Building Peace In Divided Cities
Culture of Peace Distinguished Speaker Series Inaugural Lecture
Climate Change and Peace Educating Against Imperialism: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Lecture
In addition, the Nobel Women's Initiative (NWI) was established in 2006 by Betty Williams and her sister Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, and Mairead Corrigan Maguire. These six women -- representing North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa -- have brought together their extraordinary experiences in a united effort for peace with justice and equality. The mission of the Nobel Women’s Initiative is to address and prevent the root causes of violence by spotlighting and promoting the efforts of women’s rights activists, researchers and organizations working to advance peace, justice and equality. For more information, please visit www.nobelwomensinitiative.org/. Flyer and Additional Information Fear and Insecurity As A Cause of Conflict
A Journey Toward Peace:
Bill Martinez is Co-Director of the Unity Collaborative, a project of Toberman Settlement House that includes a network of gang intervention agencies serving the west, south and central areas of the City of Los Angeles. He is also the Program Manager at the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles, where he runs the Youth and Gang Violence Intervention Specialist Training Program. Previously, Mr. Martinez has served as Executive Director of Eureka Communities Los Angeles, a learning fellowship of non-profit Executive Directors. He is also the former Executive Director of Community Youth Gang Services, a non-profit agency that provided gang intervention services throughout the City and County of Los Angeles. Mr. Martinez' educational background includes a Masters degree in City and Regional Planning from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from California State University, Long Beach. Flyer and Additional Information.
Paula Garb is Co-Director and co-founder of UC Irvine’s Center for Citizen Peacebuilding. She is the Associate Director of International Studies, Associate Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, and lecturer in anthropology and political science at the University of California, Irvine(UCI). She is a facilitator and researcher of citizen peacebuilding projects. Garb spent 17 years living and working in Moscow, where she received her M.A. in anthropology from Moscow State University and later completed her doctorate in anthropology from the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Anthropology. She ultimately secured a job as a field producer for CBS News in Moscow, where she worked until she came to UCI in 1991. After returning to live and work in the U.S. she has studied the mobilization of activists around environmental problems associated with the nuclear weapons complex in Russia and the role of citizen initiatives in the ethnic conflicts of the Caucasus. Since 1995, with funding from the University of California, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the US Institute of Peace, USAID, and the Winston Foundation for World Peace, she has been promoting citizen peacebuilding activities and research. Her primary project has focused on facilitating and studying peacebuilding efforts between Abkhaz and Georgian academics, journalists, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and politicians. In 1999 she initiated a coordination network of peacebuilding projects and organizations working in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, and continues to foster the network. Garb has been using her long-term and in-depth experience and research data from the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict to examine and compare how citizens are helping to resolve disputes in other conflict zones, such as Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Middle East, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland. She draws on these experiences for courses in conflict resolution that she teaches to Los Angeles gang intervention workers and UCI students. Her work has also led to a number of publications in academic and other journals.
Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is also Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. From 2002 to 2006, he was Director of the UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, the internationally agreed goals to reduce extreme poverty, disease, and hunger by the year 2015. Sachs is also President and Co-Founder of Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization aimed at ending extreme global poverty. He is widely considered to be the leading international economic advisor of his generation. For more than 20 years Professor Sachs has been in the forefront of the challenges of economic development, poverty alleviation, and enlightened globalization, promoting policies to help all parts of the world to benefit from expanding economic opportunities and wellbeing. He is also one of the leading voices for combining economic development with environmental sustainability, and as Director of the Earth Institute leads large-scale efforts to promote the mitigation of human-induced climate change. In 2004 and 2005 he was named among the 100 most influential leaders in the world by Time Magazine. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, a high civilian honor bestowed by the Indian Government, in 2007. Sachs lectures constantly around the world and was the 2007 BBC Reith Lecturer. He is author of hundreds of scholarly articles and many books, including New York Times bestseller The End of Poverty (Penguin, 2005). Sachs is a member of the Institute of Medicine and is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to joining Columbia, he spent over twenty years at Harvard University, most recently as Director of the Center for International Development. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Sachs received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard University.
