MEET THE TEAM
A unique insider-outsider set of experts with intimate insider knowledge and contacts coupled with comparative expertise of other conflicts and peace processes.
AJUME WINGO
President, Board of Directors
Prince of Nso and political philosopher
Dr. Wingo is a political and social philosopher who has published widely on liberal democratic philosophy and politics, particularly on institutional building and the analysis of non-liberal or corrupt democratic states with particular focus on contemporary African states. He has also published on Civic Education, African Politics, African Art, and Aesthetics. He is currently working on a book entitled The Citizen in collaboration with Dr. Michael Kruse. The book is about how Africans can move beyond where their history has put them and begin to make their own future and secure their own political freedom.
Dr. Wingo was born in Nso in the North West Province of Cameroon. He attended Cameroon College of Arts, Science and Technology Bambili and the University of Yaounde. He obtained his BA from the University of California Berkeley and an MA (1995) and PhD (1997) from the University of Wisconsin Madison. He was a fellow at the Institute on Race and Social Division, Boston University; a fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard; a Visiting Assistant Professor at Clark University and Emerson College; and an Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is currently an Associate of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard.
PÁDRAIG O'MALLEY
Director
Renowned peacemaker and author
Born in Dublin, Ireland, O’Malley is an award-winning author and expert on democratic transitions and divided societies, with special expertise on Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Iraq. His latest book, The Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine—A Tale of Two Narratives was published by Viking/Penguin Press in July 2015. His fifteen year documentation of the transition from Apartheid to democracy in South Africa, The Heart of Hope, is available at the Nelson Mandela Foundation website. O’Malley is also the founding editor of the New England Journal of Public Policy, a publication of UMass Boston’s John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies.
Prof. O'Malley convened and facilitated multiple encounters of the belligerents in the Northern Ireland conflict, and in 1997 convened a four-day conference in South Africa with Nelson Mandela’s government bringing all parties in stalled negotiations in Northern Ireland to meet with all the chief negotiators from the South African peace process 1992–1994. He also did extensive peacemaking work in Iraq, leading to the framework for future inclusive negotiations signed by 37 political leaders and tribal sheikhs. These and more of O'Malleys peacemaking ventures are depicted in the documentary The Peacemaker.
SUZANNE GHAIS
Executive Director
Seasoned conflict resolution expert
Suzanne Ghais, Ph.D., is a facilitator, mediator, and trainer in several arenas including peace processes, internal organizational matters, and environmental issues. In her three decades in conflict resolution practice, she has provided training and strategy consultation to armed groups involved in the Myanmar peace process, facilitated strategy review sessions for USAID transition programs on three continents, facilitated a collaborative co-management agreement of the National Bison Range between the US Fish and Wildlife Service and an indigenous American tribe, and facilitated and mediated many high-level management issues within US federal agencies and other organizations. Dr. Ghais has also served as adjunct professor at American University’s School of International Service and the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies, teaching conflict assessment, conflict prevention, and international negotiation. Dr. Ghais has conducted dozens of training courses on mediation, facilitation, arbitration, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills. She is the author of Extreme Facilitation: Guiding Groups through Controversy and Complexity (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2005) as well as numerous articles. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Brown University, her Master’s degree from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, and her Ph.D. in international relations at American University School of International Service, with a focus on peace processes.
YVES-RENEE JENNINGS
Director
Scholar-practitioner in peacebuilding, conflict transformation and inclusive social change
Yves-Renée Jennings, Ph.D., is an accomplished conflict resolution scholar-practitioner and instructor and senior former World Bank executive. She brings a wealth of experience establishing and overseeing transformational projects to help prevent or manage groups’ multicultural and societal conflicts, contributing to the academic and cultural growth of participants and students. Dr. Jennings has experience designing and developing conflict intervention systems for groups at the leadership, civil society, and grassroots levels. She has taught and trained conflict analysis, prevention, management, resolution, and transformation; peacebuilding and social change, as well as project management & leadership. Prior to her conflict resolution career she served in the World Bank for over 20 years in personnel management, administration, budget and resource management, risk management, internal controls, and internal auditing, working with World Bank offices in Washington, DC,, 17 countries in Africa and four in Latin America. She also worked in the private sector in her native Haiti for over 10 years as an office manager.
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DARREN KEW
Director
Sought-after expert on conflict, democracy,
and civil society in Africa
Darren Kew, Ph.D. is Dean of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies. Previously, he was associate professor in the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His research explores the connection between democratic institution building in Africa and the development of political cultures that support democracy, particularly in terms of the role of civil society groups in this development. Kew has worked with the Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Preventive Action to provide analysis and blueprints for preventing conflicts in several areas around the world, including Nigeria, Central Africa, and Kosovo. He has consulted to the United Nations, USAID, the US State Department, and to a number of NGOs, including the Carter Center in a 1999 effort by former President Carter to mediate the Niger Delta conflicts. His work on how conflict resolution methods promote democratization of national political cultures is among the first of its kind linking these important fields. His research interests include civil society, conflict prevention, and transnational civil society development; international security and crisis intervention in Africa; and international negotiation and mediation.