Initiatives of Change - Tools for Change Upcoming Conference

TOOLS FOR CHANGE 2008

-- essential skills and inner resources for change --

The next Tools for Change conference in Caux, Switzerland will take place 25 July to 1 August, 2008.

Tools for Change, a project of Initiatives of Change (IofC), draws on both the wisdom accumulated over the IofC network's 60+ year history and the cutting edge of training in the fields of conflict transformation and leadership development. The project aims to provide all participants, from young people to diplomats, with tools that help create change—in the world, in our relationships, and in ourselves.

Guided by a multicultural group of experienced trainers and speakers, conference participants attend morning gatherings and afternoon workshops that provide exposure to Initiatives of Change's core values and practices (inner listening, moral standards, the telling of one's own personal story) and training in the key skills (teambuilding, honest conversation, peacebuilding, inner resources for change) needed to be an agent of change for oneself, others and society. Download the daily conference schedule here in PDF. The schedule is also available in French and German.

This year, the Global Indigenous Dialogue (GID) will convene its annual gathering alongside the Tools for Change conference. Members of the delegation with participate in Tools for Change while offering GID programs such as Journeys and the Dreamspeakers film festival.

We look forward to seeing you at Caux this summer!

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Course descriptions are also available in French and German.

*Please note that all course registration will take place on arrival at Caux.

BUILDING AND MAINTAINING DIVERSE TEAMS AND NETWORKS FOR ACTION

Faculty: Anjum Ali, Rob Corcoran

This workshop teaches methods for creating and sustaining teams and networks that bridge traditional boundaries of culture, politics, religion, race and class. A combination of interactive small and large group activities, case studies, dialogue, and reflection will be used.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Evaluate the importance of team development in addressing community divisions
• Identify leadership qualities and values that encourage trust
• Identify key issues and individuals who need to be part of change efforts
• Explore strategies and methodologies to engage people of different views as allies and build shared visions
• Appreciate how teams and partnerships are enriched by different personalities and styles
• Create their own action plans to implement new learning and skills

This workshop is taught in English and Spanish.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND NEGOTIATION

Faculty: Michelle Gavin, Azhar Hussain

This workshop begins with trust-building exercises that highlight the problem of the imagined “other” and how we conceive others from a particular unchallenged lens. Next, participants examine how one can understand peace through mediation, conflict resolution, and peace-building concepts. Additional topics to be explored include the root causes of secular, religious, and sectarian violence; ways to identify a potential conflict; and how conflict escalates to different levels. Once a foundation for understanding these models has been built, the training will shift to skills development in the areas of conflict mediation and conflict resolution.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Define violence from a variety of global perspectives, including sources of conflict, positive and negative peace, and war
• Recognize the different degrees of conflict and place them within a continuum ranging from “latent” to “violent” conflict
• Analyze the life cycles of conflicts, from escalation through post-conflict transition
• Develop effective, interest-based negotiation skills and apply them in culturally diverse contexts

This workshop is taught in English.

CREATORS OF PEACE - EXPERIENCE THE CIRCLE

Faculty: Christina de Angelis, Pari Sanyu

A Creators of Peace Circle is a space for women of different cultures, faiths and backgrounds to discover together their ability, as individuals and as a group, to create peace at home, at work and in the community. Participants work collectively to create a space where all can share their life stories in an atmosphere of trust and respect. They work through exercises that explore the personal challenges and costs of creating peace, the role of personal transformation and inner listening, and the particular needs of participants' own communities. The group will also search for peace-creating initiatives to be taken on together.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Have a deeper understanding of their role as a peace creator
• Appreciate the use of personal storytelling as a tool for personal transformation
• Practice specific skills and tools for peace creation
• Make a commitment to take tangible action to meet a need identified in their local community

This workshop is taught in English.

This workshop is open to women only. All women are invited to particpate.

