Professor Woodhouse has worked in the Department of Peace Studies since 1974, when he was appointed as Research Assistant to Professor Adam Curle.He developed the first conflict resolution teaching and research activities in the department during the mid1980s, and in 1990 he initiated the Centre for Conflict Resolution, serving as the founding director of the Centre between 1990 and 2000. In March 1999 he was appointed to a personal chair and took the title of Professor of Conflict Resolution (Adam Curle Chair). The Centre has a strong research and teaching profile around conflict analysis, peacekeeping, peacebuilding and the development of conflict theory related to international conflict. He has directed the Centre’s E-Learning Programme and taught on the OUC Masters in Peace and Conflict. He has developed and delivered Masters level courses and research programmes internationally, including in Malaysia, Australia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Kosovo and Sri Lanka. He has been on the editorial board of the journal International Peacekeeping, and of the Journal of Conflictology. He teaches for the Open University of Catalunya(UOC) Masters in Conflictology based in Barcelona, Spain, and is working with the UOC and the Foundation of FC Barcelona on the development of module on Sport and Conflict Resolution as part of a new Masters in Sport as a Tool for Social Co-existence and Conflict resolution. He is also a member of the Council of the Conflict Research Society, a network of academics working on conflict and peace research in British universities. He was the first Academic Director of the Rotary Peace Center at the University of Bradford. He is an adviser to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues of the UK Parliament. He has published extensively, and his book Contemporary Conflict Resolution (Third edition Polity Press 2011, with Oliver Ramsbotham and Hugh Miall) is a widely recognised text in conflict resolution and peacebuilding and is used in universities world-wide.

Irene Morada Santiago has had a wide involvement in peace and security in her own country, the Philippines, as well as internationally as a negotiator, implementer, teacher, organizer, and thought leader.

She has the distinction of being the only woman in the world today who has been a member of a peace negotiating panel as well as chair of the body implementing a major peace agreement. She was a member of the Philippine Government peace panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from 2001-2004; and was the first chair of the panel implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement on the Bangsamoro.Ms. Santiago is well-known internationally as the executive director of the historical NGO Forum on Women in China in 1995. As a parallel event to the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, the Forum was attended by 30,000 participants. It is considered the largest international conference on women in history. Prior to that, Ms. Santiago was the chief of the Asia/Pacific section of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in New York. As an NGO leader, she co-founded the Mindanao Commission on Women, an NGO composed of Moro, Christian and indigenous women leaders. She also founded the Mothers for Peace Movement and Women’s Peace Tables Worldwide to advance the significant role of women in women, peace and security.

Currently, she is the Peace Adviser to the Mayor of Davao City, providing advice on the strategic direction of the local peacebuilding process called “Peace 911”. She was named one of the two Main Rapporteurs for the 18th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) on Human Rights and Preventing Violent Extremism. She is a member of the board of the Boston-based CDA Collaborative, the action research and advisory organization famous for developing the “Do No Harm” framework. She is also the lead convener of the global campaign on women, peace and security called “#WomenSeriously” that is planning, with an India-based network of women’s grassroots organizations, a combined march and Women’s Peace Tables from India to Geneva in 2020 under the slogan, “When women are taken seriously, another world is possible!”

Ms. Santiago was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 as one of the 1000 outstanding women peacemakers and peacebuilders in the world. She was also selected for the 2013 N-Peace Award as Role Model for Peace from the Philippines, an award that recognizes the leadership role of women and peace advocates from six conflict-affected countries in Asia. Ms. Santiago holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University where she was a Fulbright scholar. She graduated with a liberal arts degree from the Philippine Women’s College of Davao, summa cum laude.

Michael Fryer is Professor of Practice at the Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego. Michael Fryer has been working on issues relating to conflict resolution and peacebuilding since 1996. After completing his MA in Conflict Resolution in 2002 from the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, UK, he remained there as a member of staff directing their conflict resolution training programme. Most of his work over the past 14 years has been as a trainer, facilitator, lecturer or consultant. In recent years his particular interest has been on the role of the arts and creativity in peacebuilding and along with John Paul Lederach was recently one of the founding members of Humanity’s Thread, a “cooperative of social change facilitators, activists, and artists nurturing the integration of the inner and outer worlds necessary for supporting healthy people, courageous leadership, and webs of relationships in a shared world.“

Dr. Erik Melander is currently a Head of the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University in Sweden. He received his doctorate from the same institution and was also a visiting scholar at YaleUniversity in the United States during his Ph.D. studies. Dr. Melander has been working in the field of peace and conflict research since 1992, most notably in the area of gender inequality and collective violence as well as forced migration. Dr. Melander is a Fulbright Scholar and is fluent in several languages. He is most recently the co-founder and chief consultant of Melander Schnell Consultants. Dr. Melander is the father of two children, Tor and Vija; he currently resides with his family in Uppsala, Sweden. He is a core faculty member of the RotaryPeaceCenter at ChualongkornUniversity.

