Mona Mowafi

Mona Mowafi is Co-founder and President of RISE Egypt, a global nonprofit that is leveraging its network of top experts, investors, and researchers to accelerate entrepreneurship for development in Egypt. Its mission is to find, support, and scale enterprises that create positive social impact, are financially sustainable, and address policy challenges of national significance. Mona was also Co-founder and President of Egypt NEGMA from 2011-2013, and was Chair of its 1st Annual NEGMA Conference and Impact Egypt! Social Innovation Competition. She has received numerous awards for her work including a global health research award by the Global Health Council in 2011, the Judith O’Connor Award for emerging nonprofit leaders from Boardsource in 2012, and a national leadership award by Americorps Alums in 2014 for her ongoing commitment to global development through service-learning. She has published widely in her field and has frequently lectured on the role of people-driven development in Egypt. Mona holds a doctorate in Social Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, where she currently remains affiliated as a Visiting Research Scientist.

Jenna Sirkin

Jenna is a principal research scientist who uses qualitative, implementation science, survey, econometric, and community-based participatory research methods. Her scholarship focuses on Medicaid/Medicare financing and delivery, state health policy, behavioral health access and integration, care delivery transformation in primary care and safety-net systems, and community health and well-being.

Her portfolio for the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) includes mixed-methods evaluations of state payment and delivery models, such as the Vermont All-Payer Accountable Care Organization Model, the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model, and Medicaid Innovation Accelerator Program. Her work with agencies, foundations, and local organizations examines the effectiveness of evidence-based models for care delivery, access, and coordination across community-based settings. She also has a portfolio of work focused on professional well-being and factors associated with access to care.

She was formerly at Abt Associates, adjunct faculty at Northeastern University and associate director of the Brandeis University Council on Health Care Economics and Policy. She engages with community members, policymakers, and implementation partners throughout the design, research, and dissemination process. She brings international development experience and is co-author of Breaking the Poverty Cycle: The Human Basis for Sustainable Development as a Rotary Fellow in Mexico City.

Alexander Busse

Mr. Alexander Busse serves as General Partner at NXTP Ventures. He also serves as Board Member at Worcket and previously served on the board of Kangu. Prior to NXTP, Alex worked in various investment funds and financial institutions and most recently worked at New York-based private equity fund, Conduit Capital, investing controlling stakes in private companies across Latin America and the Caribbean. He holds a BA from Tufts University in Boston and a master's degree from Columbia University in New York.

Alex Zerden

Alex Zerden is the founder and principal of Capital Peak Strategies LLC, a FinTech, digital asset, and emerging technologies advisory firm.

As a regulatory lawyer, economic policymaker, and financial diplomat, Alex brings fifteen years of public and private sector experience at the intersection of financial services, national security, and law with a focus on financial regulation, anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), economic sanctions, anti-corruption, financial enforcement and oversight investigations, economic crisis response, and public-private partnerships.

Alex began his career representing U.S. and international victims of terrorism. He has worked across the U.S. government to protect the financial system from abuse and promote economic growth, including at the Treasury Department, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), White House National Economic Council, House of Representatives, and Senate. From 2018-2019, Alex deployed to Afghanistan to lead the Treasury Department office at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

Alex has published extensively on issues involving AML/CFT, economic sanctions, anti-corruption, cybersecurity, and FinTech, including with the American Banker, Atlantic Council, Lawfare Blog, Center for American Progress, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Blog, and has been quoted and interviewed in media outlets including Al Jazeera, BBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business News, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Alex received his B.A., cum laude, from Tufts University, and his J.D., summa cum laude, from the American University Washington College of Law. He is also a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Term Member and a former CNAS Next Generation National Security Fellow.

Ken Vacovec

Kenneth J. Vacovec, the founding partner of the firm, practices in all areas of tax law including tax planning for businesses and individuals, estate planning, representation before Internal Revenue Service and state tax authorities, international tax planning for individuals and businesses, international estate planning, and tax compliance.

Ken, who is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell, has extensive experience in advising clients on the tax aspects and planning opportunities for structuring domestic and cross border transactions and business relationships involving U.S. and foreign individuals and businesses. He graduated from Tufts University (BA 1969), Suffolk University Law School (JD, cum laude, 1975) and the Boston University Law School (LL.M in Taxation, 1976).

Ken is a member of the bars of Massachusetts and the United States Federal District Court of Massachusetts and the United States Tax Court. He has been an active participant in the Massachusetts Bar Association, most recently as President (1996-97). He is currently a Trustee and President of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation and a Trustee and executive Vice President of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. He is also a member of the Boston Bar and American Bar Associations where he was a Massachusetts Delegate to the ABA house of Delegates 1996-2001 and is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He is a member of the International Fiscal Association and member of the United States Branch Council.

He is the National Reporter for the IFA world congress Oslo Norway 2002 Reporting on U.S. Tax Residency.

Ken speaks regularly on tax topics before both business and professional groups. He was one of the original seminar presenters for Massachusetts Partners for Trade.

