with a focus on conflict 

mitigation and reconciliation programming 

in the country. 

Emmanuel Bombande, MA ‘02, executive 

director and co-founder of the 

West Africa Network for Peacebuilding 

(WANEP), is a member of a special 

committee set up by the government 

of Ghana to promote peace in the 

northern region. He also teaches at 

the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping 

Training Center, Legon Center 

for International Affairs, the West 

Africa Peacebuilding Institute, and as 

part of a training team in peacebuilding 

with Caritas International. 

Kenya-based Babu Ayindo, MA ‘98, 

is an independent consultant in the 

design and facilitation of conflict 

resolution and peacebuilding processes; 

a researcher and trainer in arts, 

peace education and development 

communication; and in program 

evaluation and development with 

various organizations. He has been a 

featured speaker or leader in Seoul, 

Korea, in Fiji, and in many locations 

in Africa. He is enrolled in the PhD 

peace program of Bradford University 

in England. Ayindo wrote the article 

“Arts Approaches to Peace: Playing 

Our Way to Transcendence” in the 

book Peacebuilding in Traumatized Societies, 

edited by CJP professor Barry 

Hart and scheduled for publication 

in the spring of 2008. 

PHOTO by David Landis of SPI 2007 students Fatemeh Darabi 

from Iran, Matt Bucher from the U.S., Ionka Hristozova from 

the Ukraine, and Paulus Hartono from Indonesia. 

Jim Bowman, MA ‘03, and his wife 

Cathy are co-country representatives 

for Mennonite Central Committee, in 

Kenya. They have overall responsibility 

for the program which includes 

“food security” (a term covering crop 

and animal husbandry, food and 

crop storage, marketing and water 

development), peacebuilding, and 

HIV-AIDS. “The drought is certainly 

taking its toll in some areas of Kenya,” 

Jim writes. “Water is at a premium.” 

John Katunga, MA ‘05, works from 

Kenya for Catholic Relief Services 

as the technical advisor for peacebuilding 

and justice in East Africa. 

Previously, Katunga was the acting 

executive director of the Nairobi 

Peace Initiative-Africa and a research 

scholar for the Africa Program of the 

Woodrow Wilson International Center 

for Scholars in Washington, D.C., 

where he received the Distinguished 

African Scholar Award. Katunga is a 

native of the Democratic Republic of 

Congo. 

From her home country of Kenya, 

Jebiwot Sumbeiywo, MA ‘04, directs 

the Coalition for Peace in Africa—a 

network of organizations working 

on peacebuilding in parts of Eastern, 

Central, Horn and Southern Africa. 

Tecla Wanjala, MA ‘03, is based in 

Kenya and works for Japan International 

Cooperation Agency as an 

in-house consultant in post-conflict 

reconstruction/peace building for 

Eastern and Southern Africa. Often 

collaborating with EMU’s Seminars 

on Trauma Awareness and Resilience 

(STAR), she has facilitated workshops 

on how to rebuild societies after 

violent conflict in such regions as 

southern Sudan and Burundi by tak- 

ing lessons from other parts of Africa, 

such as Rwanda, Sierra Leone and 

Mozambique. 

Moussa David Ntambara, MA ‘02, is 

working as a child protection advisor 

in the human rights and protection 

section of the United Nations Mission 

in Liberia. “In the summer of 2006 

I returned for two sessions of the 

Summer Peacebuilding Institute,” he 

writes. “Returning to SPI was rejuvenating.” 

Alfiado Zunguza, MA ‘99, directs 

JustaPaz and helped found the first 

Portuguese-language peacebuilding 

institute in Africa, based in Mozambique. 

He is supported by the United 

Methodist Church. Called the Lusophone 

Peacebuilding Institute, the 

program is modeled after SPI. Last 

year—its first year—three courses 

were offered: Introduction to Conflict 

Transformation; Intra-organizational 

Conflicts and their Transformation; 

and Conflict and Development. 

Austin G. C. Onouha, MA ‘04, is 

home in Nigeria, managing a project 

on building right relationships 

between the ethnic groups in the 

Niger Delta and oil companies. He 

has almost finished his PhD in conflict 

analysis and resolution through Nova 

Southeastern University in Florida. He 

is the author of two books: From Erris 

Shore to the Nigerian Delta: Comparing 

Shell’s Presence in Ireland and Nigeria 

(2007) and From Conflict to Collaboration: 

Building Peace in Nigeria’s Oil- 

Producing Communities (2005). 

Toma H Ragnjiya, MA ‘04, is head of 

the Church of the Brethren Peace and 

Reconciliation Office in Nigeria. 

Carl Stauffer, MA ‘02, is director of 


emu.edu/cjp

Desmond Tutu and president Loren Swartzentruber 

Archbishop Tutu 

Visits Harrisonburg 

Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu visited Harrisonburg, 

Va., in late September 2007 to receive an award from 

the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence 

at James Madison University. At the invitation of JMU 

organizer Dr. Sushil Mittal, a number of EMU officials, 

including president Loren Swartzendruber and CJP 

executive director Lynn Roth, played roles in welcoming 

the archbishop. In addition, a group of nine EMU 

people, mostly graduate students, from seven countries 

met personally with the archbishop to discuss “third party 

nonviolent intervention.” 

Policing By Working 

With Traditional Chiefs 

Career police officer Fred Yiga, 

MA ’04, is employed by the 

United Nations as technical 

advisor to the inspector general of 

police, South Sudan. 

He sent this report to friends 

at CJP: “I am quite busy and the 

challenges are glaringly real. There 

Fred Yiga 

are no systems in the law enforcement 

area, and my major task is to try and establish them. 

The police must be strongly founded to be able to handle 

the huge problem of the existing gaps in civil policing. 

“We shall be designing community policing strategies to 

address the high levels of conflict that are almost cultural 

as a result of the long civil war here – over 25 years. Restorative 

justice programs will have to play a leading role 

in order to facilitate peaceful resolution of disputes and 

conflicts. 

“There is a strong presence of traditional chiefs in this 

region of Southern Sudan, and we shall have to rely heavily 

on them to manage important issues like transitional 

justice. The local communities believe in them more than 

they believe in the police. Another role for these traditional 

chiefs is community disarmament.” 


winter 2008 

peacebuilding practice for Mennonite 

Central Committee in southern 

Africa. He focuses on trauma healing, 

nonviolent action, restorative justice 

and reconciliation. Working with 12 

African associates, he aims to connect 

ideas, people, organizations and 

resources across all sectors of society 

in order to build peace in Africa. This 

is accomplished through peace 

education, training, intervention consultation 

and networking. Carl also 

works with the African Peacebuilding 

Institute in Zambia and is pursuing 

doctoral studies. 

Jerrold Grosh, MA ‘01, is working for 

Mennonite Disaster Service, headquartered 

in Akron, Pa. 

Anne Nyambura, MA ‘06, is program 

manager for Mercy Corps in Bosaso, 

Somalia. She and her team engage 

in practical actions to address conflict 

and promote peace and reconciliation 

in northeastern Somalia. 

Jihan Al-Alaily, MA ‘02. After leaving 

her job as a BBC field correspondent, 

she was a media trainer and 

consultant in Iraq and Sudan for 

several years. She now works for 

the Radio Unit of the UN Mission 

in Sudan as the chief news editor. 

She writes: “Sudan is an interesting 

country for anyone with a conflict 

resolution background, as it is both 

ridden with conflicts (Darfur and the 

East) and at the same time emerging 

from a major war between the north 

and the south. I feel my masters in 

conflict resolution was worthwhile, 

helping me put into perspective and 

understand the different dynamics of 

these intricate conflicts.” 

Cosmas Oryem Lam, MA ‘04, is 

executive secretary of the Justice 

and Peace Council of the Ecclesiastical 

Province of Gulu, which covers 

four Catholic dioceses in northern 

Uganda. His strategies include community 

dialogue, reconciliation and 

peacebuilding, both within Uganda 

and with South Sudanese communities. 

He does education on human 

rights and paralegal services and 

works with victims of violence and 

war, especially with children formerly 

abducted by the Lord’s Resistance 

Army. He works at networking and 

collaboration with the various stakeholders 

involved in the transformation 

of the violence as part laying the 

groundwork for peace in northern 

Uganda, South Sudan and the 

northeast region of the Democratic 

Republic of the Congo. Recently he 

has been working with CJP professor 

David Anderson Hooker on STAR in 

South Sudan. 

Merwyn and Kirstin Rothrock- 

DeMello, MA ‘05, are based in Harare, 

Zimbabwe. They work with two local 

peacebuilding organizations under 

difficult conditions, which limits their 

ability to communicate the exact 

nature of the work they do. 