Paolo Davanzo is the Founder and Executive Director of the Echo Park Film Center (EPFC) in Los Angeles, CA. Paolo Davanzo was born in Italy and immigrated to the United States with his family at age 7. He started EPFC in honor of his parents, social justice activists who passed away early in his life. An Associate Professor in the Film & Video Department of College of the Canyons, Paolo holds a BA Degree in Visual Arts & Political Science from UC San Diego and a Masters Degree in Film from Humboldt State University. He is the founder and programmer of the Human Rights Film Festival, the EPFC Youth Film Festival and the Polyester Prince Road Show. The goal of the Human Rights Film Festival is to highlight social justice issues too often ignored by the mainstream media. Every year, the festival presents an engaging variety of documentary and experimental films that explore themes of home and community. Basic human rights, including the right to peacefully assemble, the right to religious freedom, the right of political sovereignty and the right to life and liberty, are often taken for granted in Western industrialized nations. In the post-9/11 landscape, issues of human rights are increasingly crucial and closer to home than ever before and these films are vehicles to promote thought, discussion, debate and action.
Ruth Messinger is the President of American Jewish World Service, an international development agency. Previously Ruth was active in local politics in New York for two decades, serving as a Council Member and as Manhattan Borough President. She was the Democratic Party candidate for Mayor of New York City in 1997. Messinger’s areas of expertise include: democracy and civic participation, urban policy and politics, social welfare, education, employment and tax policy. She is a social worker by professional training, and has taught in several MSW programs and is one of the leading advocates and effective spokespersons for the growing role of social workers in politics. Ruth Messinger has taught Policy and Politics at Queens and Hunter Colleges and is active in the fight to protect and improve the future of higher education in New York.
Dr. Rastegar is founder and has been the CEO of Relief International (RI) since the inception of the agency in 1990. He has a Doctorate of Philosophy in Comparative and International Education from UCLA and has served on the faculty of UCLA's Graduate School of Education, Sociology and Political Science departments. His research and program intervention interests include the impact of displacement on political marginalization and radicalism, minority-majority relations, Islamist political movements, and organizational learning behavior. His academic work includes study of the ideology and organization of the Afghan mujahedin organizations. Since founding RI, he has designed and overseen innovative approaches in transitional programming from relief to development and from centralized to market economies including integrated multi-sectoral approaches in active conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Burundi, Georgia, Kosovo and Tajikistan.
Dr. Smith-Christopher is the author of several books, including, Jonah, Jesus, and Other Good Coyotes: Speaking Peace to Power in the Bible, A Biblical Theology of Exile (Overtures to Biblical Theology) and Introduction to the Old Testament: Our Invitation to Faith and Justice, a text for secondary school courses in Old Testament. Dr. Smith-Christopher is also the author of “The Books of Ezra-Nehemiah” in The Oxford Bible Commentary, and “Daniel” in the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary. Dr. Smith-Christopher’s most recent book, Jonah, Jesus and Other Good Coyotes: Speaking Peace to Power in the Bible, is now available, with a foreword by Dr. Walter Brueggeman. Dr. Smith Christopher is the editor of and a contributor to the text, Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Religious Nonviolence. The 10th anniversary edition of Subverting Hatred has been announced. Dr. Smith-Christopher has taught and spoken on topics in scripture, particularly of the Exilic and Persian periods, and on issues of peace, justice and non-violence, and recently began teaching on the role of Scripture in African-American Gospel and Blues musical and lyrical traditions. Dr. Smith-Christopher has also consulted on many television and multi-media projects in these areas.
Leila Conners Petersen is co-founder and president of Tree Media Group. With a background in international politics, Leila set out to build a production company that tells stories about the pressing issues of our time. Founded in 1996, Tree Media creates media to support and sustain civil society. Leila writes and produces projects for various media: from film, to television, to the web and print.
Dee Aker, Ph.D. is the Deputy Director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice (IPJ) at the University of San Diego, is a psychological anthropologist and conflict resolution professional with 30 years experience working with international communities and individuals in transition. Most recently at the IPJ, Aker created and directs the Women PeaceMakers Program, Nepal Project, and WorldLink program. Aker has extensive experience in international higher education, including administration, curriculum development and teaching. She worked as a regular TV host, columnist and freelance journalist covering women and gender concerns for ten years, including the production of 234 thirty-minute interviews with women leaders, pioneers and survivors from around the world. She facilitated training, communications and negotiations for groups and individuals in conflict and transition in Europe, Africa, Central America and South Asia. Before coming to the IPJ to work in conflict mitigation, Aker worked with Carl Rogers at the Center for Studies of the Person and the Carl Rogers Institute for Peace on special conflict transformation efforts in Europe and Central America. Currently her work includes specialized public sector programs for youth, women and political leaders designed to increase their awareness of their rights as stakeholders and responsibilities as actors in their communities, as well as enhance skills in strategic negotiation. Aker is the 2007 Harvard Phillip Brooks House (PBH) Fellow, selected to "share a distinguished public service career" with students and staff at the PBH and Center for Public Interest at Harvard. Her career was launched in 1963 when she was selected as an early Peace Corps volunteer serving in Colombia. 