Publications

Co-author of U.S. Foreign Tax Credit for Corporate Tax payers IBFD Bulletin special Issue IFA 55 Congress San Francisco, CA. USA.

Co-author, “Taxation in the United States,” International Taxation of Employment Manual, F.T. Law and Tax (U.K.), 1995;

Voices of Grief Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony

Immediately following the 19th Annual Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony, we will gather online to hear from bereaved Palestinian and Israeli peacemakers who are transforming their losses into catalysts for hope. Come hear from Musa Juma’a and Maoz Inon.

Sunday, May 12th
2:30 PM EST (9:30 PM Jerusalem, 7:30 PM London)

(Simultaneous translation to English, Arabic, and Hebrew will be available)

Click here to register now


Speakers

Musa Juma’a was born in Jerusalem, and studied and graduated in its streets. He is a 37-year-old doctor and writer who has family in both the West Bank and Gaza. Musa’s aunt and 8 of his cousins were recently killed in Gaza. Musa is working to end the occupation and believes peace cannot be separated from freedom.

Maoz Inon is an award-winning Israeli social entrepreneur, peace activist, and the founder of several tourism initiatives within Israel and the Middle East. Since his parents were killed on Israel on October 7, 2023, Inon has become a leading voice for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Deborah Katchko Gray

I’m a fourth generation cantor, and the second woman to serve a conservative congregation (1981). My years at Boston University were enriched by studies with Prof. Elie Wiesel of blessed memory. I am still learning from his wisdom and teachings. While at Boston U I got involved at the Hillel and met Sherman Teichman, a program director like no other. I fondly remember the Leviathon Leather workshops, the Lehrhouse programs of study, and outreach, creativity and energy that even a wonderful place like BU Hillel just could not process or contain. I am thrilled to be reconnected with Sherman in this wonderful endeavor. I believe in mentoring, sharing, and creating connections. In l982 I sensed a need for a like-minded community of women cantors and founded the Women Cantors’ Network. It has grown to be a lifeline for hundreds of women cantors, soloists, musicians, rabbis, and people exploring the cantorate. It is open to anyone interested in learning and sharing. www.womencantors.net I’ve been a pulpit cantor for decades and are on the brink of retiring. I love sharing programs and ideas- Sharing the legacy of my grandfather’s music in a new era using guitar chords in female friendly keys is a passion of mine. I published perhaps the first cantorial book with guitar and female voices in mind. I’ve enjoyed doing workshops for cantorial students and teach for the European Academy for Jewish Liturgy by zoom.

Fiber art and Judaica has been another passion of mine. I’ve been making Swedish Weaving tallitot for many years. The idea of making a personal tallit for my four sons has evolved into years of teaching and publishing a book on it. Prayerful Creations. Using fabric from family members makes it so meaningful- literally connecting with your loved ones as you pray.

Recently I was challenged to help create a Women of the Wall choir. I call it the WOW Choir! It is amazing to see and hear over a dozen young women sing and harmonize the prayers for the Rosh Chodesh Women of the Wall services at the Kotel. The struggles continue, but the harmony lifts up the voices and prayers.

I love writing as well, and I’m working on a book “Class Notes- A Lifetime of Learning with Elie Wiesel”. I also like writing smaller things for Times of Israel Blogs, and Jerusalem Post. All my writings are found at www.muckrack.com.

I am thrilled to be part of this community of mentors and seekers. May we all continue to grow, create and make waves for the future.

I'm so excited to share this creative adventure with my friend Beth Styles- I've had a  dream of using nusach from my grandfather, Cantor Adolph Katchko and creating new music that keeps the nusach theme throughout while making it meaningful with English and singable uplifting melodies. I have an essay attached describing the idea behind it, and the two recordings are listed above- Please let me know what you think- how you think you can use them in worship. We have pdfs available, hoping to go through Transcontinental and Oysongs to distribute. There are solo and choral versions of the pdfs. For now, you can contact me for the music. 

Adonai Malach- My Strength, My Rock includes the words Am Yisrael Chai! The opening music is a recording of my father, Cantor Theodore Katchko z"l with me adding harmony years later. Bringing the family musical traditions together and moving forward feels right. 

Let us continue to pray for Israel and the hostages. 

Shalom- Sing a New Song to God

Michael Niconchuk and Justine Hardy at the 35th Annual Boston International Trauma Conference - Trauma Research Foundation

Watch video trailer here!!

Opening remarks by Convisero mentor Mike Niconchuk:

Good morning and welcome.

I want to thank each of you for being here. And I want to thank the Trauma Research Foundation for opening this space. Bruce, for his new and exciting leadership of TRF. Wendy, for her work on this event and globally-recognized leadership in the field of trauma, and Carrie, who puts so much effort into this event. Of course I also want to thank Bessel for deeply considering the relationships between trauma, social unrest, violence, and social repair and suggesting this topic feature prominently at the very start of the event.