Western Hemisphere 

(outside of U.S.A.) 

Tracey King, MA ‘05, is a Presbyterian 

Church (USA) mission worker, serving 

as regional liaison for Central America. 

She is based in Managua, Nicaragua, 

but travels about a third of 

the month to other countries in the 

region: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador 

and Costa Rica. Her role is to be 

a support to churches and individuals, 

easing implementation and improving 

outcomes of their projects. 

Ferdinand Vaweka Djayerombe, 

MA ‘06, is in Montreal, Canada, 

waiting for his next calling. After he 

graduated from CJP, he spent three 

months in the Congo and the Great 

Lakes region of Africa as a volunteer 

for various organizations working 

in human rights, election monitoring, 

and early warning. He tried to 

leave Africa for a conference on 

child-soldier issues in Winnipeg, but 

was delayed by fighting in Kinshasa. 

He had to leave all of his belongings 

behind in Kinshasa and didn’t get to 

Canada until the last day of the conference. 

He has remained in Canada 

with family. 

Nyambura Githaiga, MA ‘04, works 

with the United Church of Canada 

in their Africa, Middle East and Emergency 

Response departments, based 

in Toronto. 

Colleen Malone, MA ‘05, is program 

manager of the Child Protection in 

Emergencies Unit of Save the Children 

Canada. When not traveling to 

disaster or conflict zones around the 

world, Colleen lives with her husband 

in Calgary, Alberta. 

Judah Oudshoorn, MA ‘06, is working 

with a restorative justice agency 

called Community Justice Initiatives 

in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. The 

Revive program, where he is one of 

the service coordinators, works with 

people who have offended sexually, 

as well as with survivors of abuse. 

Jarem Sawatsky, MA ‘01, is assistant 

professor of peace and conflict transformation 

studies at Canadian Mennonite 

University in Winnipeg, Canada. 

He is also working to complete 

his doctoral research through the 

University of Hull (in England), which 

entails a comparative study of three 

communities that are said to have 

a practice of healing justice: Hollow 

Water (Canada, Aboriginal), the Iona 

Community (Scotland, Christian) and 

Plum Village (Vietnamese-inspired 

Buddhist community in France, home 

of Thich Nhat Hanh). 

Corrie J. Thiessen, MA ‘02, is student 

life coordinator at the University of 

Manitoba in Canada. 

The United States 

Jonathan Rudy, GC ‘01, moved to 

Manheim, Pennsylvania, in June, 

2007. The move marked the conclusion 

of six years as Mennonite Central 

Committee’s peace resource person, 

based in the Philippines. He writes: “I 

am currently taking a short sabbatical 

before I start speaking and looking 

for consultancies.” 

Claudia Henning, MA ‘02, and her 

Youth Justice Initiative received one 

of three awards bestowed by the 

International Association of Chiefs 

of Police in 2006. The award stated: 

“Last year 89 youth participated in YJI 

[in West Des Moines, Iowa]. On average, 

90 percent of those who start 

the program complete it, according 

to program records, and of those 

who have completed the program, 

fewer than 10 percent have repeated 

their crimes.” In its seventh year, the 

program is housed in the police 

department, and most referrals come 

from the police as a diversion from 

court. Funding for the first five years 

of the program came from the United 

Way and other grants, but the city 

and schools now share most of the 

on-going financial cost. Claudia is 

married, with two daughters and four 

grandchildren. Her younger daughter 

is in law school and also has an interest 

in restorative justice. 

Jeremy Simons, MA ‘02, developed 

a restorative justice program for Cole 

Middle School in Denver, Colorado, 

that is spreading widely. A year after 

the RJ program began at Cole in 2002, 

“it was recognized as the outstanding 

safe school in the metro Denver area,” 

with its suspension rate cut in half 

and the number of court referrals 

reduced by 85 per cent. “The longterm 

plan is to have an RJ coordinator 

in every middle school and high 

school in Denver Public Schools,” says 

Jeremy, now restorative justice coordinator 

for Denver Public Schools. 

In the Cole model, a paid staff RJ 

coordinator works directly with the 

school assistant principal or dean to 

take referrals for situations that are 

amenable to a RJ/conflict resolution 

intervention. Jeremy also chaired the 

committee to revise the district-wide 

discipline policy and procedures. 

Restorative justice is integrated into 

the new policy as a principal strategy 

for behavior interventions. 

Sumanto Al Qurtuby, MA ’07, is 

living outside his home country of 

Indonesia to pursue a doctorate at 

Boston University’s Institute on Culture, 

Religion and World Affairs. He 

has written a book based on his CJP 

learnings, From Beast to Peace: Islamic 

Radicalism, Conflict Transformation 

and Peacebuilding. He is also finishing 

a book to be published in Indonesian: 

The Dove from the West: Mennonites, 

Love and Peace – the spiritual journey 

of a Muslim Within a Christian Community. 

Hedley Abernethy, MA ‘06, works for 

Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore, 

Maryland. CRS is the humanitarian 

aid and overseas development 

agency of the Catholic church in the 

United States. “I still smile at the irony 

of a bitter and twisted Northern Irish 

Protestant working for one of the biggest 

Catholic agencies in the world!” 

he writes. “CRS is an agency that is 

seriously tackling the questions of 

how we incorporate the notion of 

peacebuilding into our work and 

indeed into our very being. We ask 

difficult questions of ourselves, such 

as what is the use of providing food 

and shelter to the internally displaced 

in Darfur if we choose to do nothing 

about the conflict which made refugees 

of them in the first place.” 

Priscilla A. Adoyo, MA ‘03, is in her 

final year of a doctoral program at 

Fuller Theological Seminary in California. 

The focus of her research is 

“the application of biblical principles 

of conflict transformation in ethnoreligious 

situations, with specific reference 

to Jos and Kaduna in Nigeria.” 

Khadija Ossoble Ali, MA ‘01, is 

finishing a doctorate at the Institute 

for Conflict Analysis and Resolution 

(ICAR) at George Mason University 

in Virginia. Khadija was minister of 

state in Somali’s national transitional 

government from 2000 to 2002. She 

travels frequently to her home 

country and writes (or co-writes with 

fellow ICAR student Michael Shank, 

MA ’05) frequent commentaries on 

the path to peace. These include 

“Force Won’t Bring Peace to Somalia” 

(01/19/07) and “Memo to the Somali 

Government” (04/19/07), published in 

Foreign Policy in Focus, and “Somalia 

Needs a ‘Reconciliation Readiness’ 

Program” (06/26/07) in the Daily News 

of Egypt. She facilitated a workshop 

for civil society workers in Mogadishu 

on July 4-6, 2007, on “democracy, 

rule-of-law, conflict management 

and conflict resolution.” 

Nathan Barge, MA ‘99, is director of 

intake at Harrisonburg, Virginia, city 

schools, in charge of registering and 

assessing incoming students who 

Making Big Difference 

In Just Three years 

Gopar Tapkida 

In August 2001, Gopar Tapkida, his wife Monica, and 

three daughters (then ages 9, 5, and 3 months) headed 

home to Jos, Nigeria, where Tapkida planned to explore 

ways to apply his newly earned masters degree in conflict 

transformation. 

Instead they found themselves cowering with 10 other 

friends and relatives in two small rooms, with no food and 

little water, as bloody inter-religious riots swirled outside 

their hiding place. 

When the rampage subsided, 3,000 in his city were 

dead. Relatives and friends had lost their property. Some 

had lost their lives. “Every knowledge I had about peace 

disappeared completely,” recalls Tapkida. “You don’t know 

where to begin.” 

Tapkida’s journey from the depths of numb shock to 

breaking the cycle of violence is recounted in an earlier 

issue of Peacebuilder (summer/fall 2005, “Let’s Go Back To 

America,” online at www.emu.edu/peacebuilder/archives). 

As a sequel, here is a report from a recent observer 

of Tapkida’s work: “While at EMU in 2003, I did my 

practicum under the Mennonite Central Committee in 

Jos, Nigeria, where Gopar Tapkida was heading the peace 

program,” writes Priscilla A. Adoyo, MA ’03. “It seemed to 

me that Gopar was faced with a daunting task, and I really 

wondered how long it would take before we saw the fruit 

of his labor. 

“Well, I had the privilege of going back there for my doctoral 

research last summer [2006], and I was truly amazed 

at how effective and widespread the trainings in peacebuilding 

had been. There was a remarkable difference in 

just three years. There is plenty of hope for peacebuilders.” 

Tapkida, MA ’01, and his wife Monica are West Africa 

regional peace coordinators for Mennonite Central Committee, 

based in their home country of Nigeria. 