Adolfo V. Nodal, M.A.President, Cultural Affairs Commission City of Los Angeles Adolfo V. Nodal currently works as Project General Manager for the Annenberg Foundation and oversees the Not A Cornfield project and the construction of other public art projects downtown. He also contributes to the cultural development and political evolution of his native Cuba, serving as president of the Cuba Culture Foundation and organizing cultural, humanitarian and religious missions to his native country. Nodal received a bachelor’s degree in Art from Florida State University in Tallahassee in 1972 and earned a master’s degree in Contemporary Art from California State University at San Francisco.
Robin S. Toma is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, has broad experience in the field of human relations. He was appointed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2000 after working five years with the Commission. He was invited to be a member of the US Delegation to the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism, held in South Africa, Japanese American Leadership Delegation to Japan in 2003, and the Climate of Trust Delegation to Russia in 2005. He is co-author of the manual: “Day Laborer Hiring Sites: Constructive Approaches to Community Conflict,” and authored “A Primer on Managing Intergroup Conflict in a Multicultural Workplace." Toma was lead attorney in seeking redress for over 2,200 Japanese Latin Americans who were forcibly brought to the U.S. and imprisoned by the US government during World War II. He is also part of an ongoing gathering of leaders known as the Executive Session on Criminal Justice and Human Rights organized by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Previously, he served as staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California for nearly 7 years, promoting human rights and building multi-ethnic coalitions to bring about institutional change. A native of Los Angeles, Toma received his Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology and Economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his Master’s degree in Urban Planning and his Juris Doctorate from UCLA. He completed a three-year Kellogg National Fellowship/Leadership Program studying how genuine democracies can be built in culturally diverse societies around the globe. Toma lived two years in Barcelona, Spain and is fully fluent in Spanish.
Ali Modarres is the Associate Director of the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles and a Professor at the Department of Geography and Urban Analysis on the same campus. He specializes in urban geography and his primary research and publication interests are community development and planning. He has published in the areas of urban development, transportation planning, environmental equity, social geography, immigration, and race and ethnicity as they relate to the issues of access and the role of public policy in creating disadvantaged communities.
Linda Groff is a Professor of Political Science & Futures Studies at California State University, Domingues Hills. She holds Ph.D., M.A.L.D., and M.A. Degrees in International Relations from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy (at Tufts University & Coordinated with Harvard University). Dr. Groff has been teaching for 24 years, including 22 years at Cal. State University, Dominguez Hills, where she originally organized a Future Policy Studies Minor, and regularly teaches courses in futures, global, intercultural, peace & conflict resolution areas. In addition, she is interested in the processes of creativity and learning in different cultures, evolutionary/change processes, and East-West spiritual traditions.
Shigeko Sasamori is one of the twenty-five so-called “Hiroshima Maidens” who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and were brought to the United States for reconstructive surgery in 1955. This was made possible by the editor of the erudite Saturday Review, Norman Cousins, who rallied support from his readership to help sponsor the twenty-five reconstructive surgeries. By the same process, he also arranged medical care and education for 400 Japanese children orphaned by the explosions. Norman Cousins became Shigeko Sasamori’s adoptive father. Shigeko Sasamori’s story of survival revolves around her transformation from a 13-year-old in delirium after the atomic bombing to an international peace activist in the tradition of her adoptive father, Norman Cousins who wrote, “nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out of his conscience, thus helping to bring the collective conscience to life.” She currently serves as the C.E.O. of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Peace Projects, L.L.C. whose mission is to stimulate an active, worldwide dialogue in order to protect humanity from nuclear harm. The Project’s activities will advance the work of Norman Cousins, who demonstrated the power of international dialogue in promoting mutual understanding, goodwill, and peace.