And you—you chose to be here, in person or online, to engage with content that is explicitly emotional, sensitive, and likely personal for many of you. Conflict, violence, trauma, and social division. This topic is imminent and painful for so many reasons. By virtue of our location today on historically stolen lands, police brutality against student protests here in Boston, the anguish of Palestinian families watching their families killed daily in Gaza, the daily arrival of hundreds of persons fleeing rampant violence in Haiti, rising anti-Semitism, the intersection of trauma and violent conflict is evident here in this city—and the world over. The line between the “here” and the “there” has broken, and many of you probably interact with the tendrils and legacies of displacement, war, and social rupture in your work.

And we must speak into the room Gaza. We will not focus intensely on it, as it is not mine to speak about, but it is naturally something on the mind and in the heart, as it is a trauma that speaks to the intergenerational and collective, to identity, the metastatic pain that dismantles dichotomies between victim and perpetrator.

I am confident that feelings of unsafety, anger, or fear emerge even at its mere invocation.

And know, from the bottom of my heart, that I wish for each of you a life of safety, just as I wish the same for the people Gaza, of Sudan, of Congo, Haiti, Ecuador, Burkina Faso, Iraq, Ukraine, Los Angeles, incarceration facilities in this country, and elsewhere.

And we take a breath together. Find those safety resources within yourself as we go through the day. Invoke them, use them.

It is my true desire that each of you in this room and online live a life of safety. A life of safety in which your own and your policymakers pursuit of your safety is not at the expense of the life of less desirable others. And today we are not here to adjudicate blame, but to elevate trauma and the necessity of exploring trauma healing contexed within broader social and political issues.

I wish for you a life of safety, because that is what it is all about—as a species, as mental health workers, as advocates. We work to create safety in the self, in relationships, and in the world around us. For those who have experienced trauma, opportunity without safety is a false gift. Decades of violence in communities can impact health outcomes for generations, can rupture families and social cohesion, and can exacerbate inequities. Safety in the body and mind, in such adverse circumstances, is wildly difficult, and we must continue innovating in the creation of safety in mind, body, relationships, land, and material circumstances.

Today is highly personal for me.

The act of centering myself on this stage could be construed as a gross act of privilege, but my intention is to bring us immediately to a critical point that Justine Hardy, Homeboy Industries, and the Violence Intervention Project will investigate in great detail: trauma and violence are personal. And only by elevating the urgency, dignity, and beauty of persons will we be able to couple our pursuit of healing and our pursuits of justice.

To be blunt, I am enraged at the actions of this country’s government in sustaining active conflicts and adding embers to situations where they could easily as add water. In many ways, there is something particularly infuriating about working on conflict-related trauma, because violence is not an act of God; it is an act of mankind. Often I find myself incredulous at the reality of global mental health financing; as the same actors involved in the harm of populations then ask for bids to go innovate on dealing with the trauma left behind. It is akin to cigarette companies funding heart disease interventions in the communities with the greatest sales.

One of my best friends is at the moment on a perilous and criminalized journey to safety for himself and his family. He, a refugee who first fled war in 2012, is somewhere in a Russian, or Belorussian, or Polish forest. Perhaps frostbitten, perhaps about to get shot, perhaps soon to be attacked by police dogs, perhaps totally safe—smuggling himself into Europe because that—the decaying heart of empire—is the only place that he can fathom safety. Foreign aid money, which has historically been used as a form of soft power and influence, has all but dried up for refugee camps in greater Syria (bilad ash-Sham), and he has struggled for 9 months to make enough money picking tomatoes, in order to feed his children, including one with specific health needs. My heart breaks that he feels there is no easier way. And I am angry that this is the landscape of choice he has—risk life, limb, and crushing debt to undertake a life-threatening journey where, even if successful, you will be separated from your family for 2 years, or wallow in a tent or decaying apartment where every aspect of your existence is dependent on aid resources that are rapidly drying up now that your people are not politically relevant. That we have built a world where material scarcity, forced poverty, and internationally influenced civil wars are written off as “unfortunate traumas.”

Days ago, I told him not to go. That we will try to find another way.

He was weeping.

I told him, “Habibi, you could die. Are you willing to risk your children losing their father?”

He paused, and said, “But they already have.” He continued sobbing.

They have lost him to depression, hopelessness, trauma, shame, guilt, fear.

What is the work with this man? A breathing exercise? Cognitive reframing? EMDR—for which trauma? For his PTSD or his depression or his hopelessness or his anger or his anxiety? A life of dignity is not a treatment protocol. That is not to say trauma healing work is irrelevant for this man—but there is simply no post- to his post-trauma challenges.

It is heavy. This work is heavy. And we are not here to shy away from it, but to explore how what we know how to do—this like build relational containers of healing and hope, building regulation in the body, investing in spiritual, emotional, psychological, and interpersonal resources towards healing—to explore how these things are complicated by the realities of war, separation, violence, politics, racism, and social division.

Today we aim to connect dots, for the context of violence, disconnection, and injustice is universal. Where power, greed, identity threat, and perceived status loss go, so does violence. And that is not to suggest such traumatic experiences are inevitable, but rather that the challenge at hand is massive for those in the field of mental health and psychosocial support. What we see in parts of Los Angeles—as we will hear today—or what we see in the Kashmir Valley or in the Republic of the Maldives or Gaza—is connected. To be interested in the mental health of survivors of violence and conflict without being interested in their justice is insufficient at best, and complicit at worst.