Adoyo, a Nigerian who is a PhD candidate at Fuller 

Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., adds: “I am eager now to 

get my studies over and done with, so I can go out there 

where the real learning takes place!” 

Tapkida will be teaching the course “Identity and Transformation” 

with professor Barry Hart at SPI 2008. 


emu.edu/cjp

From American University 

to Mexico to the Mafia 

From her base as Baptist chaplain 

at American University in 

Washington D.C., “Marinetta” 

Cannito Hjort, MA ’05, has been 

flying frequently to Mexico and 

her home country of Italy to 

promote judicial reform along 

restorative justice (RJ) lines. 

Marinetta Hjort 

On invitation of USAID-Mexico 

and a partner organization Pro- 

Derecho, Hjort headed to Mexico for three weeks in the 

fall of 2006, after a number of Mexican states reformed 

their judicial and legal processes and showed themselves 

willing to use some restorative justice processes. 

“My task was to train people working in the judicial 

system, along with some leaders of human rights organizations 

and other community groups, on the principles and 

processes of RJ,” said Hjort. “The ultimate goal was to 

inspire and empower all sectors of the community to collaborate 

to prevent crime and create a culture of change.” 

Hjort was a featured speaker at USAID-supported conferences 

in various settings. She addressed law professors, 

magistrates, judges, and attorneys. She conferred with the 

president of a university, the president of a tribunal and 

state attorney generals. She also gave press conferences and 

interviews for television and newspapers in all the states 

where she traveled. 

Another Mexican USAID-supported organization, 

PROTEJA, has been focused on the need for laws to 

criminalize human trafficking and smuggling in Mexico. 

Last year, the states of Chihuahua and Guerrero revised 

their legislation according to international guidelines on 

trafficking and smuggling. 

Hjort returned to those two states in Mexico in January 

and March 2007 to participate, as a speaker and a panelist, 

in conferences celebrating the judicial reforms in both 

states. Each conference was attended by more than 500 

people. She sought to educate the public and the media on 

the vulnerability of victims, the laws that can help protect 

them, and the strategies for crime prevention. 

In another human rights effort, Hjort went to Mexico 

City in October 2007 to train leaders working on behalf of 

rights for indigenous and immigrant groups. 

Hjort also works with the anti-mafia movement in Sicily, 

Italy, training some members of a Sicilian group in RJ. As 

part of this work, Hjort has done research on RJ as a potential 

tool for social change in the context of a protracted 

conflict, and the challenges posed by organized crime to 

RJ practice. 

On her home turf in the U.S. capital, Hjort regularly 

gives RJ presentations at the Washington Semester 

Program and the School of Public Affairs of American 

University. 


winter 2008 

speak a language other than English. 

Since Harrisonburg is currently experiencing 

rapid growth of immigrant 

populations (and an ESL rate of about 

40 percent), this work offers Nathan 

challenges and opportunities to assist 

children in making transitions. In 

addition to his work with the schools, 

Nathan volunteers as vice-president 

of the board for Gemeinschaft Home, 

a transitional program for ex-offenders. 

He is also a Virginia Supreme 

Court–certified court mediator working 

as a volunteer at the Community 

Mediation Center. 

Jonathan Bartsch, MA ‘97, is a senior 

program manager for CDR Associates, 

Boulder, Colorado. His area of 

focus is environmental streamlining 

and negotiation in the water and 

transportation sector. He designs and 

facilitates collaborative processes 

to address public policy disputes. 

Internationally, he has consulted with 

the Korean and Japanese governments 

on the implementation of two 

controversial highway projects. In the 

western United States, he has worked 

with state governments on water 

allocation issues. Visit www.mediate. 

org/pg47.cfm for more information. 

Jim Bernat, MA ‘00, is a quality analyst 

for the Rappahannock-Rapidan 

Community Services Board and Area 

Agency on Aging in Virginia. 

Laura Brenneman, MA ‘00, is 

assistant professor of religion and 

director of peace and conflict studies 

at Bluffton University in Ohio. 

Jeff Butcher, MA ‘04, is senior pastor 

at Otterbein United Methodist 

Church in Harrisonburg, Virginia. 

During 2006 he was active in a group 

that supported local Kurdish men 

whose practice of sending money 

to help their families and communities 

in Kurdistan had run afoul of the 

PATRIOT Act. Otterbein UMC has 

hosted an interfaith Peace Festival as 

well as a number of events for Jewish, 

Muslim and Christian children as it 

strives to build a model for peacemaking 

and interfaith community 

in Harrisonburg. Jeff also lends assistance 

to churches in conflict and 

helps churches to have healthier 

organizations. 

Rosario (Charito) Calvachi- 

Mateyko, MA ‘06, lives in Lancaster, 

Pennsylvania, and writes that she 

is “infusing the Circle Process” into 

her activities. These activities include 

work with the Lancaster Area Victim- 

Offender Reconciliation Program, the 

local YWCA, the Human Relations 

Committee of Lancaster County, and 

the Spanish-American Civic Association. 

She also worked with National 

Public Radio to develop a series of 

stories on the Latino community in 

Georgetown, Delaware. She has also 

visited Venezuela as a delegate with 

Witness for Peace. 

Philip M. Campbell, MA ‘05, applies 

what he learned at CJP to his work 

with families affected by conflict and 

other problems. He is an intensive 

in-home family therapist and a resident 

in marriage and family therapy 

in Richmond, Virginia. A paper he 

wrote for his master’s thesis was 

presented at the Gandhi Institute 

in Memphis, Tennessee. The paper, 

titled, “The Decision to Heal: Treating 

Trauma in an Urban Adolescent 

Population” is on the institute’s web 

site at www.gandhikingconference.org 

under “Resources.” 

Iris Ileana de León-Hartshorn, MA 

‘05, describes herself as a “Mexican- 

American born on la frontera [the 

border] in Laredo, Texas.” She is an 

ordained minister of the Mennonite 

Church USA and directs intercultural 

relations for that organization from 

Hampton, Virginia. She works “for 

social change within organizations, 

dismantling racism and internalized 

racist oppression.” 

Hugo Elfinstone, MA ‘05, has 

published a book Compassionate 

Honesty and a guide Care for the Care 

Giver, for home visitors, peacebuilders, 

medical professionals, hospice 

workers, social workers and therapists. 

See www.accesswisdom.com for 

more information or to receive his 

bi-monthly e-newsletter. Hugo leads 

up to five couples retreats per year 

and co-leads a weekly anger awareness 

group in Staunton, Virginia, for 

people referred by a court because of 

domestic violence charges. 

Jana El-Horr, MA ‘06, is Washington, 

D.C., program director at the American 

Islamic Congress. 

Matt Ellingson, MA ‘01, works for 

Samaritan’s Purse as a senior program 

development advisor. He and his 

team of five people provide technical 

assistance and grant-writing support 

to over 100 field offices around the 

world as they develop program strategies 

for Samaritan’s purse. He lives 

in Washington state and telecommutes 

with his team, which is based 

all over the world. 

Janet Faye Evergreen, MA ‘98, 

works in Virginia with mind/body 

healing, using process-oriented 

bodywork. The modalities she works 

with include cranial sacral therapy, 

visceral manipulation, zero balancing, 

continuum, Buddhist meditation and 

zapchen and mediation/transformation/JustPeace. 

“I teach self-care to 

individuals and groups so we can 

best serve others,” Janet writes. She 

has a special interest in working with 

infants and children and is involved 

in the local HIPP (Help Increase the 

Peace Program for teens). 

Melissa Gardiner, MA ‘01, sits on the 

policy oversight committee for the 

United Network for Organ Sharing, 

whose 30 members evaluate national 

public organ transplant issues. She 

also volunteers for Carolina Donor 

Services as well as Independent 

Animal Rescue. Melissa earns her living 

as executive pastry chef for a $6.1 

million catering company in Chapel 

Hill, North Carolina. 

Jacques Koko, MA ‘03, is completing 

a PhD in conflict analysis and 

resolution at Nova Southeastern 

University in Florida. His area of 

research encompasses peacekeeping, 

peacebuilding, the circulation of 

small weapons in Africa, democracy 

and local capacity-building, with a 

focus on the impact of UN peacekeeping 

on target nations. He did 

an internship in the UN Department 

of Peacekeeping Operations 

in New York. In addition, he is an 

adjunct faculty member in the John 

Whitehead School of Diplomacy and 

International Relations of Seton Hall 

University, teaching peacekeeping 

and peacemaking as well as conflict 

and displacement in Africa. 

Dawn Lehman, MA ‘02, works with 

the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mediation 

Center (PMC). She was hired 

there in 2004 to pilot a restorative justice 

program in schools. In 2006, PMC 

merged with the Center for Victims of 

Violence and Crime, and Dawn took a 

training position encompassing work 

with both agencies. 

