Empower Peace held  its seventh annual Women2Women International Leadership Conference on Saturday, July 7, 2012 running through July 15, 2012.  Over 80 young women from 16 countries across the world attended the conference. The Conference featured workshops on leadership development, negotiation, community building and organizing, the art of the difficult conversation, understanding the media, social networking and social media and global human rights.

 

The 2012 W2W Conference featured varied speakers including Karen McLaughlin from the US Department of Justice Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, Charlie Clements the Executive Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School, Rusty Tunnard, from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Selena Sermeno, Ph.D., Conflict Analysis and Engagement . Workshops included the Status of Women Around the World, Using Social Media for Social Change and Finding the Leader in You.

 

For the third year, Women2Women worked with Al Arabiya to produce a 60-minute television program about the issues effecting women around the world. The broadcast aired on Al Arabiya in the fall of 2012. To watch the "Women's Chat", please click here.

 

To see the complete schedule please click here.

 

To access the speaker bios, please click on each of the conference days. The bios will appear under each tab.

 

To download a complete copy of the bios, please click here.

Claim Your Seat at the Table

 

Victoria Budson

Executive Director, Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School of Government

 

Victoria A. Budson is the founding Executive Director of the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  WAPPP analyzes cutting-edge issues as they impact women’s roles and lives. WAPPP conducts research, develops curriculum, and publishes materials focused on women and public policy.  While at the Kennedy School, Budson was founding Executive Director of the Council of Women World Leaders, a group of current and former presidents and prime ministers. From 1999-2004, Budson served as a Kennedy School Ombudsperson.

 

Governor Patrick appointed Budson to the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women and she serves as Chair of that body.   The commission is an independent state agency that was legislatively created in 1998 to advance women of the Commonwealth to full equality in all areas of life and to promote their rights and opportunities. The Commission provides a permanent, effective voice for Massachusetts' women and is comprised of 19 diverse members who are appointed by the Governor, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Caucus of Women Legislators.

 

Currently, Budson serves on the Board of Directors for the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW). The mission of NCRW is to harness the resources of its network to ensure fully informed debate, policies and practices to build a more inclusive and equitable world for women and girls.  iVillage Cares, a national advocacy program designed to build awareness and support for causes of concern to women through iVillage, at present is a frequent destination site for 27 million women. Budson has been a member of numerous other Boards of Directors including: the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Massachusetts National Abortion Rights Action League, the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, Women’s Legislative Network and Alliance, Massachusetts Coalition of Democratic Women, the Wellesley College Hillel Alumnae Board. Budson has served on the Steering Committee for the Massachusetts State Treasury’s Women and Money conference.

 

Budson speaks on various topics such as the future of feminism, gender and public policy, electoral politics and political action at institutions including Carnegie Mellon, Harvard University, Tufts University, Wellesley College, the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val- Kill, and the Center for Women’s Policy Studies.  In 2002, she served as an advisor for the development of the United Nations’ University for Peace Masters degree program in International Peace Studies with specialization in Gender and Peace Building. Budson presented at the United Nations Beijing and Beyond International Women’s Conference. She is a frequent commentator for news publications, television, and radio programs.  Appearances include: Fox News Live, the Boston Globe, WGBH Boston, WSBK Boston, and Talk of the Nation and The Connection on National Public Radio.  She reviewed and edited the childbirth chapter for the 2005 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

 

Before coming to Harvard, Budson was the Political and Community Affairs Director for Steve Grossman, President of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).  Budson has also worked extensively in Massachusetts’ politics, both as an activist and an elected official on the state and local levels.  As the elected Chair of the Massachusetts Coalition for a Democratic Future, the official statewide organization of young political activists affiliated with the Democratic Party, Budson grew the organization to over 2,000 members. She has held a seat on the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee, which is the governing body for the state Democratic Party.  She served as Chair of the Wellesley Democratic Town Committee and as a member of the Wellesley Town Meeting.