This is where the etiology of PTSD, stress related disorders, and sub-pathological adaptations in the self, relationships and communities pushes us into a difficult position. In some cases we know so clearly the causes of harm. In many conflicts our tax dollars drop the bombs that cause the trauma and then agencies based in those countries get the big contracts to respond to the trauma. It’s a perverse cycle.

Is the role of the mental health practitioner or psychosocial support worker inherently political? How can privilege and class and foreign intervention destroy local ways of healing? And at the same time how can privilege and platforms be leveraged to do the work of undoing the structural sources of harm? How do we build sustainable teams in such environments? Where are the bright spots in new protocols and ways of working that can bring hope and agency even in the most adverse circumstances. Where do we see those bright spots of innovation that honor the local, offer agency to survivors, and work around systems that are unwilling or unable to change in the timeframe needed.

In the case of trauma and conflict, I sit in a pile of my own unintended complicity, while also fiercely trying to get this right. So how do we dare do work? Carefully, with humility and permission. With radical empathy as we know how trauma metastasizes in self and society, and we understand that grace, dialogue, and healing are necessary parts of justice.

We will start today with Justine Hardy, who will take us to the Kashmir Valley, a site of decades of violence, and millennia of beauty, art, faith, and complexity. We will then talk about one of many elephants in the room—extremism—and the delicate work of trauma-responsive care for persons exiting violent extremist groups. I will focus on collective work with returnees from the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, while calling out our obsession with violence in the Islamic world, when in reality, much of what goes on in this country should be equally as vilified and understood in the context of history and policy. After lunch we will shift geographies, focusing the city of Los Angeles, exploring innovative models of care for persons exiting incarceration, and in bringing neurofeedback to communities that have long suffered the consequences of injustice, racism, and systemic exclusion.

Today will be uncomfortable, eye opening, and challenging.

Justine Hardy’s outline:

I was talking about trans-generational trauma, and though the following is only in bullet point, and without the elegance of Mike’s introductory comments, it gives an outline:

 

  • The different impacts across several generations living through (and within) the same conflict. 

  • How to begin to address the misunderstandings and differences between the trauma of each generation.

  • How to support and accompany those who are ‘frozen’ (psychologically paralysed) by trauma in settings where there is little or no recourse to treatments other than the heavy bombardment of pharmacology and what an individual therapist can do face-to-face with the people they are working with.

  • Working with the next generation, exploring ways of interrupting the cycles of violence that play out across the generations.

  • Working somatically (in the mind-body continuum) both preventatively and curatively to give people the agency of understanding what is happening within their nervous system responses and how this interacts with their minds, mood and capacity to function.

Combatants for Peace: The 19th Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Day Ceremony

Dear Friends,

We are excited to announce the launch of the 2024 Annual Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Day Ceremony. In the midst of the violence, the despair and the most divided society in our history, we are choosing to follow a different path.

Now in its 19th year, the ceremony is a chance to reflect, to mourn, to acknowledge the pain of the other but also to feel there is hope. Since October 7th 2023, tens of thousands of lives have been cut short, families torn apart, children traumatized - now more than ever we need to continue to show up for one another, to demand an end to the war and call for a political solution that brings freedom, justice and safety for all. In mourning together, we seek not to equate experiences, but rather transform despair into hope and build compassion around our shared humanity. We remind ourselves and the world that occupation, oppression, and conflict are not inevitable. 

The ceremony takes place on the eve of “Yom Ha’Zikaron” (Israeli Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror). It is one of the most somber days in Israel- where everything shuts down, the state TV channels only broadcast coverage of the national memorial ceremony- and everything feels very dark. But our ceremony is different. You will hear from both Israelis and Palestinians bereaved through conflict and feel the light seep in as we come together to both remember the past and look ahead to a brighter future.

The theme of the ceremony this year will focus on the stories of children. Children whose only crime was being born Palestinian or Israeli. What will be the future of the next generation?

Please, support the ceremony, so we can truly show the world that this is the will of the people, that the international community is behind us, and together, we can create a more peaceful future. Last year we had 300,000 people with us live - let’s grow our community, and declare once again - war is not an act of fate, there is another way!

In Peace & Solidarity from Israel/Palestine,

Rana Salman & Eszter Koranyi

Co-Directors, Combatants for Peace

Convisero Mentor Biz Herman starts new position at International Rescue Committee

Biz Herman recently started as a Researcher at the IRC working on their Switchboard team, which provides training and technical assistance to refugee resettlement providers in the US.

The main project she is now working on at the moment is developing and (eventually) implementing the Annual Survey of Refugee Practitioners, a new survey that will be conducted yearly to assess strengths and challenges among practitioners nationally. It's intended to be a counterpart to ORR's Annual Survey of Refugees.