Daniel (Danny) Malec, MA ‘04, recently 

departed from the Voluntown 

Peace Trust, a nonprofit education 

center for social change and sustainable 

living where he was a founding 

member. He next plans to work in 

juvenile justice and alternatives to 

incarceration in New York City. 

Gilberto Perez Jr., GC ‘99, works in 

Goshen, Indiana, at Northeastern 

Center Inc., a community mental 

health center, as a bilingual therapist 

and director of a welcoming program 

for Latinos, called the Bienvenido 

program. Among other locations, the 

program runs at the Northeastern 

Center, West Noble High School, 

Elkhart Community Schools, and 

Center for Nonviolence. Visit www.nec. 

org for more information. 

Christine Poulson, MA ‘98, left her 

job as executive director of a community 

mediation center in Roanoke, Va., 

in early 2006 to be a full-time mother. 

She lives in Staunton, Virginia. She 

continues to serve as a mediator for 

the U.S. Postal Service and the local 

community mediation center. She 

also successfully coordinated the effort 

to have a ‘Peace’ license plate produced 

for cars through Virginia’s Department 

of Motor Vehicles. Income 

from this plate will help support the 

peacebuilding efforts of Virginia’s 

community mediation centers. 

Jodi Read, MA ‘03, works with the 

Centro de Paz de Ambos Nogales 

(Peace Center for Nogales, Arizona, 

and Sonora) as part of her assignment 

with MCC West Coast on the 

U.S./Mexico border. Jodi also does 

local conflict resolution work at the 

Zuni Avenue Peace Center, a project 

of Shalom Mennonite Fellowship. 

Krista-Anne (Krista) Rigalo, MA 

‘00, is finishing her dissertation to 

complete a PhD from the Institute for 

Conflict Analysis and Resolution at 

George Mason University in Virginia. 

She is also employed by the Peace 

Corps as country desk officer, in 

charge of Malawi, Madagascar and 

Mozambique. 

Tim Ruebke, MA ‘99, is associate 

director of the Community Mediation 

Center in Harrisonburg, Virginia, 

where he has worked since 1992. Tim 

is certified by the Supreme Court of 

Virginia to mediate district (general 

or juvenile and domestic relations) 

and civil and family circuit court 

cases. He mediates for the U.S. Postal 

Service’s REDRESS and REDRESS II 

programs, as well as for the Dispute 

Resolution Unit of the Office of 

Consumer Affairs of Virginia. He is 

a mediation and conflict resolution 

trainer for youth and adults and an 

adjunct faculty member at James 

Madison University. 

Vicki Sanderford-O’Connor, MA 

‘02, is the social wellness program 

manager and project director for 

the Access To Recovery–California 

American Indian Recovery Program 

in Sacramento, California. She 

promotes the concept of justice as 

healing, introducing programs and 

models that promote the same. Vicki 

is also working with a professional 

script writer in Hollywood to produce 

a movie based on her work in the 

criminal justice system, her advocacy 

for restorative justice and the case 

that tested her commitment to 

restorative justice: her granddaughter’s 

trial and conviction for murder. 

Visit www.emu.edu/ctp/alumni/believe. 

html to read a reflection she wrote for 

National Public Radio. 

David Saunier, MA ‘04, works for the 

Central Virginia Restorative Justice 

Program, which Dave initiated, in 

Dr. Docherty… Recruiter! 

Professor Jayne Docherty will 

be traveling to South Asia and 

perhaps other places in the 

spring of 2008 to encourage 

those interested in peacebuilding 

to come to Eastern Mennonite 

University to gain more skills and 

knowledge. 

Jayne Docherty 

“For the last seven years, we at 

the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding have been privileged 

to receive cohorts of Fulbright-sponsored students 

from the Middle East or South Asia,” says Docherty. “But 

Fulbright is ending this cohort approach. This means that 

individual consulates, embassies and prospective students 

will need to be more informed about what we offer and 

the steps necessary to get here. I hope to facilitate this 

process with the contacts I make on behalf of EMU.” 

Docherty is also interested in recruiting students who 

have recently returned from voluntary service stints with 

such groups as the Peace Corps, Jesuit Refugee Service, 

CUSO (a Canadian volunteer organization), and American 

Friends Service Committee. 

“I encourage our extensive network of alumni to refer 

prospective students to us and to get in touch with me at 

jayne.docherty@emu.edu whenever they have suggestions 

to help us recruit students,” says Docherty. 

Conflict Transformation 

Spreads From yemen 

As program manager for Islamic 

Relief in Yemen, Abdulaziz “Aziz” 

Saeed, MA ’05, has inaugurated a 

conflict transformation program 

under the auspices of Islamic 

Relief Worldwide (IRW). 

“I hope all other IRW offices 

around the world will take 

Some of the students 

similar steps toward implementing 

conflict transformation programs in the future,” wrote 

Saeed. The IRW-Yemen program began in April 2007 

and is expected to continue through March 2009 in four 

governorates of that country, totaling 20 workshops for 

three days each. 

“The participants are influential community members, 

tribal leaders, army and security officers, representatives 

of local NGOs, teachers, students, government officials, 

and refugees from the Horn of Africa,” said Saeed, who 

hopes to work through IRW’s headquarters in Birmingham, 

England, to spread the program to all 27 IRW offices 

worldwide. 


emu.edu/cjp


winter 2008 

Jae Young Lee 

Korean Peace Center Opens 

Jae Young Lee, MA ’03, has founded a regional 

peacebuilding institute, Christian Peace Academy, at 

Korean Anabaptist Center in Seoul, where he is based. 

“I am one of the team members involved in a pilot project 

of RJ (restorative justice) in Korea that officially began 

in 2006,” Lee writes. “The Korean Institute of Criminal 

Justice Policy is developing a Korean model of VOMP 

(victim-offender mediation program) to apply to school 

violence. 

“Korean society has tried to find an effective way of dealing 

with school conflicts and yet there has not been much 

improvement. With a team of researchers and mediators, 

we are trying to develop the workable-in-Korea model of 

victim-offender mediations. 

“I have been designing the model, including facilitating 

the process with cultural sensitivity, deciding who should 

be involved, and what kind of education the mediator 

needs.” 

Lee has translated and edited some RJ resources into 

Korean, including Victim Offender Reconciliation Program 

(MCC, 2003) and Changing Lenses by Howard Zehr. 

In August 2007 he led the first official victim-offender 

mediation program in Korean history. The session came 

about as part of a pilot project for school violence victims 

and offenders by Women Making Peace Conflict Resolution 

Center and Korean Criminal Justice Research Institute. 

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has opened 13 

police stations to assist with the project. 

Charlottesville, Virginia. Cases are 

referred from the Charlottesville 

general district courts. With Dave’s 

encouragement and support, the 

Charlottesville juvenile courts also 

offer “support and accountability 

conferences” in which victims and 

offenders may meet. The conference 

may also include parents and community 

members where appropriate. 

At the end of every meeting, a plan of 

repair is mapped out and passed on 

to the judge for approval. 

Elizabeth (Libby) Schrag, MA ‘01, is 

executive director of Offender/Victim 

Ministries in Newton, Kansas. “My 

primary responsibilities are not too 

different from any non-profit director: 

fundraising, communicating with 

constituents, managing personnel, 

writing grants, etc.,” she writes. “I also 

participate in facilitating the victimoffender 

conferences. In addition to 

conferencing, we offer a program for 

shoplifters, prison visitation, prison 

arts, anger management and victim 

support.” 

Michael Shank, MA ‘05, is a doctorate 

candidate at George Mason 

University’s Institute for Conflict 

Analysis and Resolution. He is also 

the government relations advisor at 

George Mason University’s Institute 

for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. 

He writes frequently on improved approaches 

to conflicts in various parts 

of the world. Visit www.icar.gmu.edu/ 

ICAR_Newspage to access his writings. 

Harold Shenk, MA ‘04, is an “intensive 

in-home worker” with adolescents 

referred by the Harrisonburg, 

Virginia, juvenile court services unit. 

His work is sponsored by the local 

mental health organization, Community 

Services Board. “Most of the kids 

are working at anger management, 

impulse control and general coping 

and relationship skills in the home 

and community,” Harold writes. “I use 

a lot of conflict transformation skills 

and I am nudging the court services 

unit to look at some restorative justice 

approaches to complement their 

array of services.” 