 

In addition to her grassroots and electoral work, Budson is an active political consultant.  As Finance Director for Massachusetts State Senator Cheryl Jacques, she established one of the largest campaign accounts in the Massachusetts State Senate.  She also served as Finance Director for Massachusetts State Representative Rachel Kaprielian, and has worked with EMILY’s List, an organization that raises money for pro-choice, democratic women candidates.

 

Awards Budson has received include: the “Rising Star” award for her outstanding work to advance the political education of women from the Network for Women in Politics and Government at UMASS Boston, the Carol Moseley Braun Award from Mass Choice, and the Dean’s Award for Excellence at the Kennedy School.  Budson graduated Magna Cum Laude and with Departmental Honors from Wellesley College with a joint degree in Sociology and Women’s Studies.  As a graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Mid-Career Masters in Public Administration Program, she received the Lucius N. Littauer Fellow award for her distinction in academics at the Kennedy School, her contribution to the Kennedy School and the greater Harvard community, and her potential for continuing leadership excellence.

 

Career Choices, Opportunities and Human Rights

 

Tafadzwa Pasipanodya

Foley Hoag LLP, Washington, DC.

 

 Tafadzwa’s diverse professional experiences in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas make her uniquely qualified to provide legal and policy advice related to international disputes, human rights, natural resources, health, and development strategies. As a member of Foley Hoag’s public international litigation and arbitration practice, Tafadzwa is involved in advising sovereign states in disputes before international courts such as ICSID, UNCITRAL and ICC arbitral tribunals and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as well as in proceedings before U.S. courts. Tafadzwa is also actively engaged in Foley Hoag’s corporate social responsibility practice. She advises multinational corporations on strategic and cost-effective means of integrating human rights, labor and environmental standards into their management systems. She also helps facilitate effective collaboration between corporations, local communities, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders, and provides guidance on the impact of U.S. government policies on international business practice. Prior to joining Foley Hoag, Tafadzwa worked with several non-profit organizations, governments as well as the United Nations on various matters, including the prosecution of alleged genocidaires in Rwanda; natural resources and conflict in Angola; caste discrimination in Nepal and India; U.S.-Africa policy; Roma and prisoner health in Romania; and post-conflict reconstruction in Sri Lanka.

 

David Fuhr

Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP, Washington, DC.

 

Mr. Fuhr is an associate in the litigation department of Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP and is based in the Washington D.C. office. He focuses primarily on international white collar litigation matters, in particular compliance investigations of multinational corporations alleged to have violated foreign corrupt practices laws. Mr. Fuhr’s practice also encompasses the representation of clients in fraud and antitrust investigations by criminal and civil authorities in the United States and in commercial disputes in the United States and abroad. His recent experience includes acting for clients such as Ferrostaal AG and Siemens AG’s Audit Committee. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from Duke University School of Law in 2005, where he was the Articles Editor for the Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law. Mr. Fuhr received his B.A. in Political Science from Elon University summa cum laude. Mr. Fuhr has also worked on international security policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. and on criminal law reform with the Sierra Leone Special Court.

 

Using Social Media

 

Christopher Tunnard

Professor of International Business,

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University

 

Christopher (Rusty) Tunnard teaches International Business at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and has recently been appointed the Hitachi Fellow for Technology and International Affairs.   For many years, he was a Principal at Arthur D. Little (ADL) in their Travel and Technology management consulting practice in Brussels and London.   He is a recognized expert on innovation and technology-led change in the international communications, travel, and financial service industries. In addition, Tunnard was a senior member of ADL’s Professional Development staff, and he created and/ or delivered a full range of skills courses in consulting and related business skills.  Prior to joining ADL, he directed worldwide strategy and technology partnerships for the Travel Division of American Express TRS Co. He has also run his own consulting firm and has owned and operated a hotel barge company in southern France.

 

His consulting background led to a particular interest in research at the nexus of resistance movements, new technologies, and social network analysis. His doctoral dissertation focused on the use of technology in the formation of resistance networks that eventually led to peaceful regime change in Serbia in the 1990s.  Currently, he is looking at the roles that social networks and social media can play in building up institutions and civil society in countries that have used them effectively in bringing down long-time democratic dictatorships, most recently in Tunisia and Egypt. In addition, he is developing analytical methods to examine public and private social networks and their impact on organizations.