CREATORS OF PEACE - TRAIN THE TRAINER

Faculty: Jean Brown, Clementine Lue Clark, Trish McDonald-Harris

A Creators of Peace Circle (CoPC) is a space for women of different cultures,
faiths and backgrounds to discover together their ability, as individuals and as a group, to create peace at home, at work and in the community. Participants will work collectively to create a space where all can share their life stories in an atmosphere of trust and respect. They will examine the Gathering Points of the CoPC program; explore their own potential and inner resources to facilitate peace creation in their lives and their communities; enhance their skills in listening, facilitation, and storytelling; and identify the steps involved in starting a CoPC.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Facilitate a Creators of Peace Circle
• Carry participants through the CoPC Gathering Points, journeying from personal reflection to an awareness of the needs in their own lives and communities
• Encourage participants to take personal steps for creating peace in their homes and communities, and move beyond blame to personal responsibility, creativity, and community action
• Have a set of resources that will enhance their skills as peace creators and facilitators
• Create an action plan to host a CoPC in their community

This workshop is taught in English.

This workshop is open to women only, and is intended for those who wish to start a Creators of Peace Circle. Previous experience of a CoPC or another Initiatives of Change program is required.

FREEDOM TO LEARN: A MODEL FOR LEARNING IN MULTICULTURAL CONTEXTS

Faculty: Jonathan Levy, Khaled Roumo

Diversity and learning are not only linked in pedagogical theory and practice, but are biologically necessary for normal child development. This workshop explores the interdependence of diversity and learning within the contexts of teaching and training strategies, using a working model based on a development process from multicultural analysis through intercultural learning in action, to unique trans-cultural results in group learning outcomes. In its method and content, this workshop prioritizes respect, tolerance, sincerity, dignity and mindfulness.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Understand the relationship between learning and diversity
• Create a learning environment based on trust, respect and dignity
• Integrate diversity as a necessary stimulus in learning contexts
• Apply models and techniques to the multicultural classroom/training room
• Allow self-determination of identity among learners and in doing so offer freedom to learn

This workshop is taught in French and English.

HONEST CONVERSATION: THE FOUNDATION FOR TRUSTBUILDING

Faculty: David Campt, Matthew Freeman

This workshop explores the concept of honest conversation and the role it plays in creating trust in challenged relationships and/or communities. Most work will be done in small teams with reports to the larger group.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Design a dialogue curriculum that encourages polarized individuals and groups to talk honestly with each other
• Lead such honest dialogue
• Discern whether a dialogue is productive or not
• Learn strategies for unearthing unexamined issues that cause polarization

This workshop is taught in English.

LEADERSHIP MATTERS

Faculty: Nadia Bousima, Krish Raval

This workshop is intended for participants who wish to run leadership programs when they return home. It will enable participants to share and jointly develop principles, ideas, methods and tools to include in the design and delivery of good leadership programs.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Define and distill the concept of leadership as it applies in their contexts
• Understand the extent to which leadership can be "taught" within a workshop setting
• Determine whether good leadership programs have at their core certain common principles and outcomes
• Explore the interplay between leadership and groups
• Come to an understanding of their own qualities as leaders
• Learn different methods to include within an effective leadership program

This workshop is taught in English.

This workshop will be limited to 12 people.

SENTIMENTS TO VALUES

Faculty: Pablo Fuentes, Patricia Mariani de Ferreyra

This workshop explores different definitions of sentiments or feelings, where they come from, how to understand and interpret them and, through a series of practical exercises, what ultimately to do with them. Participants will learn to recognize the various compensating techniques that are applied, consciously or unconsciously, in our unsuccessful attempts to satisfy physical, psychological and spiritual needs. The workshop proposes that values can answer these needs and be lived out in such a way as to help us find fulfillment and achieve personal balance.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify their unsatisfied needs
• Apply values to these needs
• Experience an interior liberation, an ability to communicate more deeply, and a more active spirituality as a result of changes made in their lives.

This workshop is taught in Spanish and English.

TEAMBUILDING FOR CO-OPERATION

Faculty: David Curtis, Vitali Cracan

This workshop explores theories and practices for successful teambuilding. In addition to studying the links that make teambuilding processes effective, participants will engage in simple practical games and exercises that reveal, through play, the human behaviors that impact real life situations.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Plan the processes that can be effective in building a team
• Create a measurement tool for use in the positive development of ongoing relationships in the team

This workshop is taught in English.

THE CASE MAKER – COMMUNICATING FOR RESULTS

Faculty: Santhi Maniam, Terry Netto

The Case Maker™ offers specific strategies for planning and giving oral presentations.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Organize and structure presentations logically, concisely and with impact using The Case Maker™ Template
• Use conceptual and analytical thinking to reach the preferences and motivations of an audience
• Build and plan a case with key rationale and support points that address the key question in the mind of the audience
• Use the flow of The Case Maker™ when presenting a case

This workshop is taught in English.