Craig Spaulding, MA ‘05, is a program 

manager in the Endangered 

Language Program (ELP) at Fairfield 

Language Technologies in Harrisonburg, 

Virginia. ELP works with Native 

American and First Nation groups 

to preserve and revitalize their 

languages. So far, Craig has worked 

with the Seminole tribe in Florida, the 

Inuttitut language in Labrador and 

Iñupiat of Alaska. Craig also helps 

to coordinate a Peace Conversations 

group at a Unitarian church in 

Charlottesville, Va., and works with a 

community program there that seeks 

to address social needs and inequities 

by mobilizing congregations. 

Drew Strayer, MA ‘06, works with 

residents of nursing homes and 

long-term care facilities to resolve 

complaints and protect the rights of 

patients as an ombudsman in Dayton, 

Ohio. He covers about 50 facilities in 

three counties. 

Barb Toews, MA ‘00, develops and facilitates 

restorative justice programs 

through the Pennsylvania Prison 

Society in Philadelphia. She regularly 

“collaborates with people in prison as 

colleagues and co-practitioners,” she 

writes. Barb wrote The Little Book of 

Restorative Justice for People in Prison 

(Good Books, 2006), which “frames 

RJ for an incarcerated audience and 

suggests ways in which people in 

prison can do restorative justice 

themselves.” Additional materials that 

she developed for using RJ in prison 

are available on the Prison Society 

website, www.prisonsociety.org. She 

is pursuing a doctorate at Bryn Mawr 

College’s Graduate School of Social 

Work and Social Research, focusing 

on the intersection of restorative 

justice, trauma, prison and offending. 

Jay Alan Wittmeyer, MA ‘04, works 

with Brethren Benefit Trust as a senior 

writer and manager of publications at 

the Church of the Brethren headquarters 

in Elgin, Illinois. 

Mohamed Fetah “Fathi” Zabaar, MA 

‘04, is program services manager for 

Partners in Restorative Justice in Sebastopol, 

California, where he lives 

with wife Mary and son Hakeem. 

Michael Bischoff, MA ‘02, manages 

prison reentry and victim advocacy 

programs for the Council on Crime 

and Justice in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

He does consulting through 

his business, Clarity Facilitation, 

and makes movies, such as short 

documentaries about social change 

initiatives. See www.clarityfacilitation. 

com for more information. 

Michal Reifen, MA ‘02, has moved 

from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Minneapolis, 

where she, her husband Zach and 

son Amos are renting the upper 

level of the home in which Michael 

Bischoff (MA ’02) and his wife Jenny 

Larson live with their two children. 

The move enables Michal to enter 

a PhD program at the University of 

Minnesota in political psychology. “It 

is difficult to leave the ‘conflict’ and 

the practice in favor of theory… but I 

am really attracted to doing research 

and I also feel that the psychological 

perspective of what is going on is 

really lacking.” 

Kristine Bresser, MA ‘01, returned to 

the United States after being unable 

to obtain a visa to continue her work 

with Jerusalem-based Musalaha, a 

nonprofit organization that seeks 

to promote reconciliation between 

Israelis and Palestinians as demonstrated 

in the life and teaching of 

Jesus. She has since gone to Byumba, 

in the north of Rwanda, to run a 

“healing and reconciliation” workshop 

for the wives of pastors. 

Middle East & North 

Africa 

Odelya Gertel, MA ‘06, is pursuing 

a second masters degree, this one in 

clinical psychodrama, through Lesley 

University in Massachusetts. In her 

home country of Israel, she was involved 

in producing a documentary, 

“A Slim Peace,” that debuted in late 

2007. The documentary traced what 

happened when 14 Palestinian and 

Israeli women were brought together 

weekly in Jerusalem for a six-week 

weight-loss session of counting 

calories, measuring waistlines and reflecting 

on issues of body image. Visit 

www.commongroundnews.org/article. 

php?id=22010&lan=en&sid=0&sp=0 

for more information. 

Ibriz Mouaad, MA ‘06, is based in 

Casablanca, Morocco, where he 

works with the National Democratic 

Institute, doing focus groups for 

political parties, CSOs, and governmental 

agencies. 

Yaron Shukrun, MA ‘03, works in the 

cultural affairs office of the U.S. embassy 

in Israel. His portfolio includes 

the judicial system and American 

studies. While pursuing a PhD, he also 

works with a community restorative 

justice center, where they are using 

a manual written by CJP professor 

Howard Zehr and teacher Lorraine 

Amstutz. His team uses RJ principles 

in mediating between at-risk youth 

and their communities as a preventive 

measure for criminal behavior. 

Raghda Quandour, MA ‘03, is on 

sabbatical from the Jordan Institute 

of Diplomacy, where she manages a 

U.S. State Department–funded program 

on “Education and Democracy 

in Action.” She has conducted training, 

on the side, in organizational 

conflict management, organizational 

leadership, and needs assessment, 

and helped Mennonite Central Committee 

plan a meeting in Jordan for 

SPI alumni, CJP alumni, and others. 

Manas M. Ghanem, MA ‘06, is 

based in Kuwait with the UNHCR 

as a protection consultant in the 

Gulf region. She travels around the 

region as needed to interview asylum 

seekers and determine their eligibility 

to become refugees. “It involves 

community service and community 

building, negotiations and ongoing 

networking with government officials, 

NGOs and the private sector trying to 

provide protection and the best assistance 

possible to people of concern 

to UNHCR,” she writes. In March 2007, 

she was a resource person at training 

sessions on refugee law for officials of 

the Kuwaiti government. 

Fadi El Hajjir, MA ‘06, returned to 

Lebanon after the war, not expecting 

to find the opportunities he had 

expected when he left. However, he 

has done team building training at 

a Lebanese university and taught a 

course on human rights for new police 

officers in the Lebanese Institute 

for Internal Security Forces. Currently, 

he consults on restructuring and 

rewriting policies and procedures for 

a charity organization. 

Hind Youssef Ghorayeb, MA ‘06, 

is an assistant security analyst in 

the UN’s Department of Safety and 

Security in Lebanon, in change of 

writing reports and collaborating 

on crisis management activities for 

UN personnel and envoys in that 

country. She also works as a freelance 

consultant for Lebanese NGOs that 

deal with human rights and conflict 

resolution. Hind and current MA student 

Marie-José Tayah spoke on the 

value of peace and conflict resolution 

processes at a May 21, 2007, forum at 

Notre Dame University in Lebanon. 

Lina Haramy, GC ‘04, is a dancer in 

Palestine, recently working on a 

contemporary piece called “At the 

Checkpoint” intended “to share with 

the outside world our day-to-day 

stories on the checkpoint facing 

the apartheid wall,” she writes. She 

is the director of the first theater 

dance school in Palestine. She and 

her husband, Fajer, had a baby girl 

named Nara in October 2006. “She 

is a true miracle, and we are both so 

much in love with her,” Lina writes. “As 

soon as we lay our eyes on her, all our 

troubles disappear, and, in that sense, 

I think she is a miracle worker.” 

Husam Naji Jubran, MA ‘04, 

promotes the use of nonviolence 

by associating it with the Palestinian 

resistance movements. He has 

developed a five-day nonviolence/ 

conflict transformation training that 

focuses on the Palestinian culture 

and experience and has delivered 

it in more than 50 sessions to more 

than 2,000 people in the last two 

years. He has also developed a 

train-the-trainer program, and there 

are now 30 qualified nonviolence/ 

conflict transformation trainers from 

different areas of the West Bank. In 

addition, he has assisted in planning 

Alvin B. Herring with Jayne Docherty 

Muhammad Ali Visitors 

Explore Shared Concerns 

Leaders of the Muhammad Ali Institute for Justice and 

Peace in Louisville, Ky., visited the Center for Justice and 

Peacebuilding for three days in early October 2007 to 

explore the ways that EMU’s teachings overlap with their 

work for equity in race, gender and ethnicity. 

“We were particularly interested in understanding how to 

confront racism and injustice in constructive and effective 

ways,” said Ali Institute executive director Alvin B. Herring. 

“We are exploring ways that we can work effectively 

with young people, community leaders, and activists in 

tough communities where these issues have created a need 

for organized, transformative interventions.” 

Herring and his colleague, Stacy Bailey-Ndiaye, arrived 

at EMU soon after joining tens of thousands of marchers 

on September 20, 2007, in Jena, Louisiana, to protest 

treatment of six black teenagers after an incident involving 

nooses hung from a tree at a high school. 

In a circle process led by professor Nancy Good Sider, 

Herring and Bailey-Ndiaye dialogued with CJP students 

on the meaning of this incident and their reactions to it. 

