MEET OUR TEAM
Leadership Board
Gal Kleinman
Founding member and Director
Gal, the son of a holocaust survivor, founded EGP in 2013. Gal lives in Israel and has witnessed the tragedies of war first hand and came to realize that each one of us, including our “enemies”, is born into a certain social background, swirl of forces and systems that makes us who we are, including our identities, values, beliefs and behaviors. And that the key to a peaceful world is educating for peace.
Gal is also the founder of a global educational project called Magical Moments Around the World.
Gal’s passion is to bring about a peaceful world, of people sharing the world in peace.
Michael Minch
Founding member
Michael taught at Utah Valley University until his retirement in 2021. There he founded and directed the Peace and Justice Studies Program. In addition to teaching conflict analysis, conflict transformation, peace, justice, and reconciliation theory and practice; he taught political theory and ethics. Michael also directed a number of study abroad and field research programs, taught, and conducted peacebuilding work in various locations around the globe, including Haiti, Northern Ireland, the Balkans, West Africa, Central Asia, Russia, and West Africa. He is the author of journal articles, book chapters, the author of a book in democratic theory and co-editor of an ethics textbook. He is currently at work on a book that explores robust cosmopolitan democracy, morality, peace, and sustainability as intrinsically related in a necessary whole. He is the co-editor of the book series, Peace Studies: Edges and innovations (Cambridge Scholars Press).
Juan Felipe Carrillo Gáfaro
Juan Felipe is a specialist in peace education, peacebuilding and diversity & inclusion with a bachelor’s degree in history and a PhD in political science from Sciences Po Lyon. He has worked as education project leader for different institutions and is a columnist for the Colombian newspaper El Espectador. He has many years of teaching experience at universities in Europe and Colombia, and enjoys giving trainings and seminars on his topics of expertise.
Juan Felipe strives to find ways to improve people’s well-being through education, non-violence, and conflict transformation. He currently works as a Civil Peace Advisor for the GIZ in Kenya and lives in Nairobi with his wife and two sons.
Maria Paula Unigarro Alba
Maria Paula is a political scientist with more than five years of experience in the field of peacebuilding and conflict resolution. She has worked as consultant for NGOs in Bolivia designing pedagogical resources on conflict transformation directed at indigenous communities. She performed as Program Coordinator for Creative Learning, in such role she developed educational programs for the International Peace and Security Institute (IPSI), including summer trainings on peace and security issues in Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the USA. Before joining Creative Learning, she was part of the research team that analysed the proposals made by civil society for the most recent peace process between the Colombian National Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Maria Paula believes in the power of peace education to forge empathetic, caring and critical citizens, and thus, peaceful societies.
Christopher P. Davey
Christopher holds a doctorate in Peace Studies and International Development from the University of Bradford. His research focuses on identity, narrative and emerging perspectives on genocide, and includes fieldwork with Banyamulenge soldiers in central Africa and within the diaspora. He is interested in evaluating the development of narrative analysis as a qualitative study of participation in genocide, and the overlap of mass violence, identity and climate change. His work extends to reconciliation and memory around legacies of violence. Chris is an experienced diversity and inclusion specialist and has worked on decolonizing workplaces and using the concept of intersectionality in this context.
Christopher currently holds a position with the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University, and lives with his family in Massachusetts, USA.
Associates
Teodora Tomescu
Project Comic Strip on Peace Education
Teodora has a Bachelor degree in Social Anthropology, and volunteered in two NGOs during her student years and engaged in intercultural exchanges and projects in Germany, Romania and Russia, teaching high school students and facilitating discussions about world issues and intercultural understanding.
She has experience in the fields of Marketing and Customer Care, and a strong passion for creative art.
Teodora is a firm believer that making the world a safer place starts with each individual and that education is the very foundation for achieving world peace.