TOOLS FOR: CHANGING ME, CHANGING US, CHANGING OUR ORGANIZATION

Faculty: Tony Bradley, Molly Mayfield Barbee

Real change happens in each of us as we take to heart the values of “a self-reflective life,” such as honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. The tools considered and developed in this workshop exemplify these values: an honest approach to making connections between content, methods and learning design; the aim of purity of heart in seeking to develop new tools for facilitating change in ourselves and others; and the creation of a climate in which teamwork can blossom, through conscious efforts to maintain attitudes of unselfishness and positive regard for meeting the needs of others (love). Use of these tools will help participants (including faculty tutors) reflect on their own experiences of personal, group and organizational change.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify connections between the content, methods and learning design of a variety of tools for facilitating change
• Practice making these connections, using pre-defined tools
• Apply their learning to the formulation of new tools for facilitating personal, group and organizational change
• Demonstrate teamwork in the creation of new tools for facilitating change in local circumstances

This workshop is taught in English and French.

WORKING WITH STORIES IN SITUATIONS OF CHANGE

Faculty: Daniele de Lutzel, Ildze Slanke

This workshop studies how the use of stories can impact change. Building upon IofC’s use of testimonials, the group will explore the criteria and necessary tools for making storytelling productive. In addition, participants will examine how, and in what circumstances, different forms of stories can be used to enhance dialogue, lower tensions in a group, and open up to quiet time. Participants will consider their own experiences and intuition as well as scientific theories. A check list for the conception of meaningful stories will be handed out.

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Tell stories in a meaningful way
• Use the determinant elements for change when conceiving story
• Identify what kinds of stories are the best tools in specific situations

This workshop is taught in French and English.

TRAINING FACULTY BIOGRAPHIES

Anjum Ashraf Ali was born in the United States and is of Pakistani heritage. She spent her childhood in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Anjum continued her studies in Boston, where she obtained a bachelor's degree in International Relations and French Cultural Studies at Wellesley College. She then went to McGill University in Montreal, Canada where she earned a master's degree in Islamic Studies, concentrating on Islamic Law. Her thesis explored child marriage in Islamic Law. Anjum has worked as an Islamic legal advisor for a Virginia-based law firm where she helped found the Advocacy Center for Muslim Women. Currently she is pursuing her Paralegal Certificate. Anjum serves on the boards of Hope in the Cities and the Virginia Muslim Coalition for Public Affairs, where she heads the Education/Speakers' Bureau. She is married and has two children, aged 6 and 3.

Molly Mayfield Barbee is the assistant director of development with Peace X Peace (pronounced "peace by peace"), an international organization based in Washington, DC that connects women for peace. In her tenure at Peace X Peace, Molly has worn many hats: Director of Member Support, Coordinator for Middle East Programs, Global Network Manager, and Coordinator of the Women's Global Initiative, a special program designed to build bridges across the cultures of the United States and the Arab and Muslim worlds. Molly is currently focused on fundraising and administration for the organization, telecommuting from her home office in Khartoum, Sudan. She also has worked for development organizations while living in Morocco, for an aid and education program for refugees while living in Egypt, and for other organizations with intercultural interests throughout the United States. Molly loves to be outdoors, explore new places and practice yoga. Her background is in intercultural counseling and language study.

Nadia Bousmina was born and raised in Algeria, where she earned a B.A. in Business Studies in 2004. An Excellence Award from Sheffield Hallam University in 2006 allowed her to pursue an M.S. in International Business and conduct research on Islamic banking and its impact on mainstream banking in the UK. Nadia was first challenged to explore her leadership potential through Learn 2 Lead in 2007. She now serves on the Faith in Leadership Management Committee and the Muslim Council of Britain, and will be a trainee and facilitator at the Faith in Leadership Program for Emerging Leaders this August at Liverpool Hope University. Nadia’s goal is to become an effective agent of change and an active contributor to community cohesion through sustained and targeted involvement in cross-cultural and inter-faith dialogue and training.