As the visitors were departing, Sider noted that the 

goals of the Muhammad Ali Institute were compatible 

with those of CJP and that the two institutes had much 

to learn from each other. She had previously spent a week 

in Louisville, collaborating with the Ali Institute team on 

addressing trauma, justice, and resilience in the context of 

inner city youth violence. 


emu.edu/cjp

She Dreams of 

Establishing CJP-Type 

Program in Palestine 


winter 2008 

Huda Abu Arquob 

Huda Abu Arquob, MA ’06, works as a teacher supervisor 

for the Ministry of Education in Hebron, Palestine 

(occupied West Bank). 

“This work is not easy,” she writes. “Too many complications 

face me every day, starting from checkpoints and 

daily humiliations in getting to schools scattered in the 

southern part of Hebron, to facing frustrated teachers and 

neglected students. 

“I find a lot of the knowledge and the experience from 

CJP pretty useful in my field, and it is really making sense 

to me even more as I put it to work. I use mediation 

models, theories of change, culture and conflict theories, 

the whole debate over peace, justice and human rights. 

My outlook has changed so dramatically! Sometimes I feel 

that everyone around me is deaf! Other times I see myself 

giving them tools to start listening to each other and to see 

each other.” 

Huda was one of three women participating in the 13th 

national tour of “Jerusalem Women Speak: Three Women, 

Three Faiths, One Shared Vision,” held in April 2007 

by Partners for Peace in 13 U.S. cities. In the future, she 

would like to work in another troubled area of the world, 

perhaps Africa, and get a scholarship to work on her 

PhD. And she says her dream is “to bring CJP to Palestine 

through creating a university program on both the grad 

and undergrad levels. We must dream, right?” 

On June 4-10, 2007, Huda was one of the trainers in a 

“People for Peace Training-of-Trainers” program in Cyprus, 

which brought together 27 young leaders from 10 nations 

in Europe and the Middle East. 

and leading a number of nonviolent 

activities in Bethlehem, including 

one on Land Day, March 30, 2007, and 

another one on Palm Sunday. Both 

addressed the injustice of the wall 

being built around Bethlehem and 

the land confiscated by the Israeli 

military force. 

Huda Al Orfali, MA ‘06, works in the 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Syria 

as a media and political analyst. She 

would like to get a scholarship to 

pursue a PhD in Jewish studies. She 

published her third book, a collection 

of poetry and short stories, in 2006; 

it is called Fisher Prince. She also 

co-authored The Acorn Gathering, 

the proceeds of which go to cancer 

research. 

Mohamad Jourieh, MA ‘03, lives in 

the United Arab Emirates and is a 

conference coordinator at the Emirates 

Center for Strategic Studies and 

Research. He has put together conferences 

on change and reform in the 

Arab world and on the Iranian nuclear 

program and Gulf-area security. He 

also chaired a lecture on relations between 

Syria and Lebanon, and helped 

write a report to the UAE government 

on the Iraqi constitution. 

Europe 

Tammy Krause, MA ‘99, is in the 

peace doctoral program at Manchester 

University in England after 

serving as director of JustBridges, 

National Clearinghouse for Defense- 

Based Victim Outreach, and as a 

Federal Public Defender’s Office 

employee for a number of years. 

Jujin Chung, MA ‘02, is in the PhD 

program in the peace studies department 

at the University of Bradford 

in England. She did field research in 

South Korea in 2006 and in the U.S. 

in 2007. She writes: “The Bradford 

program is good for PhD students. 

[But] there is no place like CJP, which 

takes care of students very well 

and responds to their needs almost 

always.” In the past year, Jujin was 

a presenter at the Association of 

Conflict Resolution conference and 

led a Korean civil society group on a 

visit to Cambodia. 

Samuel Gbaydee Doe, MA ‘98, is 

pursuing a PhD at the University of 

Bradford in England. He recently 

completed short-term work projects 

with the United Nations Development 

Programme in Sri Lanka and 

Fiji. His daughter Samfee is a first-year 

student EMU. 

Alastair McKay, MA ‘99, co-founded 

Bridge Builders in 1996 in England 

and returned there after completing 

his MA. Bridge Builders 

(see www.menno.org.uk) serves in the 

ministry of peacemaking and reconciliation, 

seeking to transform conflict 

within the church. Alistair is working 

on a doctorate of ministry. 

Muzna Al-Masri, MA ‘05, travels 

between Lebanon and London, 

England, where she is enrolled in a 

PhD program in anthropology. She is 

researching the ways in which adversity 

is created among two groups that 

have coexisted previously – the Sunnites 

and Shiites in the city of Beirut. 

“I am looking at it from a spatial angle,” 

she writes. “That is, how the urban 

space becomes segregated and 

what variables impact that process… 

The interesting part is that I will be 

working primarily with taxi drivers 

and their mobility choices. All in all, I 

hope this could shed some light on 

issues related to conflict prevention.” 

Muzna maintains a very interesting 

and passionately written blog. 

Asia & Pacific Region 

Ruth Hoover Zimmerman, MA ‘02, 

is working with her husband Earl as 

regional co-representative for Mennonite 

Central Committee in India, 

Nepal and Afghanistan. She is based 

in Kolkata, India. 

Jiyun Hong, MA ‘03, is an assistant to 

the middle school principal at Korea 

International School in Sungnam City. 

She does mainly administrative work, 

but also plays a role as a facilitator 

between parents (mostly Koreans) 

and teachers, and Korean staff and 

Western staff. 

Paulo Ravunikau Baleinakorodawa, 

MA ‘04, is working for the Australia- 

Fiji Community Justice program as 

the “problem-solving court coordinator.” 

This is an Australian government 

initiative based on restorative justice 

principles. 

Arieta Koila Olsson, MA ‘05, has 

founded the Pacific Centre for Peacebuilding 

in Fiji. Through this center 

– often working in collaboration 

with Paulo (above entry) – she leads 

workshops and trainings on conflict 

transformation to groups ranging 

from employees of the Australia 

New Zealand Bank to military, police 

and government officials. The latter 

groups have also received seminars 

on restorative justice and trauma 

healing. 

Tamara Mihalic, MA ‘04, is working 

on her PhD at the University of Melbourne, 

Australia. Her thesis topic is 

“Contributions of Citizens: Peacebuilding 

in Croatia.” She presented a paper 

at the ACR conference in Philadelphia 

in October 2006 and used the opportunity 

to visit faculty and friends 

at CJP and to introduce her fiancé to 

them. 

Sumita Ghose, MA ‘04, is co-founder 

of Rang Sautra, a federation of 

grassroots organizations from around 

India which work for the economic 

and social empowerment of rural 

producer groups. 

Stephen Gonsalves, MA ‘03, is the 

director of an ecumenical nonprofit 

organization called Calcutta Urban 

Service, based in Kolkata, India. The 

organization is the only one of its 

kind and works mainly in peace 

and nonviolence training, gender 

justice advocacy, environmental 

and ecological justice, sustainable 

development, children’s rights (for 

working and street kids), and HIV/ 

AIDS prevention. 

Kaushikee, MA ‘02, is an assistant 

professor in the Nelson Mandela 

Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, 

a part of Jamia Millia Islamia, a 

university based in New Delhi, India. 

She teaches courses on conflict 

transformation and peacebuilding to 

post-graduate students, and supervises 

student field research. 

Aküm Longchari, MA ‘00, is cofounder 

of a non-profit foundation 

Morung for Indigenous Affairs and 

JustPeace. The foundation focuses on 

study and research, publication and 

media, humanitarian service, art and 

creative work, training and workshops. 

It is the desire of the foundation 

to positively engage on issues 

that affect the lives of people and to 

be part of the process of awakening 

critical consciousness amongst the 

Naga people. Akum is the founder 

of an English-language online newspaper, 

which he describes as “a daily 

publication of Morung for indigenous 

affairs and “JustPeace.” Visit www. 

morungexpress.com/index.html to 

read the paper. 

Manjrika Sewak, MA ‘02, is senior 

program officer at Women in Security, 

Conflict Management and Peace, 

an initiative of the Foundation for 

Universal Responsibility of HH The 

Dalai Lama in New Delhi, India. She 

is also a member of the faculty of the 

peacebuilding diploma program at 

Lady Shri Ram College for Women at 

the University of Delhi. She teaches 

courses on justice and reconciliation; 

nonviolence; and conflict analysis 

and conflict transformation. 

Florina Immaculate Mary Benoit, 

MA ‘04, is the associate director for 

praxis in the Henry Martyn Institute’s 

International Center for Research, 

Interfaith Relations and Reconciliation 

(HMI) in India. She supervises 

70 people working on conflict trans- 

formation, community development, 

women’s interfaith journey, and relief 

and rehabilitation. The relief and 

rehabilitation project is related to the 

tsunami that devastated Sri Lanka 

and is funded by Mennonite Central 

Committee. Her position involves 

considerable travel. In 2007, she 

made 22 trips outside of India. She 

will be finished with her PhD in the 

spring of 2008. 