Ms. Martine Miler is mediator and conflict transformation specialist with over 20 years of experience—with communities, government and UN agencies, regional bodies (i.e. EU, AU, ASEAN), and a range of inter/national non-governmental organizations coupled with academic institutions. Her work has engaged her directly in fluid war to post-war reconstruction and development contexts across over 75 countries worldwide. At current, given conflict trajectories, Ms. Miller is working on the rise of religious framed extremism as the Director for Asia (Regional) and Gender (global) for the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers.

Jan Jung-Min Sunoo, is retired from his position as Comissioner with the ADR/International Affairs Department of the US Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service. Prior to that, he worked for six and a half years in Vietnam improving labor relations while directing the ILO/Vietnam Industrial Relations Project funded by the Norwegian government. Jan is the author of several books on labor relations in Vietnam including Vietnam: A Foreign HR Manager’s Survival Guide and the popular booklet Understanding and Minimizing Risk for Strikes in Vietnam, which was published in 2008 and translated into English, Vietnamese, Korean, and Chinese. More than 25,000 copies have been distributed.

Over the past 30 years he has lent his broad labor relations expertise to management and the unions of such major companies as Bechtel, Adidas, The Gap, Nike, McDonald Douglas, Disneyland, Kaiser Permanente Health, and hundreds of other companies. As a Federal Mediator in the United States, he has mediated hundreds of labor disputes and trained thousands of management and union representatives in better work practices. Currently he is enjoying freelancing during his retirement so he can continue to share his expertise in the fields of industrial relations, multiparty conflict resolution, mediation, cultural competency and communication to clients domestically around the world.

ChaiwatSatha-Anand was born in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1955. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and is a professor of political science at Thammasat University, Bangkok and founder and director of the Thai Peace Information Centre which conducts studies and activism in relation to the Thai military and social issues. He is an expert on non-violence, theory as well as activism, and on Islam. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on the military, alternative defense, religion and peace, Islam and nonviolence, and modern political philosophy. For several years he directed the International Peace Research Association’s (IPRA) commission on non-violence and he serves at the Scientific Committee of the International University for Peoples’ Initiative for Peace, IUPIP, in Rovereto Italy. In 2003, he was nominated to head efforts to decrease violence in southern Thailand when he was appointed to the National Reconciliation Commission and was the key author of its final report to the Royal Thai Government.

Susan Hayward is a senior advisor for religion and inclusive societies at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Hayward directs the Institute’s efforts to advance conflict prevention, resolution and reconciliation projects engaging the religious sector. Since joining the Institute in 2007, her field work has focused on Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Colombia and Iraq. From 2010-2012 she coordinated an initiative exploring the intersection of women, religion, conflict and peacebuilding in partnership with the Berkley Center at Georgetown University and the World Faiths Development Dialogue. She co-edited a book on the topic entitled Women, Religion and Peacebuilding: Illuminating the Unseen. Her research interests include interfaith engagement in the midst of political violence, political Buddhism and the role of religion in hampering and propelling women’s work for peace and justice. She also serves on the international selection committee for the Niwano Peace Prize, which recognizes religious peacebuilders.

Prior to joining the Institute, Hayward worked with the Academy of Educational Development’s office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, as a fellow of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and with the Conflict Resolution Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Hayward also conducted political asylum and refugee work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Advocates for Human Rights.

Hayward studied Buddhism in Nepal and is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She holds a bachelor’s degree in comparative religions from Tufts University and master’s degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Harvard Divinity School. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in theology and religious studies at Georgetown University, focusing on Buddhist and Christian theological responses to authoritarianism and conflict in Myanmar.

Professor Kishu Daswani has been teaching law at the Government Law College, Mumbai for over 25 years. He is the Faculty Advisor and responsible for publication of The Law Review, Government Law College, the premier academic journal of the college. He is the founder member and the Coordinator for the Securities Law course at the College and has been appointed by the Governing Council of the College to work on Social empowerment of underprivileged in college.

He is a teacher at the Masters in Public Policy Program, Human Rights and Business Law at the St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. In the past he has taught at the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, and has conducted lectures at the Maharashtra Judicial Academy, Uttan, Mumbai and at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. He also teaches International and Humanitarian Law at the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.