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Dr. Scott Bollens is a professor in the department of Urban and Region Planning in the School of Social Ecology at the University of Calfiornia, Irvine. Professor Bollens was also recently appointed the Drew, Chase, and Erin Warmington Chair in the Social Ecology of Peace and International Cooperation. He has conducted a thorough examination of urban planning techniques and tactics in a number of conflict ridden cities. Since 1994, he’s interviewed more than 120 urban professionals in Jerusalem, Belfast, Johannesburg, Nicosia and Sarajevo about the role of city building in the midst of nationalistic ethnic conflict. In April 2002, Bollens presented his findings in a paper titled “Practical Strategies of Urban Peace-Building” at a seminar in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The seminar brought together experts on urban cooperation in politically and ethnically contested areas, including a group of eight Israelis and Palestinians who have been examining the challenges and options in planning a Jerusalem of mutual acceptability. In his studies of city planning practices that either serve the ways of war or the paths of peace, Dr. Bollens sees ramifications for America. Worldwide urban studies have shown him that planners in the United States have much to learn when accommodating the American melting pot. For more information on Dr. Bollen’s work, please download City and Soul.
Mr. Anwarul Karim Chowdhury was appointed in March 2002 by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States. In December 2003, Mr. Chowdhury was designated as the Secretary-General of the International Meeting for the ten-year review of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of the Small Island Developing States held in Mauritius from 10-14 January 2005. Mr. Chowdhury was also designated the Secretary-General of the International Ministerial Conference of Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries and the Donor Community on Transit Transport Cooperation held in Almaty, Kazakhstan on 28-29 August 2003. Prior to his appointment, Ambassador Chowdhury completed his assignment (1996-2001) as Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York. He also served as Bangladesh's Ambassador to Chile, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela, as well as Bangladesh's High Commissioner to the Bahamas and Guyana. During his tenure as Permanent Representative, Mr. Chowdhury served as President of the Security Council, President of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Board and Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council of the UN in 1997 and 1998. He had served for more than 10 years, as the Coordinator for the Least Developed Countries in New York. In May 2001, he led the negotiations on behalf of the least developed countries at the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries, which adopted the comprehensive Brussels Programme of Action for the present decade. Mr. Chowdhury also chaired the Fifth (Administrative and Budgetary) Committee of the UN General Assembly in 1997-1998. From 1990-1993, Mr. Chowdhury was the UNICEF Director for Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Chowdhury was born in 1943 in Dhaka, Bangladesh and joined the diplomatic service in 1967. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Contemporary History and International Relations from the University of Dhaka. He has been a regular contributor to journals on peace, development and human rights issues, and a speaker at academic institutions and other forums. He also served as an Adjunct Professor at the School of Diplomacy, Seton Hall University of the United States. Mr. Chowdhury is the recipient of the U Thant Peace Award and UNESCO Gandhi Gold Medal for Culture of Peace. He is an Honorary Patron of the Committee on Teaching About the UN (CTAUN), New York. In March 2003, the Soka University of Tokyo, Japan conferred on Ambassador Chowdhury an Honorary Doctorate for his work on women's issues, child rights and culture of peace as well as for the strengthening of the United Nations.
Dr. Richard A. Matthew is Associate Professor of International and Environmental Politics in the Schools of Social Ecology and Social Science at the University of California at Irvine, and Director of both the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs (www.cusa.uci.edu) and the associated Global Environmental Change and Human Security Research Office (www.gechs.uci.edu) at UCI. He is a Faculty Associate of the Global Peace and Conflict Studies Center and the Center for the Study of Democracy. He received his PhD from Princeton University and has taught at Georgetown University and Williams College. He has worked closely with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, government departments and agencies including Defense and State, intergovernmental organizations including the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the private sector. His research focuses on understanding and responding to transnational security threats including global environmental change, terrorism, infectious disease and landmines. Much of this work has explored possibilities for reducing threat and vulnerability through education, conservation and poverty alleviation. He has undertaken field work throughout South Asia and other parts of the developing world, including Pakistan, Cambodia and South Africa. Flyer and Additional Information
Peter McLaren is internationally recognized as one of the leading architects of critical pedagogy worldwide. McLaren is currently Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature at Waterloo University in 1973, attended Toronto Teachers College and went on to earn a Bachelor of Education at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Education, a Masters of Education at Brock University’s College of Education, and a Ph.D. at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Professor McLaren is the author, co-author, editor and co-editor of approximately forty books and monographs. Several hundred of his articles, chapters, interviews, reviews, commentaries and columns have appeared in dozens of scholarly journals and professional magazines since the publication of his first book, Cries From The Corridor, which made the Canadian bestseller list and was one of top ten bestselling books in Canada in 1980 (MacLean's Magazine), initiating a country-wide debate on the status of inner-city schools. Peter McLaren’s papers are housed and on permanent exhibit at the Paulo and Nita Freire Center for International Critical Pedagogy, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Flyer and Additional Information
In the thirty years since she was awarded Nobel Peace Prize for her work to bring peace to her native Northern Ireland, Ms. Williams has devoted her life to fighting against the injustices, cruelty and horrors perpetrated on the children of the world. Ms. Williams has traveled the globe recording the testimonies of children who have been subjected to suffering beyond belief and advocated for legislation to protect children. She has called for the creation of safe areas off limits to any form of military attack in every country where children are under the threat of death and destruction. These “Cities of Compassion” would protect children and ensure that they be treated with dignity, respect and love. Such cities would help alleviate the huge refugee and orphan problems that plague many countries today. As a result of her many years of work in Italy, World Centers of Compassion for Children International is building the first “City of Compassion” for children in the Basilicata Region of southern Italy. For more information, please visit http://www.centersofcompassion.org/.