2024 Senior Awardee: Margaret Grieve, A24

Margaret Grieve, A24

Hometown: Sacramento, California

Major(s): International Relations and Arabic Language and Cultural Studies

Meg, a senior majoring in International Relations and Arabic Language and Cultural Studies, is originally from Sacramento, California, but primarily grew up in Washington, D.C.

She served as President of the Middle East Research Group (MERG), which involved orchestrating panels and dialogues, leading weekly meetings, and aiding in the transition of the Initiative of Global Leadership to Tisch College. A highlight during her time with MERG was organizing a research trip to Cyprus during her sophomore year to investigate educational policies for refugees within the school system.

Throughout her four years at Tufts, Meg has served as goalkeeper for the Women’s Club Soccer team and, as captain of the student-led team, steered the group to regionals for the first time since 2017.

Last summer, she was an Oslo Scholar at the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies, focusing on advancing democracy and human rights globally. As part of the program, she attended the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway, engaging with prominent dissidents and human rights advocates.

Meg has also immersed herself in various countries across the Middle East and North Africa. After high school, she spent a gap year in Rabat, Morocco, teaching English, living with a host family, and studying Arabic. Following her sophomore year at Tufts, she received the SALAM Scholarship from the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, allowing her to participate in an intensive Arabic program in Manah, Oman. Most recently, during her junior year spring semester, she studied abroad through Middlebury College’s language program at the University of Jordan. There, she not only enjoyed taking classes but also volunteered at Squash Dreamers, an organization dedicated to teaching young refugee girls squash and English.

Meg now works with Professor Emeritus Sherman Teichman at The Trebuchet, where she focuses on expanding the networking community and helps with the planning of discussions concerning human rights issues and pertinent current events.

“Branching Out, Blossoming Together,” Hebrew College celebrates honoree Rabbi Adina Allen

Honoree Rabbi Adina Allen was ordained at Hebrew College in 2014 and went on to found Jewish Studio Project, an organization which aims to “cultivate creativity as a Jewish practice for spiritual connection and social transformation.” Adina credits her time at Hebrew College with helping her bring her creative practice “into the beit midrash” and positioning her to launch JSP soon after her ordination in 2014. We are particularly proud to honor Adina just a month before the release of her book, The Place of All Possibility, which unpacks Jewish Studio Project’s pedagogical and spiritual foundations, while “reframing all of Torah as a guidebook to creativity.” Jewish Studio Project is expanding to Boston in the second half of 2024, when a programming partnership with JSP and Hebrew College will renew Adina’s connection with our community.

Adina Allen

Rabbi Adina Allen is a spiritual leader, writer, and educator who grew up in an art studio where she learned firsthand the power of creativity for connecting to self and to the Sacred. She is cofounder and creative director of Jewish Studio Project (JSP), an organization that is seeding a future in which every person is connected to their creativity as a force for healing, liberation and social transformation. Based on the work of her mother, renowned art therapist Pat B. Allen, Adina developed the Jewish Studio Process, a methodology for unlocking creativity, which she has brought to thousands of activists, educators, artists, and clergy across the country. A national media contributor, popular speaker, and workshop leader, Adina’s writing can be found in scholarly as well as mainstream publications, and on her website at www.adina-allen.com. Her first book, The Place of All Possibility is forthcoming from Ayin Press (Spring, 2024).

Mukesh Kapila

Dr Kapila has extensive experience in disaster and crisis policy and management. Also global and public health, international development, humanitarian affairs, conflict and security issues, human rights, diplomacy, and social entrepreneurship, with substantive leadership roles in government, United Nations system and multilateral agencies, International Red Cross and Red Crescent, civil society, and academia. He is also an author and public and media speaker.

His work has taken him to some 120 countries in all continents. Originally schooled in India and England, Dr Kapila graduated in medicine from the University of Oxford and received postgraduate qualifications in public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Since 2012, Dr Kapila has been the Professor (now Emeritus) of Global Health & Humanitarian Affairs at the University of Manchester, UK where he also founded and chaired the Manchester Global Foundation. Since 2020, he is also Senior Adviser to the Parliamentary Assembly for the Mediterranean, the principal forum for 29 national parliaments of the Euro-Mediterranean region deliberating on the creation of the best political, social, economic and cultural environment for fellow citizens of member states. He also serves as adviser on several international bodies including on the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Antimicrobial Resistance for the World Health Organization. After an initial clinical career (1980-1984) in hospitals and general practice in Cambridge, and then in public health (1984-1990) including initiating and leading the first National UK HIV/AIDS Programme, Dr Kapila joined what is now called the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in 1990 where he oversaw British aid health programmes in Asia and Pacific, Latin America and Caribbean, followed by a spell based in Central and Southern Africa. Subsequently, he went on, at the Department for International Development (1994-2002), to found and head a large new government department for conflict and humanitarian affairs covering crisis and emergency situations due to wars and disasters worldwide. In that role, he was responsible for several global initiatives to reform and strengthen the international multilateral humanitarian and human rights systems, and represented the UK in numerous fora at the European Union, UN General Assembly, and on the boards of UN agencies.