He has been invited on several panels to speak on International Relations and Human Rights. He has received accreditation as a trained Mediator by the High Court of Bombay and is a Member of LAW: Review, Reforms and Rationalisation Committee of the Indian Merchants Chamber. He is also a Resource person for the Harvard College in Asia Program and has conducted several workshops with national and International participants on Peace and Conflict Resolution

Associate Professor Jake Lynch, PhD (City University, London) is Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) at the University of Sydney; an Executive Member of the Sydney Peace Foundation and Secretary General of the International Peace Research Association, having organized and hosted its Sydney conference in July 2010. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of the School of Communication at the University of Johannesburg.

Jake has spent the past 15 years researching, developing, teaching and training in peace journalism – and practising it, as an experienced international reporter in television and newspapers. He was an on-air presenter, anchoring over a thousand half-hour news bulletins for BBC World TV. Before that, he was the Sydney Correspondent for the London Independent newspaper, and a Political Correspondent for Sky News.

Since 1999 up to the present day, Jake has led training workshops in peace journalism for professional editors and reporters, and in media skills for peace workers, in many countries including Fiji, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Cyprus, Armenia, Georgia, Norway and the UK. Clients have included the British Council, Council of Europe, DANIDA, GTZ, SIDA, NORAD, the Olof Palme Memorial Fund and the Australian Commonwealth government.

Publications include several books and many book chapters and refereed articles on peace and peace journalism. He is also the author of several think-tank reports and innumerable articles in public media including the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian and the Canberra Times.

Jake presented News Goo, a streamed television program produced by the New Matilda current affairs website. In 2009-2010 he wrote a weekly column, combining commentary on world affairs with media analysis and literacy issues, for the TRANSCEND Media Service website. He is a regular contributor to radio and television. Jake has senior production credits on four documentary films, including the multi-award winning Soldiers of Peace, narrated by the Hollywood actor, Michael Douglas.

In 2009, he won a Linkage grant from the Australian Research Council, to investigate prospects for devising a Global Standard for Reporting Conflict, in partnership with the International Federation of Journalists and the aid agency, Act for Peace.

Sean is deeply committed to community empowerment, peace, and using creative media to facilitate powerful social change. A resourceful manager with over 25 years of experience in the development and communications field, Sean is the Chief Executive Officer at PCI Media Impact. Sean has a rich multi-sector background including 12 years with the United Nations Development Programme, 5 years with the Canadian government and 9 years working with international non-government organizations such as ICLEI (Secretary General), Rare (Vice-President) and PCI Media Impact.

Sean is a dual Canadian and South African citizen and has lived and worked in over 80 countries. He holds a MSC from the London School of Economics and a BA in Economics from University of British Columbia, and has a wonderful daughter, Safia.

Norbert Ropers serves as a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Conflict Studies and Cultural Diversity (CSCD) in Pattani and the Institute for Peace Studies (IPS) in Hat Yai of the Prince of Songkla University (PSU). Currently his main work is focused on the Insider Peacebuilders Platform (IPP), a network of peace activists engaged in transforming the Southern Thailand/Patani conflict, and on directing the Peace Resource Collaborative (PRC), a support structure of the IPP members. Norbert Ropers is connected with the Berghof Foundation (Berlin) for more than 20 years. Currently, he serves as it´s Programme Director for Southeast Asia – based in Bangkok – with a particular focus on supporting the work of insider mediators and peacebuilders.

From 2001 to 2008, Norbert headed the Resource Network for Conflict Studies and Transformation (RNCST) in Sri Lanka. Previously, he worked for the Institute for Development and Peace (University of Duisburg), the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House, London), and the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF).

His practical and academic work is focused on peace processes, conflict analysis and transformation, mediation and dialogue facilitation. During his career he has furthermore focused on international relations, global trends research, transnationalism, and intercultural communication. Norbert graduated in Sociology and holds a PhD from the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main, Germany.

Delsy Ronnie has 18 years of experience in programming on conflict resolution, research, emergency response and community development, including nine years at senior management level at the country program. He was the director of the social department at BRR, the national body of rehabilitation and reconstruction of Aceh and Nias, where he oversaw the rehabilitation and reconstruction process on social sector post-2004- Indian earthquake and tsunami. He also has served as National Team Leader for Conflict Early Warning and Early Response in Indonesia. Before joining with Nonviolent Peaceforce, he led the Muslim Aid Myanmar from 2013 – 2015. Ronnie has worked extensively on the peace process in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Myanmar. He has a doctorate from the University of Helsinki with the research focus on the peace process in Aceh.

Ronnie has served as Head of Mission in the Philippines since November 2015.

Born in April 5, 1949, in Nepal, Lt General (Ret’d) Bala Nanda Sharma holds Master degree in History form Tribhuvan University of Nepal and is a graduate of National Defence College, New Delhi. He served as the Defense Attaché of Nepalese Army to the former USSR from 1989 to 1992.

