PeacEd Gateway

Head of Peace Education and Co-Manager of the Peace Foundation Aotearoa - New Zealand. Christina has trained thousands of student peer mediators and teachers during her 28 year association with the Peace Foundation school programs.  As Head of Peace Education, she leads a national team of program facilitators as well as office staff, interns and volunteers. Christina has introduced the Peace Foundation's programs to schools in Fiji, Hong Kong, Iceland, Los Angeles and Japan.  Christina continues to remain passionate about her work. She considers it a privilege to work in education institutions teaching peaceful conflict resolution and peer mediation skills … what she loves most. Furthermore, she says, “I have the opportunity every day to remind myself… I must practice what I preach!”

Donna-Marie Fry has an experienced background in education and has worked for and volunteered with Non-Profit and Non-Governmental Organizations for more than a decade. For the last 5 years, Donna has been increasingly focused on peacebuilding and peace education, from completing consultancies in the evaluation of a peace education program through youth perspectives, training and curriculum development for peacebuilding, development of Interreligious Dialogue online courses, and mapping peace education in Myanmar. Donna is particularly interested in exploring if feminist research methods can address power imbalances and local ownership in peacebuilding.

Dr Terence Bevington is a spirited and committed educator who relishes the role of learner as much as teacher. In his 25 years working in education and as Director of Conexus Conflict Consultancy and the Restorative Lab, he has built a strong reputation as an enabler and challenger. The focuses of Terence’s work are restorative practice, peace practice and evaluation. He has published and presented internationally on all three subjects. In his research and his practice Terence seeks to inspire thoughtful action.

Caroline is an experienced program manager, specializing in working in conflict-affected countries. She has led and worked in multidisciplinary and international teams. Caroline currently focuses on advising governments and organizations operating in Syria on how their interventions can support peace and stability. In addition, she works to connect the political and diplomatic tracks to realities on-the-ground, and to support civil society organizations in the Middle East.

Namrata is on the faculty at the State University of New York, USA, and an expert with the United Nations Harmony with Nature Knowledge Network. She is an international education consultant and has served on the Boards of several professional organizations in India, USA, and Europe. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Delhi University, India; a master’s degree in Education from Soka University, Tokyo, Japan; and a Ph.D. from the University College London – Institute of Education (IOE), UK. She has authored 4 books, several research papers, and articles. Namrata has specialist interests in Global Citizenship Education, and International and Comparative Education. In her ongoing research work she is engaged in drawing meaningful linkages between teaching the UNESCO-led initiatives of Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development. For more information on her work visit her blog at DrNamrataSharma.com

Phill is the Director of Education at World BEYOND War. He is a multiple award-winning practitioner-scholar with a Ph.D. in International Conflict Analysis and over 20 years leadership, programming, and analysis experience in the areas of peace & conflict, education & training, youth & community development, and counselling & psychotherapy.

Whitney McIntyre Miller, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Leadership Studies and the Co-Director of the Panther Experiential Philanthropy Project at Chapman University. She teaches in the master's and doctoral programs in leadership at the Donna Ford Attallah College of Educational Studies. Whitney centers her scholarship on peace leadership and community development and leadership and is recognized as the lead scholar of integral peace leadership. She has an active, ongoing partnership with the Euphrates Institute and its Peace Practice Alliance program, which utilizes the principles of integral peace leadership to develop community peace leaders around the globe. Whitney has traveled to over 60 countries for teaching, research, and leisure and loves leading study-abroad programs.

Anshul is currently based around Chandigarh, India working for the Administration of the city while extending her services in the field of Women and Child Development. She is a graduate in Science, Post graduate in Gandhian Philosophy and Peace Studies (MA & MPhil) from Panjab University. With a PhD on the topic "Creative Dialogue and World Peace: A Study of Daisaku Ikeda's Contribution" in the year 2020. Anshul’s area of research along with area of interest has been to use dialogue for constructively addressing conflict(s) in establishing peace. The technique of dialogue as used by Daisaku Ikeda, the founding President of Soka Gakkai International was the main focus of the research. She has also analyzed the education system and values promoted through Soka Education.

Sylvia is a facilitator of, advocate for, and believer in peace leadership. For fifteen years, Sylvia has participated in and facilitated talking circles in various communities across the United States, Latin America, and Asia. From these talking circles emerged Sylvia's commitment to and practices of nonviolent communication, community building, and conflict transformation. This commitment brought Sylvia to obtain a BA in Peace Studies from Goucher College, and continue to Southeast Asia working with nonprofits across the region focused on youth-led peacebuilding. She is a Co-Founder and Board Member of Sarus, a peacebuilding nonprofit that inspires, equips, and accompanies peace leaders in Asia. Sylvia then deepened her studies by obtaining an MA in Coexistence and Conflict and MBA in Social Impact at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, where she focused on peace leadership and organizational capacity building. Afterwards, she expanded to philanthropy as a Program Officer at the Island Foundation funding organizations supporting women and girls, youth, immigrants, and domestic and international communities. She currently serves as the Head of Programs and Strategy at the Euphrates Institute.

Sylvia holds a deep passion for building and nurturing communities that collectively transform conflict and systems with curiosity, connection, and courage.

Stephanie Knox Steiner, PhD is Assistant Professor and Peace Education Program Coordinator in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University for Peace in Costa Rica. She earned her doctorate in the Community, Liberation, Indigenous and Ecopsychologies specialization at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and is an ordained member of the Order of Interbeing of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. She co-founded the Jill Knox Humor for Peace Fellowship program, which offers professional development to peace studies scholars through the Humor Academy of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor with the intention of building peace through humor. Her deepest aspiration is to contribute to a more just, peaceful, loving, caring, joyful, compassionate world through scholarship, teaching, writing, research, and living. Her current teaching, research, and writing interests currently lie at the intersection of peace education, decolonial pedagogies, re-enchanting education, and transrational ways of knowing such as community dreamwork.

Anne Kruck is Advisor for Peace Education Approaches at the Berghof Foundation. She currently works for the “Service Center Peace Education” in Germany, where she delivers teacher trainings, creates learning media and consults schools on implementing peace education holistically in the classroom and in the school culture. She has worked with partners in many countries, e.g., India, Jordan, Iran and Lebanon, facilitating trainings for multipliers and developing learning materials and curricula on the topics of peace education, peacebuilding and global learning. She is also a guest lecturer for peace education at the University of Tübingen.