ICAR Alumni News/Community Notes

Latest Alumni Community Reports:

Gina Bartlett (MS '94) is now a facilitator and trainer in the Violence Interruption Process in Chicago; she works in criminal justice, school, and community settings nationally.

Stefan Belwald (MS '94) is currently finishing a political science degree (equivalent to a MA) at the University of Zurich. He will marry Judith Frossard on June 21st; they are in the middle of wedding preparations.

Nike Carstarphen (PhD candidate) is teaching Introduction to Peace and Conflict Resolution (to undergrads) and Building Peaceable Schools (to grad students) at American University; she is currently a graduate assistant to Professor Sandra Cheldelin working with ICAR's Mount Pleasant APT Divided Societies Team.

Jayne Docherty (PhD candidate)is writing her dissertation analyzing the Branch Davidian/FBI negotiations transcripts. She was invited to meet at Michigan State University in March with the Critical Incident Analysis Group (CIAG) which was formed after Waco to bring law enforcement officials, academics, and practitioners together to evaluate the management of critical incidents involving law enforcement agencies. With ICAR graduate Don Bassett (MS '88), Jayne is working to establish dialogues between members of the militia movement and law enforcement agencies; with Steve Garon, Jarle Crocker, and Frank Blechman she continues to study environmental conflicts through the Worldviews and Forest Management Conflicts Project.

Suzanne Ghais (MS '96) is a project assistant at CDR Associates in Boulder, CO.

Rachel Goldberg (MS '95)is working on her PhD at PARC at Syracuse University and is coordinator of the Campus Mediation Center and the Conflict Resolution Consulting Group. Her dissertation research deals with Native American-U.S. Park Service conflicts; she is busy researching and interviewing many of the stakeholders and teaching her first college level course this summer and fall at LeMoyne College in Syracuse.

Alma Abdel-Hadi Jadallah (MAIS '95)is Director of Cultural Connections, Inc., a privately owned consulting company offering conflict resolution services in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, and is working with Dr. Chris Mitchell as a research scholar at ICAR to develop and design conflict studies curricula for Bethlehem University in Palestine.

Heideh Kabir (MS '96) moved to Seattle, WA, last summer where she is working as a volunteer for the research director of the Committee for Children which is studying children in area schools to determine whether its violence prevention curriculum, Second Step, leads to reduced violent behavior. She is interviewing teachers to determine how invested they are in this curriculum and if they have incorporated it into their lesson plans. She is also volunteering at Mediation Services for Victims and Offenders.

Eri Kimura (MS '95) is working at NHK-TV (Japanese Television) in Washington, D.C.; she recently covered her second presidential campaign and inauguration.

Chiray Koo (MS '95)is continuing her work with inner-city schools in Los Angeles and is conducting a number of conflict resolution programs; she recently worked with CDR Associates training U.S. Postal Service employees.

Chris Koomey (MS '92)has recently merged his law practice with A. Hugo Blankingship, Esq.; the name of their firm is Blankingship & Associates, P.C.

Susan Allen-Nan (MS '95)is currently in the ICAR PhD program, working as a graduate assistant with Chris Mitchell on the Georgia-Abkhazian Parliamentarians' Workshop.

Jane McCluskey (MS '93) is working with Ron Fisher on the Network for Interactive Conflict Resolution (NICR), stewarding NICR to self-sufficiency as a self-maintaining organization; to learn more about NICR, contact Jane at [email protected]. She is also a consultant for the Fairfax County Schools and a mediator for the Multi-Door Program in Washington, D.C.

Jamie Notter (MS '93) turned his internship into a full-time job as program director at the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy. His work has focused on IMTD's long-running Cyprus project, where he is in charge of evaluation. Jamie became a father in 1994 (Taylor Kathleen); he and his wife expect their second in April.

Gloria Rhodes (MS expected '97) works in Eastern Mennonite University's Conflict Transformation Program as coordinator of EMU's Summer Peacebuilding Institute; she develops program materials and assists with curriculum development.

Victor Robinson (MS '90; PhD candidate)is teaching in George Mason's New Century College, an experimental interdisciplinary undergraduate program focused on collaborative and experiential learning, and finishing a project with Dan Druckman, supported by a USIP research grant, translating published negotiation and conflict resolution research findings into training applications for diplomats and peacekeeping personnel. He has a chapter with Gwen Whiting in a NIDR book to be published by Jossey Bass; tentative title "When Power and Prejudice Are on the Table: Effective Approaches to Resolving Deep Conflict." He continues to do diversity-related and intercultural conflict resolution work and says of his dissertation, "I'm going to go at it until I finish, give up, or they throw me in debtor's prison!"