As a General Officer, he had been the Commandant at the Nepalese Army Command and Staff College, Director of Military Training, of Nepalese Army and commanded an infantry division at home and headed an UN Mission – United Nation Disengagement Observer Force – UNDOF), in the Golan Heights from 2004 to 2007.

He retired from Nepal Army after 39 years of active service. In the Peace Process of Nepal, he headed the Technical Committee (TC) that was mandated to Supervise Integrate and Rehabilitate the ex-Maoist Army Combatants. His team was instrumental in taking the arms, closing the cantonments and reintegrating the Maoist Army Combatants in the society and the Nepalese Army.

On the academic front, he is currently the Principal of Master Level Program on ‘Crisis Management Studies’ and faculty member of another Master Level Program in ‘Conflict Peace and Development Studies’; both under the Tribhuvan University in Nepal. He is one of the resource persons of the UN and engages on various tasks related to UN peacekeeping.

He is married and has a son.

Mirsad “Miki” Jacevic is Vice Chair at the Institute for Inclusive Security, Director of the Bosnia program at Global Youth Connect and a professor at various universities. He directed the conflict resolution programming in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and previously managed country programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, and Liberia. Mr. Jacevic has overseen Inclusive Security’s training programs and strategic consultations around the globe and led the development of strategic partnerships with UN Development Programme on innovative approaches to conflict resolution. He was the primary author of the Institute’s groundbreaking curriculum, based on several decades of experience in teaching conflict analysis and resolution around the world.

Mr. Jacevic has been at the forefront of Inclusive Security’s efforts to design and implement high-impact national action plans (NAPs) across the globe. Over the last three years, he worked closely with the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in designing their new NAP. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Mr. Jacevic led a comprehensive assessment of the country’s plan at the request of the Agency for Gender Equality of BiH and continues to provide comprehensive technical assistance for the development of BiH’s new plan (launched July 2014) and corresponding monitoring and evaluation system. Mr. Jacevic was also part of Inclusive Security’s May 2014 assessment that evaluated the impact of Liberia’s NAP at the direct request of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. In Indonesia, he supported members of our Women Waging Peace network as they drafted and launched their country’s plan. In addition to leading specific country engagements, Mr. Jacevic assists in shaping the program’s strategic vision and guides development of the NAP team’s curricula.

Originally from Sarajevo, Mr. Jacevic assisted efforts to stop the bloodshed and promote post-war reconciliation. He directed the Emerging Leaders Project at the State of the World Forum and managed global reintegration efforts for child soldiers at Search for Common Ground. He is a PhD candidate at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and he teaches at American University, Prescott College, and the School for International Training, with a special focus on transitional justice. He was awarded numerous recognitions for his efforts to advance conflict management and resolution, and is an honorary citizen of Liberia.

He and his wife, Guatemalan human rights activist Eva Contreras Morales have two teenage children; they reside between Bosnia, Guatemala and Washington DC area.

Ms. Päivi Nikander has two advanced level university degrees from Harvard University and Helsinki University of Technology, with some 20 years of professional work experience in the areas of management, negotiation, governance, policy analysis and advice, conflict analysis and early-warning, media/strategic communication, law and peace building. She has worked in conflict-affected or post-conflict countries such as Syria, Cyprus, FYROM, Yemen and Kosovo. Through the implementation of four peace settlements, she has gained strong negotiation and mediation as well as programme management experience having institution building the core of her career.

She has just completed her four years’ assignment as OSCE Deputy Head of Kosovo Mission where she managed some 550 employers and some 20 million Euro yearly budgets. OSCE Mission in Kosovo (OMIK) is involved in the implementation of the European Union led dialogue agreements between Pristine and Belgrade and she lead the technical team supporting EU and negotiating parties in establishing the Association of Kosovo Serb Municipalities. The very area of her specialization is the use of decentralization and local governance as a peace making tool. As a part of the OMIK management team she has been supporting all major operations such as elections as well as being in charge of the overhaul of the OMIK administration under the UN Security Council Resolution 1244. She also contributed to UNMIK Security Council reporting. In addition, she has led the participatory establishment of the Strategy 2016-2019 and consequential organizational restructuring and PBPB processes.

As a former Rotary Peace Fellow, she is a life-long student of international relations with the specialization in South-Eastern Europe but she is following closely the Middle East and especially Yemen. She also studied terrorism and counter terrorism as well as political risk analysis in Olympia Summer Academy organized by European International Studies Association (EISA) in Greece. This is the way she keeps herself updated on the latest research, developments and tools in order provide fresh analysis and recommendations to the leadership. Her extensive field experience with various international organizations has equipped her with the understanding how best support the implementation of the mandates of the individual field operations. Finally, she is adviser to the Greece based think tank, Navarino Network, and the founder of OSCE led young women Leadership Academy in Austria