Tony Bradley is an Anglican priest, filmmaker and trainer who runs his own consultancy business in the UK. He was formerly a university teacher in Social Policy and has 30 years of experience in training and group facilitation. He has written extensively on how people and groups change spiritually and practically. Over the past year, Tony has facilitated a process of organizational change management for IofC-UK, which has begun a substantial renewal of the Association and its leadership. Tony is married to Carol and they have two daughters, two dogs, and two guinea pigs, all of whom live together in the English Lake District.

Jean Brown, originally from the UK, is married to an Australian and has two adult children. She has worked fully with Initiatives of Change for the past 40 years in many parts of the world, but mostly in India. She is involved with training, the development of Creators of Peace Circles, writing, and the Action For Life program. Jean is one of IofC's International Elders and was a marriage educator for some years in Australia. She loves it all!

David Campt, Ph.D currently provides consultation about race relations and diversity issues with United States congressional representatives, the foundation community, and community organizations nation-wide. Before becoming a consultant, Dr. Campt worked as a senior policy associate with the President’s Initiative on Race from September 1997 until the end of 1998. Since then, David has worked with the U.S. Navy, Princeton University, AFSCME, The Zenith Corporation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation and others. In addition to his cultural competence and diversity work, David is an expert in designing dialogue experiences so that large groups of people can pursue collaborative decision making. He has designed and facilitated projects for as many as 3,500 people, sometimes distributed over multiple cities linked by satellite. Since January, he has been Visiting Lecturer at University of California Berkley. He is co-author of The Little Book of Dialogue on Difficult Subjects, which brings together some of his wisdom about structuring honest conversations that help individuals, communities, and organizations. His two websites are www.racedoctor.org and www.thedwcgroup.com.

Clementine Lue Clark serves as the program manager and as an international coordinator for Creators of Peace. She has a master's degree in Coexistence and Conflict from Brandeis University and earned a bachelor's degree in Sociology and Anthropology from Principia College. She is proficient in French. Clementine is a native Jamaican. She was schooled in the UK, is married to an American, and currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Rob Corcoran has worked with of Initiatives of Change for 40 years and has extensive experience in dialogue and building teams and networks in different cultural contexts. He is the IofC-USA national director and the founder of Hope in the Cities, which works for just and inclusive communities though reconciliation among racial, ethnic and religious groups. Rob has chaired numerous national and international conferences and forums. He participated in the creation of a guide for racial dialogue for President Clinton’s Initiative on Race. He is a founder of the Caux Scholars Program. He is currently completing a book about three decades of work on race and community relations in Richmond, Virginia. Rob is originally from Scotland.

Vitalie Cracan has been an active member of the IofC web development team for the past five years. His first exposure to IofC occurred when he took part in a Foundations for Freedom visiting course while studying for his degree in International Economic Relations. His training with F4F continued over a number of years and he has since then co-facilitated several F4F visiting courses. Vitalie recently obtained a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science, and plans to work with math students in the future. Vitalie lives in the Republic of Moldova.

David Curtis is currently running his own business consultancy in the UK specializing in team collaboration and co-operation. He has worked in this realm for the last twelve years both in the UK and around the globe, and has many highly successful projects under his belt. He has been a director of several retail companies in the UK including the largest domestic textile retailer in the country. In his early career in the late sixties and early seventies he lectured on textiles at Richmond College in Sheffield, his home. He has also had significant involvement in the china and glass industries. For the last ten years, David has been traveling to Eastern Europe - particularly Ukraine - with the Initiatives of Change Foundations 4 Freedom Program, which works with and builds teams of young people within that region. These teams are now an important presence in the Caux Summer Conferences. David has been married to Judith for forty years and has a son, a daughter and four grandchildren.

Christina de Angelis has worked in the fields of child protection, education and metal health in Australia and the UK. She holds a bachelor's degree in Social Work and is completing a master's degree in Conflict Resolution at the University of Bradford, where she received a Rotary World Peace Scholarship. Born in the United States to a French mother and American father, Christina has lived in several countries and studied languages in Australia, Germany and the United States. Christina participated in Action for Life in 2003-04.