Dr. Douglas Becker is a professor in the School of International Relations (http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/ir/) and the Acting Director of Peace and Conflict Studies (http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/cat2006/schools/college/peace.html) at the University of Southern California (USC).His expertise covers a wide range of topics including the prosecution of war crimes, the United Nations and conflict resolution, international law, US foreign policy, and US diplomatic history. His courses include Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies, Conflict Resolution and Peace Research, Historical Approaches to International Relations, Multinational Enterprises and World Politics, and International Organizations. In addition, Professor Becker is the Acting Director of the Peace and Conflict Studies program, an advisor for the Peace and Conflict Scholars, as well as numerous other progressive student groups. His most recent publication is The Bush Administration's Campaign Against the International Criminal Court (2004, as part of a collected volume). Dr. Becker is an active member of the International Studies Association (1996-Present) and was the President of the Model United Nations Educators Association, which is committed to aiding university and high school instructors in Model United Nations and United Nations research (2003-2005). He also served on the Board of Directors for the National Collegiate Conference Association, which plans the National Model United Nations in New York (2002-2004). 
Professor Paula Garb is an associate director of the UC Irvine International Studies Program in the School of Social Sciences and a founding member of the UC Irvine Citizen Peacebuilding Program, an international clearinghouse for research, education and action on public peace processes. For years she has built an arsenal of experience working in war zones, and now plays a central role in trying to find a permanent peace between the former Soviet republic of Georgia and its breakaway province, Abkhazia. Raised in the San Francisco Bay area during the 1960s, Garb became fascinated with the then-Soviet Union. After several trips to the country, she married a Soviet citizen and settled in Moscow where she had two sons and studied anthropology. Working on a master’s thesis, Garb studied the child-rearing customs of Abkhazia. In addition to her work, she made close and long lasting ties with many of its people. Eventually Garb’s path led her to UCI in 1991. But war broke out the following year in Abkhazia after the break up of the Soviet Union. Once the smoke settled, Garb felt a calling to return. With the assistance of UCI colleagues, Garb established a dialogue program among academics, journalists and organizations trying to build a civil society. Rather than discuss the war itself, Garb pushed her people into a neutral topic: pollution of the Black Sea they shared. This led to dialogue on the role citizens play in peace efforts and real policy options. Garb’s continued work on the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict and similar wars is also opening up new possibilities on how Americans can respond to terrorist and Middle East violence as well.
Paths to Peace Through Compassion, Cooperation and Sustainable Development
Working Locally, Thinking Globally: Community Approaches To 
Ruth Messinger
Gandhi in Palestine: Lessons Learned on Enhancing Cultures of Peace in Ongoing Conflicts
Religion and Peacemaking
Solutions at the 11th Hour
Stephan T. McGuire is in preproduction on a documentary called "Losing My Religion", which through interviews will document Jehovah's Witnesses as they leave the authoritarian sect and find their way in the world. He is also co-writing a feature film about 3 fundamentalist Christians whose faiths are adversely affected by a young womans death.
Because We Must: Women As Peacebuilders
Mr. Robin Toma, J.D.
Global Migration and the Challenge of Development
A Holistic Integrative View of Peace Based on 
Shigeko Sasamori Culture of Peace
The SGI-USA is involved in non-sectarian, awareness activities to promote the values of peace, culture and education. |
 SGI President Ikeda's Peace Proposal
Each year SGI President Ikeda publishes a peace proposal which explores the interrelation between core Buddhist concepts and the diverse challenges global society faces in the effort to realize peace and human security. |