Dr Kapila was seconded by the UK Government to the United Nations in 2002-03 initially as Special Adviser to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General in Afghanistan and then to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. He then became the United Nations’ Resident and Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Sudan (2003-04) leading what was at the time, the UN’s biggest operation in the world. in 2004, he arrived at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva as Director for Emergency Response handling major operations such as for the Indian Ocean Tsunami.

In 2006, he joined the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the world’s largest emergency humanitarian and development network serving in different roles such as Special Representative of the Secretary General, Director of Policy and Planning, and finally as Undersecretary General where he oversaw several transformations and strategic interventions to scale-up programming.

Dr Kapila has also served in many policy advisory roles, conducted strategic reviews and formulated new programmes with several other international agencies such as the World Bank, UNAIDS, International Labour Organization, UN OCHA and ISDR, as well as served on the Boards of the UN Institute for Training and Research, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, and the International Peace Academy. He was an early member of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination System. He was closely involved in the development of the original Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and their successor, the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He returned to the United Nations in 2015-2016 to serve as Special Adviser for the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, and then in 2018-2019 to found and direct the innovative Defeat-NCD Partnership at the UN.

Additionally, he has been active in several civil society groups including chairing the Council of Minority Rights Group International, and chairing the Board of Nonviolent Peaceforce that was nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. He has initiated new initiatives on sexual and gender based violence and, as Special Representative of the Aegis Trust, on the prevention of genocide and other crimes against humanity. These came out of his personal experiences in witnessing, at first hand, the genocidal atrocities in Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Darfur.

He has also been a Senior Member of Hughes Hall College at Cambridge University, professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations, visiting professor at the International Center for Humanitarian Affairs, Nairobi, and Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

Dr Kapila has received several awards for his public service. In 2003 he was bestowed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. In 2007 he received the Dr Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award of the Institute for Global Leadership for (as stated): “moral courage, personal integrity, and passion…dedicated to solving the most pressing problems facing the world”. In 2013, he was given the “I Witness” Award for human rights protection and, in 2014, the California State Legislature passed its Special Resolution 395 for recognising (as stated) “a lifetime of achievements and meritorious service to humanity”.

Dr Kapila has been a public motivational and keynote speaker at numerous events including at TedX, and delivered in Nairobi in 2013, the memorial lecture in honour of Nobel Prize winning environmental activist Wangari Maathai.

He has written extensively and served on editorial boards of several publications such as Global Governance and the International Journal of Humanitarian Studies. His memoir “Against a Tide of Evil” was nominated for the 2013 Best Non-Fiction Book award by the Crime Writers Association. His latest book (2019) is entitled “No Stranger to Kindness”. Some of his other writings can be accessed on his website.

Paul Root Wolpe

Paul Root Wolpe, longtime director of Emory University’s Center for Ethics, will step down May 31 in order to found a new center focused on conflict management, mediation and peacebuilding.

Envisioned in response to a rising “climate of conflict” within the U.S. and abroad, the new Emory center will bring together expertise and resources across Emory and the city of Atlanta to study effective approaches to peacebuilding and support productive dialogue about difficult subjects. Building upon Wolpe’s connections and deep experience as an ethicist and mediator, the center will reach across ideological lines and facilitate the work of Emory faculty, students and staff responding to upheavals domestically in politics, the corporate sector, organizations and communities — and the way they manifest in academia.

“As director of the Center for Ethics, Paul has profoundly impacted the way the Emory community and those beyond our campus understand and engage with ethical issues,” says Ravi V. Bellamkonda, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

“In his new role, Paul will continue to guide Emory’s response to some of the most pressing issues of the day, and position Emory as a leading resource for dialogue, civil conversation and reconciliation,” says Bellamkonda. “I am grateful for his continued service, and I look forward to watching the center grow from an idea to a reality.”

Bellamkonda announced Wolpe’s plans to step down from the director role to the Center for Ethics community last fall. In addition, he announced the appointment of John Lysaker, William R. Kenan Professor of Philosophy, as the center’s next director. Following a sabbatical this academic year, Lysaker will assume the directorship on June 1.

Wolpe, the Raymond F. Schinazi Distinguished Research Chair of Jewish Bioethics and professor of medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, neuroscience and biological behavior and sociology, has served as the Center for Ethics director since 2008.

During his tenure, the Center for Ethics core faculty has grown from three to 10, with more than 50 additional affiliated faculty across Emory. The center has evolved into a crucial resource for the university, starting new programs such as Ethics and the Arts, which partners with art institutions to understand how art challenges perspectives, and Ethics and Servant Leadership, providing opportunities for students to engage with community organizations. Wolpe has also been instrumental in organizing highly visible events centered on ethics, including interviews with the Dalai Lama in 2013 and Ibram X. Kendi in 2020, both of which drew thousands of attendees.

The center’s renown has also grown through its Healthcare Ethics Consortium, which is nationally recognized for leadership in health care ethics education and consultative services for health systems, agencies and physicians.