 

Dr. Tunnard holds MA, MALD and PhD degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and he received his AB from Harvard.

 

Further information can be found at: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/faculty/tunnard/default.shtml

 

Women Making Change Panel Discussion

 

Facilitator

 

Christina Bain

Director, Program on Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Kennedy School of Government

 

Christina Bain is the Director of the Program on Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. Prior to her time at the Kennedy School, Christina was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as the Executive Director of the Governor's Commission on Sexual and Domestic Violence, a statewide commission of over 340 public and private sector partners. She previously served as the Public Affairs Liaison to Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey where she worked on domestic violence and criminal justice issues, including human trafficking and sex offender management. Since 2006, she has been a member of the Massachusetts Human Trafficking Task Force, one of the 42 statewide anti-trafficking task forces funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Christina also served as a Special Assistant to Governor Jane Swift of Massachusetts.

 

Panelists

 

Stacy Malone, Esq.

Executive Director at the Victims Rights Law Center

 

Stacy Malone, Esq. is the Executive Director of the Victim Rights Law Center.  She joined the VRLC in 2004 as a pro bono attorney for the VRLC’s Rape Survivors Law Project, where she provided free legal services to sexual assault survivors on employment, safety, privacy and other issues. She then served in various capacities on the VRLC Board of Directors until 2010, when Ms. Malone was appointed VRLC's Executive Director.  Ms. Malone has also worked in the private sector and at both federal and state agencies.  Her legal career has focused on working with young women, victims of violence and those who have faced discrimination.  Ms. Malone is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Massachusetts, Boston’s Women in Politics and Public Policy Program, and Boston University School of Law.  Ms. Malone’s writing has appeared in the New York Times "Room for Debate."  In 2011, she was honored to receive Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s "Top Women of Law 2011" Award.

 

Karen A. McLaughlin

Human Trafficking and Victim Rights Expert

 

Karen McLaughlin is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in victim assistance and violence prevention. In the United States, Ms. McLaughlin has pioneered the development of victim service programs within the criminal justice system and community agencies at the state and national level.

 

Ms. McLaughlin served for five years from 2005-2010 as the director of the Massachusetts Task Force to Combat Human Trafficking funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.  In that role, she coordinated over 50 federal, state and local law enforcement, prosecution and non-governmental partner agencies in their efforts to rescue victims, investigate and prosecute cases of those who engage in the growing domestic and international slave trade. She is a co-drafter of the pending Massachusetts state legislation that provides comprehensive rights and services to victims, mandates stringent criminal penalties for traffickers and requires initiatives related to stemming demand for sex and labor trafficking.

 

Presently, Ms. McLaughlin continues to serve the interests of crime victims by working to strengthen global efforts to combat human trafficking under a grant funded by the United States Department of State. This initiative is addressing the labor, organ and sex trafficking trade in China. In the domestic arena, she coauthored “Developing a National Campaign for Eliminating Sex Trafficking” as a consultant for Abt Associates, Inc. In her current role, she is a consultant for a groundbreaking national initiative to end demand for human trafficking sponsored by the Hunt Alternatives Fund.

 

In the international arena, Ms. McLaughlin was elected in 2008 to the International Scientific Professional and Advisory Council (ISPAC) of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme. ISPAC’s international experts are charged with advising the United Nations on matters of worldwide crime policy. She currently chairs ISPAC’s Victim Assistance and Victimization Prevention Committee.