Edgar Buryahika
Project Our Global Village
Edgar is the Founder, Youth for Peace and Development Uganda (YOPEDU), a non-profit organization in Uganda. YOPEDU, works towards building a culture of peace loving among the youth. He is involved in peace Education and other activities that directly or indirectly affect peace, aiming at a generation of peace loving youth and responsible citizens who will in future turn into peace loving leaders. He is a program Associate of Hiroshima Peacebuilding Center 2019, (The program for Global Human Resource Development for Peacebuilding and Development in Tokyo and Hiroshima, Japan) and Equator Peace Academy an associate of CEDAREdgar Holds a MA degree in Conflict Analysis and Inclusive Development, which exposed him to refugee issues and peace building. He has over 10 years of experience as a journalist. He teaches his native language at University of Saint Joseph Mbarara (USJM).
Lisenka Sedlacek
Project Comic Strip on Peace Education
Lisenka is a professional actor with a B.A. in International Relations and soon will hold a M.A. in Creative Writing and Wellbeing. She has been working as a peace advisor for over two years in Jordan, with a special focus on youth and girl’s empowerment. Lisenka is passionate about expressive arts and a specialist for creative methods for conflict transformation, such as Theatre of the Oppressed, Storytelling for Social Change, Stage Fighting and Dance.
Lisenka strongly believes in the impact of peace education for all levels of society and the power of the arts as a tool for social change. With her background as a performing artist and International Relations graduate she is addressing a holistic approach to peacebuilding and social justice.
Samy Giacomel
EGP’s web designer
Samy is a web entrepreneur and always strives to give the best of himself to accompany his clients and help them realize their projects. And most importantly: in a good mood! 🙂
Samy has recently joined the EGP adventure and considers it an opportunity for him to work on a project of this type that he considers to be of general interest.
Samy lives in Heidelberg, Germany with his wife and 2 children.
Wes P. Davison
Project Our Global Village
Wes has a seven-year background in teaching, facilitating, and designing youth education and leadership programming in four countries. A MA graduate of the American University in International Peace & Conflict Resolution, his research centered on gender equality and peace education. He also volunteered for 27 month with the Peace Corps in Ukraine as an English Educator, working with students, teachers, and NGO community leaders offering USAID camps for youth with themes such as public and sexual health, mental health and trauma support, gender equality, human rights, and LGBTQIA+ rights. Wes also volunteered with two self-directed 6 month English teaching experiences in rural schools in both Colombia and Poland, despite having little Spanish/Polish language or organizational support. Wes draws his excitement from working on grassroots projects, and views “development” from the core of the community itself-the people. Wes believes in empowering the human capital of any social community, connecting positive peace, and addressing systemic injustices to build more equitable and empathetic societies.
Jean Paul Iranzi
Project Our Global Village
Jean Paul is a genocide scholar and a passionate peacebuilder. He was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo but was raised in Rwanda. Born and raised in the two countries that experienced mass atrocities, Jean Paul’s dream for peace is unstoppable.
His educational background includes a M.A in Holocaust and Genocide studies at Stockton University in New Jersey. He also has a B.S in Chemistry from University of Rwanda in Rwanda.
Before pursuing his M.A studies, Jean Paul became a founder and a leader of various youth organizations in Rwanda. He also volunteered in many NGOs in Rwanda, and engaged in projects focusing on youth empowerment, public speaking, Human rights, and peacebuilding.
Jean Paul believes that engaging young people in peacebuilding and genocide prevention is an important tool in creating a hopeful future.
Lisa Picott
Director of PM&E
Lisa is a PM&E expert accompanying strategic processes at project and program level. Lisa also designs creative tools, teaches about PM&E approaches, and connects people through her podcast about how attitude and concrete values influence how we work and live together.
PM&E – planning, monitoring and evaluation – is more than an approach and big toolbox for Lisa – it’s an attitude which is part of daily life. And a part of knowledge management, learning and organizational development.
Conflict transformation has been a conscious part of Lisa’s life since 2010, when she studied in Colombia, experiencing how armed conflict affects society. Since then she combines PM&E, creativity and practical approaches with her knowledge about Latin America and conflict transformation methodologies.