G. “Ashok” Gladston Xavier, MA 

‘04, spends his mornings and early 

afternoon teaching and supervising 

80 graduate social work students at 

one of India’s leading universities, 

Loyola College in Chennai. Then he 

volunteers until 10 p.m. at a refugeesupport 

organization called OFERR. 

For this organization, he travels to 

conflict zones in Sri Lanka at least bimonthly 

to teach conflict transformation 

in village-level workshops. With 

his wife Florina (see entry above), 

he travels extensively to consult; he 

made 23 trips outside of India in 2007. 

Together they led a workshop to produce 

an easy-to-understand manual 

– written in the Tamil language and 

tested by grassroots practitioners 

– on conflict transformation and 

trauma healing. Ashok is enrolled in a 

doctoral in social work program. 

Mohammad Iqbal Ahnaf, MA ‘06, is 

on staff at the Center for Religious 

and Cross-Cultural Studies at Gadjah 

Mada University in Yogyakarta, 

Indonesia. He provides teaching assistance 

in religion and social science, 

writes a bi-weekly editorial column in 

a local newspaper, and coordinates 

a social research training program 

for lecturers from Islamic colleges 

throughout Indonesia. In October 

2006, as part of an interfaith mission, 

he visited West Papua to document 

human rights issues. He is author 

of The Image of the Other as Enemy: 

Radical Discourse in Indonesia, which 

“analyzes the systematic construction 

of the image of the Other—that is, 

non-Muslims—by two radical Islamic 

groups, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia and 

Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia.” 

Paulus Rahmat, MA ‘07, took an 

internship at VIVAT International, 

after graduation, a faith-based NGO 

associated with the UN under the 

ECOSOC in New York. He now plans 

to work out of Jakarta for another 

NGO, PADMA Indonesia, in partnership 

with VIVAT International and 

Catholic Relief Services, on human 

rights, sustainable development and 

eco-peacebuilding in Indonesia. 

Joseph Campbell, MA ‘02, has 

been in Kathmandu, Nepal, since 

September 2006. He expects to stay 

four years, as “peace advisor to the 

Seeking Peace in 

Afghanistan? 

Consider This Advice 

Ali Gohar, MA ’02, has published 

an article in the online journal 

restorativejustice.org on how to 

restore peace in Afghanistan, with 

particular advice for peacekeeping 

forces in that country. 

The 4,000-word article traces 

how the ignorance of outsiders 

Ali Gohar 

concerning the history, culture, 

religion, traditions and economy of Afghanistan has led to 

disastrous results in that country. 

“How can peace ever expect to garner a toehold when 

peacekeepers hold their fingers ‘ever ready’ on triggers, 

while the local populace fearfully looks upon those very 

same peacekeepers as nothing more than a substitute to 

the previous occupying forces?” Gohar writes. 

Other quotes: 

� “While the West’s demands for women’s rights – for 

example the criticisms around the veil – are heard, Afghan 

elders filter such messages through knowledge of the 

West’s overly sexualized culture and its indulgent use of 

alcohol. The elders of Afghanistan are fully aware that 

those who demand full participation for all women are 

from a culture that objectifies and sexualizes their women.” 

� “Afghans, like anyone, can easily become resentful of 

foreign ‘experts’ who show up, with budgets, and start 

dictating their targets to the locals while spending a large 

amount of money upon their own food, security, and 

logistical considerations.” 

� “If Westerners became involved with local life, learned 

the language, customs and dress, attended marriages and 

funerals, then they would make inroads toward their 

acceptance, at the grassroots level, that would never be 

achieved by showing up in force.” 

� “If the West continues to dictate that certain crops, i.e., 

poppies, are not to be grown, and no alternatives for poor 

farmers are viably offered, then the West is delusional that 

poppy-growing will cease.” 

� “You destroy, you build, you destroy. You hurt, you heal, 

you hurt. It is a vicious cycle with no end, and little hope 

in sight. If Western governments truly wish to bring peace 

to Afghanistan, they must change the way they go about 

peacekeeping.” 

� “Understanding, aid and development, along with 

education, need to replace military force.” 

Read the entire article at: 

www.restorativejustice.org/resources (search for “Restoring 

Peace in a War-torn Country” under “Ali Gohar”). Based 

in Peshawar, Pakistan, but often working in Afghanistan, 

Gohar is executive director of JustPeace International. 


emu.edu/cjp


winter 2008 

Leymah Gbowee 

Harvard Honors Alumna 

Leymah Gbowee, MA ’07, recently received two major 

awards for her peace work in Africa. In October 2007, 

she received the annual Blue Ribbon for Peace Award 

from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of 

Government. In January 2008, Gbowee was named 

“Leader for the 21st Century,” an annual award conferred 

by Women’s eNews based in New York City. “Leymah 

Gbowee was selected for her work of organizing women in 

Africa to work toward peace and ending regional conflicts, 

including the civil war in her native country of Liberia,” 

says Jennifer Thurston, associate editor of Women’s eNews. 

Gbowee is the executive director of the Women Peace 

and Security Network - Africa (www.wipsen-africa.org), 

which she helped found in May 2006. Based in Ghana, 

the network seeks to ensure that women’s concerns are 

integral to peace and security initiatives in African nations. 

Five years ago in Liberia, Gbowee decided to rouse 

women out of their despair over 14 years of warfare in 

which family members were “maimed, raped, abused, misused 

and killed.” Gbowee led Liberian women to refuse to 

be further manipulated by politicians and warlords and to 

declare “our children will never again be drugged up and 

used as sex slaves and killing machines.” 

Gbowee organized hundreds of women to carry out 

26 non-violent (but dangerous to themselves) protest actions 

between April and October 2003. Gbowee and her 

networks also mobilized women across Liberia in the fall 

of 2005 to help elect Harvard-trained Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf 

as the first female president of an African nation. Liberia is 

now at peace, slowly rehabilitating itself. 

mission” supported by the Presbyterian 

Church in Ireland and the United 

Mission to Nepal. “The United Mission 

to Nepal involves some 50 international 

Christian mission organizations, 

and they have been working in development 

in Nepal since 1953,” Joseph 

writes. “Peace work is a new program 

in response to the 10-year armed 

insurgency in the country.” His wife, 

Janet, is a nurse/midwife and trauma 

counselor who has participated in 

STAR at EMU. 

Ameet Sharma Dhakal, MA ‘02, is 

the news editor at Nepal’s Kathmandu 

Post, an English-language national 

daily. He writes and edits stories, and 

also writes a column every two weeks 

on political and economic issues. 

Outside of his job, he does research 

on conflict and peace; he recently led 

a team of Nepali researchers working 

on a country case study of the private 

sector and conflict for International 

Alert. 

Monica Rijal, MA ‘07, completed 

her CJP practicum in Cambodia with 

Catholic Relief Services as manager 

of the Counter-Trafficking in Persons 

program. After six months, she 

returned to Nepal, where she works 

as the national political affairs officer 

of the UN Mission in Nepal. 

Anjana Shakya, MA ‘02, is the 

chairperson for Himalayan Human 

Rights Monitors and director of the 

women and development program 

at INHURED International in 

Nepal. Anjana has been working on 

programs for children, including a 

national conference and a children’s 

“mock parliament.” She attended a 

conference in Paris on protecting children 

from armed conflicts. Himalayan 

Human Rights continues to monitor 

extra-judicial killings, disappearances, 

abductions, imprisonment, rapes, 

witchcraft, and other issues. 

Debendra Manandhar, MA ‘04, is 

the founder and director of a rural 

and community development center 

in Nepal, called J-CON. He explains 

that “J” stands for “jaagaran,” which 

means “to awaken from inside to do 

whatever we want to do outside; 

alternative approaches for humanistic 

development.” The center 

serves about 3,000 poor and socially 

disadvantaged households in the 

Sankhuwasabha district. “The goal of 

our program is to improve their quality 

of life, to empower these persons, 

and to build their capacity to act for 

themselves,” Debendra writes. “We 

want to help them find hope, confidence 

in themselves, and dignity. The 

development projects include agricultural 

training, caring for livestock 

and helping them identify tools for 

supporting themselves.” Debendra 

also leads training and workshops in 

conflict transformation, leadership 

development, and team building. 

Hemlata Rai, MA ‘04, is a political 

advisor in Nepal to the European 

Commission. “My main task is to 

provide analysis of political situations 

from the perspective of peacebuilding, 

human rights and development,” 

she writes. “My work will influence 

European aid to Nepal to a large 

extent.” She also helped start the 

National Business Initiative, which 

encourages the Nepalese private 

sector to invest in peacebuilding. 