 

In other matters related to the United Nations, Ms. McLaughlin has been a long-standing member of the World Society of Victimology’s United Nations Liaison Committee. She assisted in the drafting of the United Nations Handbook on Justice for Victims and the United Nations Guide on Victims of Crime for Policymakers. Most recently, she was an active participant in an expert group that was convened to research, conceptualize and draft the United Nations Convention on Justice and Support for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power. This initiative launched a global strategy for this proposed international instrument. For nearly a decade, much of Ms. McLaughlin’s work has focused on victims of transnational crime. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist strike, Ms. McLaughlin directed a national terrorism project which addressed the impact of the attack on thousands of victims and their families and evaluated the country’s response, recovery and preparedness in the aftermath of this national tragedy. Additionally, the United Nations Terrorism Prevention Branch sought her expertise as a result of her work in responding to the families of the victims of the Pan Am 103 terrorist attack over Lockerbie, Scotland.

 

In 1997, in recognition of her accomplishments at the state, national and international levels, she was presented with the National Crime Victim Service Award, the highest federal honor for service to victims. Bestowed by President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Attorney General Janet Reno, this prestigious acknowledgement was a tribute to Ms McLaughlin’s tireless efforts on behalf of underserved victim populations.

 

From 1989-1991, Ms. McLaughlin was president of the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA).  She was instrumental in establishing the first state and national victim assistance crisis response teams to respond in the immediate aftermath of mass catastrophes, both in the U.S. and abroad. Her volunteer service to victims of crime and mass causalities has taken her to numerous countries consulting with governments and non-governmental organizations.

 

In her former capacity working on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1992-2002, Ms. McLaughlin created several national model curricula and protocols for law enforcement, prosecutors and victim services and educators. For nearly a decade in the 1990s she directed the Justice Department’s National Center for Hate Crime Prevention, where she created the country’s first curriculum to respond to and prevent bias crime. She co-authored, “Healing the Hate,” the first national curriculum that dealt with hate crime prevention. She trained thousands of professionals to address crimes resulting from prejudice. Her groundbreaking work on bystanders, cooperative learning and peer education has won numerous awards from civil rights and human rights groups. Her teaching tools were disseminated to over 15,000 educational institutions in the U.S. as well as thousands of youth programs throughout the nation and internationally.

 

Since the mid-1970s, Ms. McLaughlin has fought to establish rights and services for crime victims at the state and national level. In 1980, as the principal architect for the Massachusetts Victim Bill of Rights, she directed the lobbying effort to ensure the passage of this victim rights reform initiative. She served as the founding executive director of the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance from 1984-1991, the first independent state victim assistance agency in the United States.

 

Mary Mwende Alex

Global Giving Back Circle

 

Mary Mwende Alex is a ‘voice’ of the empowerment for women and girls in Africa and the Middle East, and she has been formally recognized for her work by being awarded a full scholarship to the American University in Dubai where she is a ‘Clinton Scholar’.

 

Mary is finishing her third year at AUD where she was recently elected President of the Student Government Body.   Mary plans to leverage her visit to the USA to interview for MBA scholarships at New York University, Columbia, Wharton, Harvard, Yale, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Chicago and Northwestern.  She will also spend a day with the team at the Clinton Global Initiative Offices, as they wish to better understand her journey and share her experiences to motivate other youth who aspire to get an education and give back to the world.

 

Trinh Nguyen

Boston Housing Authority

 

Trinh Nguyen is currently Chief of Staff at the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) where she provides executive-level support to top decision-makers and project managers to fulfill the authority’s mission of providing quality housing and community services to public housing residents. Using innovation and entrepreneurship models to achieve greater cost effectiveness, Ms. Nguyen’s focus areas also include job training and creation, collaborative planning, and cultivating strong private-public partnerships.

 

She has more than 15 years of community economic development, government services and non-profit management. She has worked as Vice President of Development for the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts where she spearheaded planning around green jobs, workforce development and equity issues. Ms. Nguyen also worked as a consultant to help found the Vietnamese American Community Center in Dorchester, MA, and to build capacity of community development corporations serving immigrants and refugees across the country. Earlier, she worked for The Boston Women’s Fund, the Mayor’s Office of New Bostonians, and the University of Massachusetts Boston. She holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Clark University, a Master’s of Arts in international affairs from Ohio University, and a masters of science in human services at University of Massachusetts Boston.  She was selected as a community fellow at MIT Urban Studies and Planning from 2002-2004.