“This is an extremely fertile time, and the center is doing really well. I’m very proud of what we've built,” Wolpe says. “I look forward to continuing to work with colleagues in the Center for Ethics and across Emory as we launch a new center focused on ethical, purposeful conflict mediation and coalition-building.”

Wolpe will bring the same dedication to innovation, partnership and the intellectual life of the community to his planned new center, which will advance scholarship on peacebuilding and provide students with the skills they need to have challenging conversations in their personal and professional lives.

“If we taught students better models for having tough conversations,” Wolpe says, “we would enrich our academic life as well as our interpersonal relationships. I’ve seen how difficult it is for people to really engage in conversations and truly listen to the other side instead of just waiting for the other side to finish so that they can say what they want to say.”

Fearless Dialogues, a nonprofit organization established by Candler School of Theology’s Gregory C. Ellison II, associate professor of transformative leadership and communal care, and Brokered Dialogue, a research method developed by James Lavery, professor of global health in Rollins School of Public Health, are both models of how to have tough conversations that Wolpe hopes to incorporate into the center’s offerings.

In addition to producing academic knowledge, the center will contribute to the community and Atlanta’s notable legacy of peacebuilding, which includes a number of Nobel Peace Prize winners with ties to the city: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; President Jimmy Carter, University Distinguished Professor at Emory; His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Emory Presidential Distinguished Professor; Bishop Demond Tutu, a visiting professor at Candler School of Theology who called Atlanta his “second home;” and Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded an honorary doctorate from Emory in 2012.

Atlanta is also home to many extraordinary organizations dedicated to fostering peace, including The Carter Center, Emory’s longtime partner. For more than 40 years, The Carter Center has collaborated with the university, faculty, students and alumni to advance President Carter’s goals of promoting peace, health and human rights globally. Other institutions in the city include the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development at Kennesaw State University and the Healthcare Ethics Consortium.

By uniting Emory’s new center, community partners and the city’s academic institutions, Wolpe believes Atlanta could strengthen its leadership and service in conflict resolution. He’s already begun conversations with potential civic and academic partners as well as local leaders elected to all levels of government.

Over the next three years, Wolpe will establish the center’s infrastructure. He will spend the first year on sabbatical, researching best practices through visits to leading centers devoted to conflict mediation and peacebuilding and institutions in The Hague, Johannesburg, Geneva, Oslo and elsewhere to study and identify structures and philosophies that may inform the shape of Emory’s center.

Wolpe will also work to establish funding sources that will contribute to the success of the center. Later this spring, he will gather interested faculty and staff for further discussion of the work ahead.

I had the pleasure of meeting Paul at a brunch at the home of my next door neighbor, Betsy Tarlin, who I referred to as the “godmother” of our neighborhood. She invited me to meet him to think about this new exciting venture he is embarking on. I am pleased to serve as an advisor to his Center, and in my first recommendation, I had the pleasure of introducing him to Darren Kew who is also leaving his post as Director of the Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development at UMass Boston to become the new Dean of University of California at San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies.

Bryan E. Penprase

I am honored to serve Soka University in the capacity as Vice President for Sponsored Research and External Academic Relations. In this role, I will help foster new externally funded projects that will help SUA’s faculty expand their research and scholarship and also enable SUA as an institution to more fully realise many of its strategic priorities.  I will also be working to expand connections between SUA and regional and peer institutions, to enable SUA to have more academic collaborations and partnerships as it expands and becomes more recognised as a world leader in global liberal arts and as it defines and builds on its mission for fostering global citizenship.

From July 2017 to August 2020 I served as Soka University’s Dean of Faculty, where I was responsible for managing the undergraduate program with its innovative Soka University curriculum and dynamic faculty, and its energetic and diverse community of students. As Dean of Faculty I had the wonderful opportunity to work with SUA faculty to help develop a new interdisciplinary Life Sciences program, develop new programs for incentivising faculty research, to help improve teaching at SUA, help SUA connect with peer liberal arts institutions, and improve Soka’s unique Core and GE curriculum. I was especially grateful for the opportunity to develop the 2018 Globalised Liberal Arts conference, co-organized by SUA, Pomona College, Carleton College, Middlebury College, and  Yale University, work with the Science Advisory Board and SUA faculty to develop the new Life Sciences curriculum, and to work with faculty and administration to develop the new Fellowship advising program, the new CPT program, the accelerated MA degree program with CGU, the new Merit program, the Teaching Innovation Grant program, more inclusive practices in search committees, and to help guide our transition to online instruction with new training programs for faculty. I feel especially grateful to have been able to help recruit 9 excellent new tenure-track faculty to SUA in fields ranging from Studio Art, Writing, Biochemistry, Sociology, French, Mathematics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Biology and am delighted to be able help bring these amazing professors to our academic community.