Danièle de Lutzel is of German origin but was exposed to different cultures early on in her life. As a result of living in the United States and now France, with many contacts in India, she has vast experience working with people from around the world. With an MBA in hand, Danièle’s work experience started with consulting for an international consulting company, Solving International. During those years she came to the conclusion that the key to excellence is found in human beings, not procedures, and she became interested in motivation, diversity of cultures and the activities of Initiatives of Change, where she got involved with the Caux Initiatives for Business programme. Danièle has since trained as a coach at International Mozaik in Paris and currently works as a coach on cross-cultural issues with individuals and groups. Combining her interests in psychology, neuroscience and Indian philosophy, Danièle continues to develop tools that integrate new insights into her coaching practice. She is has created a specific tool for understanding and mastering decision making, and is currently writing a book on the use of quiet time and self-reflection as coaching tool. Danièle is a certified MBTI consultant. She is a member of the International Coaching Federation and the Society of Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR).

Matthew Freeman currently serves as community facilitator for Hope in the Cities, where he uses dialogue as a tool to build just and inclusive communities among diverse racial, ethnic and religious groups. He has more than 10 years of experience facilitating dialogues in a variety of settings, including universities, high schools, faith communities, and civic groups. He also serves as an associate minister for reconciliation at Asbury United Methodist Church, a historically African-American congregation. In 2007, he and his wife founded an inter-racial community house, in the Catholic Worker tradition, in Richmond, Va. Matthew has a master’s degree in religious studies, studying the relations between faith communities and government. He is married and will be celebrating his 10th anniversary while in Caux.

Pablo José Fuentes is a priest of the order of Oblatos de María Inmaculada (OMI). He has given courses, workshops, conferences and counseling to families, couples and youth in Cuba, the United States (Miami), Argentina and many other countries in Latin America. He is the founder of the HOSA Movement (Sound and Peaceful Families). Born in Spain, he is now a naturalized Argentine living in Argentina.

Michelle Gavin coordinates The Rotary Foundation’s World Peace Fellowship program, awarding scholarships for master’s degree and certificate study in peace and conflict resolution. Michelle is also on the advisory board of the Women’s Global Education Project, which develops training programs and provides access to education to empower women and girls in Senegal and Kenya. She is active with the Chicago-area peace community and is a member of the Peace & Justice Studies Association. Previously, she designed cross-cultural adaptation programs for Prudential Relocation Intercultural, was a capacity-building trainer in Tajikistan for Save the Children, and taught high school English in the Czech Republic. Michelle holds a master’s degree in International and Intercultural Management from the School for International Training, and speaks Czech and Russian.

Azhar Hussain is the vice president for Preventive Diplomacy at the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy (ICRD), where he currently heads the Pakistan Madrasa Project. A native of Pakistan, he holds a master's degree in International/Inter-cultural Management from the School of International Training in Vermont. For the past ten years, Azhar has provided educational and inter-cultural consulting services for numerous multi-national organizations, and he has a well-established history of successful training and development initiatives throughout the world, including in India, Pakistan, Britain, the United States, and Mexico. He has served as senior consultant to Mexico’s Ministry of Education and as an adjunct professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey University, where he taught courses on international relations and history and served as a teacher trainer for university faculty. More recently, he held the position of senior consultant on International Education and Development at the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Azhar was awarded the 2006 Peacemakers in Action Award by the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding in New York.

Jonathan Levy is an independent, bi-cultural teacher trainer and trainer of adult trainers. Educated in Pedagogy and the philosophy of education, he has travelled extensively through Europe, Asia and North America designing and delivering teacher training and training-the-trainer workshops in the education, social, and NGO sectors. His recent projects include the design and delivery of a children rights teaching kit for an international French NGO, the application of learning strategies for a foundation dealing with inner city schools in the Paris area dealing with the multicultural classroom and the training of teachers, and the preparation of volunteer and permanent humanitarian staff who will be working in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen and Burma for an international child NGO. Born in Britain, Jonathan has lived and worked in France for 27 years.

Santhi Maniam is a training specialist with People Potential, a training and development consultancy with offices in Singapore and Malaysia, and corporate clients in approximately 20 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, North America and Africa. People Potential’s vision is that of a world filled with people-centered organizations and self-actualizing individuals. Santhi has more than 12 years of experience in the corporate and training industry as a facilitator, consultant and advisor to learning organizations. She holds an MBA from the Malaysian Multimedia University. Santhi’s professional practice in People Potential centers on Leadership, Management and Change.

Patricia Delia Mariani de Ferreyra is licensed in family orientation and is a member of the faculty of the Gente que Avanza Training Center in Montevideo, Uruguay. Patricia was born in Argentina and now resides in Montevideo. She is married with three children.