The initiative has 14 large businesses 

as members, “and they are keen to 

contribute in national peacebuilding 

projects,” Hemlata writes. 

Yasodha Shrestha, MA ‘04, advises 

CARE Nepal on conflict transformation 

and peacebuilding. She has 

worked on a proposal to strengthen 

the capacity of the nation’s education 

sector, and has completed an assessment 

of the Community Mediation 

Project for The Asia Foundation. 

Jennifer Christine Jag Jivan, MA ‘06, 

strengthens public school teachers’ 

networks and support systems in 

Pakistan. The first-of-its-kind program 

requires that a certain percentage 

of teachers be represented when 

policies and plans are made. 

Kamal Uddin Tipu, MA ‘04, a highranking 

police officer, now works 

as general manager for Pakistan 

Electronic Media Regulatory Authority 

(www.pemra.gov.pk) on deputation 

from the police. The Authority 

regulates the broadcast media in his 

home country, where recent years 

has seen a proliferation of satellite TV 

stations, cable channels and FM radio 

stations. Says Kamal: “We have more 

than 50 channels — sports, religious, 

soaps and news. There has been an 

increase in freedom in the last five 

years.” The Authority has established 

a forum where complaints against 

stakeholders are addressed in an 

amicable way rather than in court. 

Kamal is a regular guest speaker at 

various police training institutions, 

including the National Police Academy 

in Islamabad, where he talks on 

restorative justice issues, in addition 

to professional policing topics. 

Hassan Yousufzai, MA ‘03, is chief 

economist, for the government of 

Northwest Frontier province in Peshawar, 

Pakistan. 

Saeed Daof, SPI ’03, was appointed 

by the president of the Philippines 

to be chairman of the board of the 

Southern Philippines Development 

Authority. “At age 75, this could be 

my ‘last hurrah’ in public service,” he 

writes. He hopes to leave a legacy of 

“lasting peace and sustained growth, 

development and progress for the 

benefit of the 25 million people in 

Mindano.” 

Susan May Granada, MA ‘01, was 

named a “Modern Mother for Peace” 

by the Ploughshares Fund and is featured 

in their Rediscovering Mother’s 

Day Campaign. (CJP professor Lisa 

Schirch received the same recognition.) 

For more information, see: www. 

rediscovermothersday.com. Susan, a 

native of the Philippines, is a member 

of a field team for Nonviolent Peaceforce’s 

Sri Lanka Project, which seeks 

to hold together the 2001 ceasefire 

agreement that was supposed to 

end a 30-year civil war. Susan works 

on issues such as child abductions, 

election monitoring and support for 

civilians. Her work is mainly on Jaffna 

Peninsula, considered an especially 

dangerous place for civilians. 

S. M. Shyamika Jayasundara, MA 

‘04, works in Sri Lanka as an advisor 

and lead trainer for a project called 

Facilitating Local Initiative for Conflict 

Transformation (FLICT). “Our goal is to 

enable [our students] to coach local 

organizations in far away corners in 

Sri Lanka in doing better peacebuilding 

work so that projects reach 

the maximum level of impact,” she 

writes. On weekends, she is a visiting 

lecturer at the University of Colombo. 

She also recently joined a team 

conducting a program for Buddhist 

monks. “This is a great opportunity as 

they are a controversial group in Sri 

Lanka’s peace building efforts,” she 

writes. “Hopefully, a few of them can 

become positive voices against the 

current politicized set of monks who 

appear on the TV and newspapers on 

an everyday basis.” 

Huthin H.R. “Mano” Manohar, SPI 

’99, has been appointed to advise the 

Lanka Evangelical Alliance Development 

Service on “empowering the 

community for peace and justice.” He 

also is laying plans to launch a “center 

for dialogue, reconciliation and negotiations” 

by the middle of 2009 in an 

effort to counteract the “devastating 

impact of the armed culture” in Sri 

Lanka. As a first step, Mano is training 

team leaders and peace activists 

in his home district of Mannar. “We 

need to create more local initiative 

for peace and justice,” Mano writes. 

“As the result of ongoing civil war for 

more than 25 years, people have very 

much given themselves to violence. 

They don’t believe that they could 

live in harmony and peace with 

those who have different opinions 

from themselves; they are always 

blaming others, an attitude which is 

the reason for conflict and violence 

now. Nobody takes ownership for 

our conflicts; everybody is expecting 

someone from outside to resolve 

the conflicts.” As pastor of Gospel 

Grace Church in Mannar, Huthin 

spent much of 2005 organizing relief 

for people who lost loved ones and 

homes in the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami. 

His church has four branches in 

north and east Sri Lanka. They have 

established two children’s homes – 

one in Mannar and the other in the 

East (Batticaloa) – which support 20 

children affected by the tsunami and 

civil war. 

Dev Anand Ramiah, MA ‘02, is a 

peace and development analyst 

with UN Development Programmes 

(UNDP) in Sri Lanka. In 2007 he was 

dispatched to New York City to work 

for the UNDP at the United Nations 

headquarters. Dev is also a visiting 

faculty member for the Conflict 

Resolution and Peace Preparedness 

Program of Bradford University 

(in England) and the joint United 

Nations University for Peace and Bandaranayake 

Center for International 

Studies (in Sri Lanka). 

Carol Gowler, MA ‘03, is a member of 

the team—which includes a handful 

of other CJP alumni—at Hope International 

Development Agency in 

Yangon, Burma (or Myanmar). Hope 

International works directly with civil 

society partners in Burma to facilitate 

constructive social change. Additionally, 

Hope International attempts to 

influence the international community 

to support constructive change 

processes in Burma. 

Other CJP alumni at Hope International 

in Burma are: Carol’s husband 

David Tegenfeldt, MA ‘04, a senior 

advisor at Hope International; Naw 

Kanyaw Paw, MA ‘04, a program 

facilitator; S’Lont Mun, MA ‘05, a 

program facilitator; Aung Tun, SPI 

‘05, a program facilitator. In addition, 

Hope International partners with 

the Shalom Foundation, where Ja 

Nan Lahtaw, MA ‘04, is the assistant 

director. 

Stay in Touch! 

These notes are one way for CJP to 

gauge the impact of its graduates. 

Help us to keep up with what is 

happening in your lives. Send photos, 

news, reflections, and personal updates 

to the editor at bonnie.lofton@ 

emu.edu. Or send them to alumni 

coordinator Margaret Foth at 

fothm@emu.edu. 

STAR Wants you! 

Please join us in our 2008 Seminars on Trauma 

Awareness and Resilience (STAR) workshops: 

� Level I Introductory STAR: March 10-14 or 

October 27-31, 2008. www.emu.edu/cjp/star/intro 

� Level II Intermediate STAR: May 5-13, 2008 (during 

SPI) www.emu.edu/cjp/spi/courses#I 

� Youth STAR (When Trauma and Violence Impact 

Youth): June 23-27, 2008 

You are welcome to use our new STAR Resources: 

� A new STAR brochure is available. Please let me 

know if you would like to receive one (or multiple 

copies). 

� You now may download printable trauma resources 

on our new website: www.emu.edu/cjp/toolkit/ 

� New Youth STAR resources: 

www.emu.edu/cjp/star/youth/materials 

Please spread the word that STAR continues to 

grow in positive ways: 

� You will see our newly reduced seminar fees posted 

at: www.emu.edu/cjp/star/costs. We continue to offer 

scholarships as well. 

� More groups are requesting STAR training at 

their sites, which allows fees to be reduced for 

all. Groups have also requested training in specific 

areas of trauma healing and/or peacebuilding. See 

what we are doing in this area: 

www.emu.edu/cjp/pi/training 

Don’t forget about other great CJP resources in 

trauma healing and peacebuilding: 

� A CJP master’s concentration in Trauma Healing 

and Peacebuilding: 

www.emu.edu/cjp/grad#concentrations 

� SPI courses, including “Trauma Awareness and 

Transformation”: www.emu.edu/cjp/spi/courses#II 

— Susan Landes Beck 

susan.beck@emu.edu 

Check Out CJP’s Web Journal 

The graduate program of the Center for Justice and 

Peacebuilding launched a web journal in the fall of 

2007 to provide a forum for research and scholarship 

relevant to the work of conflict transformation 

The journal focuses on a variety of justice and 

peacebuilding concerns. Journal submissions are 

invited, particularly from faculty, staff, students and 

alumni. See the website for guidelines. 

www.emu.edu/cjp/journal 


emu.edu/cjp

Faculty and Staff 2007 Highlights - Eastern Mennonite University

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