I was previously was Professor of Science at Yale-NUS College, where I was one of the founding faculty and the inaugural director of the Yale-NUS Centre for Teaching and Learning. In 2012-13 I served as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow at Yale University, where I was one of the authors of the blueprint for the Yale-NUS College Curriculum, and advised Yale’s President Salovey and the Yale Provost on topics ranging from online learning, Math education at Yale, and Teaching and Learning Centers. Prior to my experiences at Yale-NUS and Yale, I was a professor for 20 years at Pomona College, most recently as the Frank P. Brackett Professor of Astronomy. At Pomona College I was Chair of Physics and Astronomy, and was founding co-Director of the Liberal Arts Consortium for Online Learning. I received both a BS in Physics and an MS in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 1985, and a PhD from the University of Chicago in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 1992.

I am very interested in promoting and developing new and more effective forms of undergraduate education, such as Soka’s unique academic program. In addition to developing new courses and curriculum at Yale-NUS College and Pomona College, I have helped to develop a number of international conferences on higher education.  In 2017 I organized a STEM innovation conference at Yale-NUS College in Singapore that featured Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, and two days of talks from internationally recognized science and math educators. With a group from Yale University and Yale-NUS College, we developed the Globalizing the Liberal Arts symposium and workshop at Yale University during June 6-9, 2016. I also have been on the organizing committee for a series of conferences on the Future of Liberal Arts and Sciences in India, as well as additional meetings on STEM education and Liberal Arts at Pomona College, with a 2014 meeting on the topic of Online Learning in Liberal Arts institutions in my role as the inaugural co-director of LACOL, the Liberal Arts Consortium for Online Learning.

I am eager to help students and faculty reach their full potential – especially in regards to teaching. At Yale-NUS College I was founding director of their Centre for Teaching and Learning, and managed a wide range of programming for faculty development, as well as organizing discussions and drafting policies on the evaluation of teaching, fostering innovation in teaching and peer observations of teaching. At NUS I was a member of the NUS Teaching Academy, where we engaged in discussions about advancing teaching and scholarship with NUS administration, and visiting scholars from across the world. At Yale during the ACE fellowship, I was a member of the committee that developed the First-Year Scholars at Yale program – a highly successful summer program for students that helps them develop writing and quantitative skills and integrate into the Yale campus. At Soka, I am working to foster additional discussions and conferences on teaching and learning, and to develop new ways to advance student learning. We have created new programs for enhancing faculty research and teaching, including faculty Merit Awards to recognize excellent faculty research, and Teaching Innovation Grants to allow our SUA faculty to develop exciting new types of teaching.

My work on STEM education and innovative and interdisciplinary curriculum design has resulted in a volume just released by Springer, Inc. The book is entitled STEM Education for the 21st Century, and includes an overview of diversity and inclusion in STEM education, theories of teaching and learning, a review of new types of active learning in science courses, new types of engineering education, a review of global interdisciplinary science curriculum, an overview of online education and some thoughts about the future of STEM education.

I enjoy meeting with students and faculty, and am always available to discuss ways we can move forward at Soka University for further strengthen our undergraduate program and connect with universities, colleges and foundations.

Daniel Talmor

Daniel Talmor, also known as Danny, was born in Saskatoon, Canada and at age 12 moved to Israel. Danny grew up in Jerusalem. His parent’s house was filled with visitors from all over the world and all walks of life.

After high school, Danny served in the Israeli army for three years before going to Ben Gurion University, Medical School, in Be’er Sheva. The teaching hospital in Be’er Sheva was the only hospital for the entire Negev region. As a student and later as a resident and attending physician, Danny was privileged to take care of the entire, incredibly, diverse population of the Negev Desert. He started his career as a cardiac surgeon but later transferred into anesthesiology to follow his interest in taking on the most critically ill patients.

In 1999, Danny moved to Boston and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), to pursue further training in anesthesia for cardiac surgery and critical care medicine, followed by a masters degree in Public Health, at the Harvard School of Public Health. At the end of his training, he remained at BIDMC as an attending physician.

Danny’s career progressed as he held multiple roles at BIDMC. He served as the director of Trauma Anesthesia, Chief of Critical Care Medicine, Vice Chair of the Department of Anesthesia and finally in 2014, was appointed as the Chair of the Department of Anesthesia Critical Care and Pain Medicine at BIDMC and The Edward Lowenstein Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School. To this day, Danny oversees a department of 700 members delivering service at eight hospitals.

Throughout his career, Danny has been a prolific researcher and educator, publishing over 250 papers in the field of critical care medicine. His research has focused on individualized care for the mechanically ventilated patient and improving the outcomes of patients undergoing surgery and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He has lectured extensively around the world and takes great satisfaction in helping improve critical care in low and middle income countries. Danny continues to mentor extensively and to welcome physicians from all over the world into his department.

Danny lectures and consults extensively in numerous countries across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Working with doctors around the world to improve patient care is one of the great privileges of his job.

Danny got to know Sherman as a neighbor and later as a friend, spending hours bonding in the dog park. During the COVID pandemic, Danny worked 18 hour days, helping direct the COVID response at BIDMC. When Sherman was diagnosed with COVID, Danny took the time to check in on Sherman daily and be his personal doctor.

Danny and Sherman remain great friends to this day. In 2024, Danny took up Sherman’s offer to join The Trebuchet community as a mentor.