Carolyn Rodenberg (MS '93) will be commuting to Kansas to work with Lance Woodbury; she and Jim are the proud owners of the beautiful Belle Hearth Bed and Breakfast in Waynesboro, VA.

Mary Rupert (MS '96) is back in Spokane, WA, on a conflict resolution team for the Unitarian Universalists' Regional District, assisting UU congregations in that district that are in conflict; she says, "I'm rabble-rousing for more collaborative processes!" She is also involved in a project to improve race relations between Spokane's police force and its black community and was recently quoted in an article about citizen militias in The Christian Science Monitor.

Thad Penas (MS '95) is working at Voice of America and collaborating with Richard Rubenstein to produce a handbook for journalists on the coverage of conflict situations.

Cynthia Sampson (PhD candidate) is now an associate at Eastern Mennonite University's Institute for Peacebuilding working on the development of a new Conflict Transformation Program. She is co-editor with John Paul Lederach of the forthcoming From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, and has a chapter "Religion and Peacebuilding," in USIP Press's forthcoming Peacemaking in International Conflicts: Methods and Techniques. With Douglas Johnston she has authored a chapter and co-edited a volume of case studies of religiously motivated peacemaking, Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft (Oxford University Press, 1994).

Mara Schoeny (MS '96) entered ICAR's PhD program last fall and is currently Co-Captain of GSCS.

Lisa Schirch (MS '94; PhD candidate)is working on her dissertation "Exploring the Role of Ritual in Conflict Transformation," and will be an assistant professor at Eastern Mennonite University's Conflict Transformation Program, starting in fall 1997; with Victor Robinson she worked in summer 1996 in the World Vision Youth Ambassador Program in Taiwan.

Jerri Shevlin (MS '92; former ICAR Newsletter Editor)is continuing to mediate and to work with a Quaker program for prisoners in Jessup, MD.

Pete Swanson (MS '88) works at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and was a trainer with the U.S. Institute of Peace's InterAmerican Defense College's Training in Conflict Resolution.

Hugo van der Merwe (PhD candidate)has worked, since leaving ICAR in 1992, as research coordinator at the Community Dispute Resolution Trust in Johannesburg, South Africa, on community justice program evaluation and development; he resigned at the end of last year (thanks to a scholarship) to finish his dissertation research on "The Role of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa." Also new in Hugo's life is Max, who has just turned one.

Kerry Wicker (MS '96)is hitting the pavement looking for work on land use, environmental, and agricultural issues.

Lance Woodbury (MS '93) is director of the Conflict Resolution Group affiliated with Kennedy and Coe, LLC, an accounting and consulting firm dedicated to helping preserve the family-owned business.

Carolyn Rodenberg (MS '93) joins Lance in April 1997 in this endeavor to provide conflict resolution training, mediation, and strategic planning.

Rumor Has it That...

Dave Dalke (former ICAR student) is now with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Human Rights Division and that he attended the ICAR Gala Welcoming Dinner last fall.

John Link (MS '90)a consultant and principle at VOLVOX, is doing organizational development work.

Simona Sharoni (PhD '92) is now on the faculty at American University's Washington Semester and World Capitols Program.

John St. Denis (MS '91) is an ombudsman for the Housing Authority in the city of Long Beach, CA.

Gwen Whiting (PhD candidate) is working for the Community Relations Service.

Lastly, I (Rachel Barbour, MS '95) left the USIP Education and Training Program after almost two years for a position at the Center for the Strategic Initiatives of Women (CSIW), a project of the Fund for Peace, based in Washington, D.C. I work with an amazing group of people in the Horn of Africa, setting up peace centers and establishing networks of women who are interested in conflict resolution, human rights, and increasing political participation of women at the community and national level.

Important Notice!

Chris Koomey will step down from his position as president of the ICAR Alumni Association in May. Responsibilities of the position include communicating with alumni, attending GMU Alumni Association Board meetings and ICAR Advisory Board meetings, participating in ICAR ad hoc committees, helping organize the Annual Welcoming Dinner for incoming students, coordinating the Alumni Directory and alumni discussion panels, and providing information to potential ICAR students regarding what career paths ICAR alumni are following; the most important responsibility is providing input to ICAR faculty regarding programs and the future direction of ICAR. Several people can do this job: if you are interested in this position, or are willing to take on any of the tasks listed above, contact Chris Koomey at 703-739-7621 or at [email protected].

Community Notes is an informal arena for sharing personal and professional news about alums and ABDs. Please let us know where you are and what you are doing; to have an entry in the next ICAR Newsletter, please contact Rachel Barbour by e-mail at: [email protected] or by phone at: 202-223-7956 x220.