Trish McDonald-Harrisonhas a vision for Creators of Peace Circles spreading across our nations and the world. She is part of the Sydney Creators of Peace team where approximately 20 Creators of Peace Circles have been conducted in recent years, and where the Creators of Peace International Conference 2009 will be held. Trish has been an administrator in the community services industry for more than 20 years and holds a master's degree in Conflict Resolution. Trish currently serves as the Creators of Peace Regional Coordinator for Australia and the Pacific. As a 7th generation Anglo-Australian, Trish seeks to build bridges between indigenous Australians and non-indigenous Australians.

Terry Nettois the managing director of People Potential, a training and development consultancy with offices in Singapore and Malaysia and corporate clients in approximately 20 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, North America and Africa. People Potential’s vision is that of a world filled with people centered organizations and self-actualizing individuals. Terry comes from an eclectic educational background comprising Philosophy, Psychology, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and Civilizational Studies. Since early 2005 he has been working toward a doctorate in Business Administration. His professional practice centers on Leadership Development.

Krish Raval was born in Ethiopia of Indian parents and was raised in the UK. An executive trainer, he has a particular focus on leadership development and has worked for Virgin Media, Telewest Broadband, Proctor & Gamble, Royal Mail and a range of British schools, colleges and universities in this regard. Krish's training practice is client-centered, values-based, psychoanalytically informed and employs a range of intuitive and established frameworks. He is chief executive of Learn to Lead, an organization that develops the personal potential of people of all ages. He also holds the position of senior fellow of the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland. A lawyer, Krish had a training contract at a prominent Los Angeles law firm before a deep interest in people led him to work with troubled teenagers in the fields of addiction and eating disorders in the UK. Krish studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he won the Howarth and Smith Law Prize, and the University of Sheffield. He is a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.

Khaled Roumo has the double culture of French and Arab. After studying French literature, he dedicated his work to the social sector doing field work with immigrant populations (political refugees) from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. In helping these publics enter into their host culture while at same time keeping the values and richness of their ethnicity, Khaled acquired precious experience which he now shares with political leaders, corporate managers, social and cultural workers, teachers, school psychologists, and medical staff in training programs dealing with cultural and anti-discrimination all over France. He received a prize for innovation in training for his work with migrant populations in the integration process. Khaled’s commitment to cultural diversity also gained recognition through his award-winning project creating social connections for immigrant communities in an inner city environment.

Pari Sanyu has been involved in Creators of Peace Circles in Australia since 2003, and works with migrant and refugee groups as a volunteer. With her indigenous background and experience as a migrant from Nagaland to Australia, she believes strongly in the unique role that every woman has as a Peace Creator. Pari received her M.A. at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Bombay. Today she is the manager of Toddler Kindy GymbaRoo and facilitates sensory motor education programs for young children and their parents in Melbourne.

Ildze Elisabeth Slanke is of Latvian origin and currently lives in France. She participated in IofC's Action for Life program in Asia and trained with IofC in Taiwan on emotional intelligence (Ren-Jou Liu). Ildze has a strong interested in helping others to develop their potential. She completed her studies in Latvia before training in corporate coaching in the UK and earning a master's degree in Human Resources in France. She has worked as business journalist in Latvia and is currently a career coach at an international coaching company in Paris. Ildze speaks fluent Latvian, English, Russian and French.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Gerald Pillay (Caux Lecturer) is the vice-chancellor and rector of Liverpool Hope University. He was formerly a professor and head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Otago University, New Zealand’s oldest university. He has held various senior leadership positions at the University of South Africa, the Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria and the University of Otago. He has published extensively, presented papers at numerous international conferences, and served on the editorial boards of two international journals. Gerald earned B.A., a B.D. (with distinction) and Doctor of Theology from the University of Durban, as well as a DPhil in Philosophical Theology from Rhodes University. In 2005, he was elected a Life Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce. Gerald was born in the former British colony of Natal in South Africa. Now a New Zealand citizen, he is married and has two sons.

Mark Bin Bakar was named 2007 National Person of the Year by NAIDOC, the National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Commemoration. NAIDOC awarded him its highest honor for his efforts to increase cultural understanding among Australians. He is the founder of Abmusic, an Indigenous music school, and the Stompem Grounds festivals showcasing Indigenous music. He has earned two Deadly awards for Broadcaster of the Year for his work raising awareness of social issues facing Indigenous people. Mark is also involved in the Stolen Generation Oral History Project, which aims to change the way Australian history is taught in the classroom.

John Bond has worked with Initiatives of Change on several continents. In the past decade he has given leadership to nation-wide community initiatives aimed at healing the harm done by tragically misguided policies towards Aboriginal Australians. In 2007 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services as secretary of the National Sorry Day Committee.

Lewis Cardinal is Wood Cree from northern Alberta, Canada. He is founder and president of the Indigenous Media Institute of Canada and owns a consulting firm, Cardinal Strategic Communications. He serves as co-chair of the Aboriginal Commission on Human Rights and chair of the Global Indigenous Dialogue, an international gathering of Indigenous peoples, and Aboriginal Voices Radio (AVR), Canada’s first and only national Aboriginal radio network. Lewis has won numerous awards for his work, including the 2007 National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation Award for Public Service, the highest award given to an Aboriginal person by the Aboriginal people of Canada, and the Alberta Centennial Medal for his work in the areas of human rights and diversity. He is currently a PhD candidate in Education at the University of Alberta. Lewis lives in Edmonton with his wife Patricia and their two children.

Kiran Gandhi is a human resource consultant to several small, medium and large companies in India. Previously, he worked as the head of human resources development at four global Indian companies. He offers corporate training in leadership and management and serves as an executive coach for leadership development, performance management and interviewing skills in leading Indian companies and management schools. Kiran has held visiting faculty positions at management schools such as the Indian Business School, IIM and TMTC, and is a regular facilitator at Asia Plateau, the India Center for IofC. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and a MBA in Business Management from XLRI in Jamshedpur.

Dr. Barry Hart serves as the academic director for the Caux Scholars Program. He is an associate in the Institute for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia. He has developed programs in trauma recovery, prejudice reduction, conflict transformation and peacebuilding in the former Yugoslavia, Liberia and Northern Ireland.

John Katunga has served as Catholic Relief Services’ regional technical advisor for Peacebuilding and Justice in the east Africa region, based in Nairobi, Kenya, since January 2007. He also shares his expertise across Africa, Europe and the United States by teaching peacebuilding and conflict transformation courses at institutes of higher learning and peacebuilding training institutes. As a senior trainer for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., he provides leadership training for government leaders, military officials and police personnel in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi. John also continues to work with the Catholic bishops and other religious leaders in the Great Lakes region to build their peace and reconciliation skills. A native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, John holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Political Science from Kisangani University in the DRC, as well as a master’s in Conflict Transformation from the Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia.

Wadiaa Khoury is a graduate of Action for Life 1. She has been involved in IofC in Lebanon since 1997, focusing on inter-religious dialogue and trustbuilding. With a background in Education and Law, Waadia is currently a PhD candidate in Public Law doing research on educational legislation. She also serves as a secondary school community service coordinator.

David Mills is coordinator of Initiatives of Change in Sydney, Australia. Originally from Melbourne, David has been involved in industrial, community and race relations in the UK, Africa and the Pacific, as well as in Australia. More recently this has included practical peace and reconciliation building programs in the Solomon Islands after the civil war there. Since 2003 he has also coordinated major Muslim/Christian community dialogues in different regions of Sydney. In his spare time he is a singer/songwriter, and many of his songs reflect experiences from his life and work.

Hans-Rudolf Pfeifer is a medical doctor from Zurich, Switzerland, who specializes in psychiatry and psychotherapy. Now in private practice, he worked for more than 20 years for various institutions, including the Psychiatric University Hospital of Zurich. He has written theses on person-centered and purpose-in-life-oriented existential psychotherapy, reflecting the vision and writings of Dr. Paul Tournier and Professor Viktor E. Frankl. H.R. is affiliated with the Institute for the Psychiatry for the Person (IPPP) of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) and contributed to the book Medicine of the Person – Faith, Science and Values in Health Care Provision (2007). He is president of the Christian Medical Fellowship of Switzerland (AGEAS), serves on the Eurasian board of the International Christian Medical Dental Association (ICMDA), and is involved in teaching and other special projects. He has traveled in the Middle East, India and the Far East, as well as in America. He is married to Grace, who is from Chinese background, and has two teenage daughters, Joyce and Melody.