 

Rose Pavlov

Founder and President, Ivy Child

 

Rose Pavlov is a cross-cultural positive child specialist based in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her research interests range from early language acquisition in multilingualism to international children’s issues such as human trafficking, natural devastation, and refugee resettlement, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. Rose’s academic path has taken her to Boston University, Oxford University, and Harvard University. Her professional and volunteer experiences have led her to a partnership with UNICEF and World Vision. In 2010, she was recognized by the Worcester Business Journal as one of the “40 Under Forty” emerging leaders in Central Massachusetts and was recently named one of the young leaders pioneering global social change in 2011. She was also nominated as a “Rising Star” by the Center for Women and Enterprise in Worcester, Massachusetts.

 

Rose realized her passion to work with young children at an early age. She was committed to doing community service work and international humanitarian service. As a teenager, she worked with Mother Theresa and the Sisters of Charity, serving slum dwellers in southern India and teaching art and music to children in villages. Over the past year, she has worked with the victims of the natural disaster in Haiti, provided teacher/school training in the Dominican Republic, and lectured in the United States. Rose is a board member of Young Democrats of Massachusetts and the Center for Women and Enterprise.

 

Rose Pavlov can be contacted at rpavlov@ivychild.org.

The Art of Negotiation

 

Susan Hackley

Managing Director of the Program on Negotiation,

Harvard Law School

 

The Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School is a world-renowned interdisciplinary research center dedicated to improving the theory and practice of negotiation and dispute resolution. As Managing Director, Susan Hackley oversees all of PON's activities, which include research projects, conferences, special events, and educational programs. She also manages the publication of a variety of books and teaching materials, including the monthly Negotiation newsletter and the quarterly Negotiation Journal. Susan has taught negotiation seminars in China, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain and Italy. Before joining PON, she worked in politics as a policy analyst and served as communications director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. As a writer/photographer, she has had work published in National Geographic Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and many other publications. She also co-founded an Internet company, an e-philanthropy site dedicated to helping people connect to causes they care about. Susan has a Masters Degree in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School and served three years as chair of the board of directors of the Alliance for Peacebuilding.

 

Human Rights, A New Agenda

 

Charlie Clements

Executive Director, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

Harvard Kennedy School

 

Charlie Clements is the Carr Center's Executive Director. Prior to coming to the Carr Center, Clements, a widely respected human rights activist and public health physician, served as president of Unitarian Universalist Service Committee from August 2003 until February 2010. Prior to taking the position at UUSC, he served as executive director of Border WaterWorks, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the El Paso Community Foundation, which assisted small U.S. communities along the border without running water or sewers to construct such desperately needed infrastructure.

 

Throughout the years, Clements has faced several moral dilemmas that shaped his life. As a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Academy who had flown more than 50 missions in the Vietnam War, he decided the war was immoral and refused to fly missions in support of the invasion of Cambodia. Later, as a newly trained physician, he chose to work in the midst of El Salvador's civil war, where the villages he served were bombed, rocketed, or strafed by some of the same aircraft in which he had previously trained.

 

For two years in the late 1980s, Clements served as director of human rights education at UUSC, leading a number of congressional fact-finding delegations to Central America. In 1997, as president of Physicians for Human Rights, he participated both in the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and the treaty signing for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Clements is author of Witness to War and the subject of an Academy Award-winning documentary of the same title.

 

Sharmila L. Murthy

Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

At Harvard Kennedy School of Government

 

Since 2010, she has been helping to spearhead the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation Program. Her current research reflects her long-standing interests in issues at the intersection of human rights, poverty and the environment. Prior to joining the Carr Center, she practiced law with a focus on economic, social and cultural rights. As a Skadden Fellow at the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, she represented immigrants, refugees and other individuals from poor and marginalized communities primarily in housing and consumer cases; she also created the Refugee and Immigrant Partnership Project for Legal Empowerment. She then joined Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP to litigate national class action cases in the subprime mortgage and natural resource sectors. Prior to graduate school, she also worked for an environmental consulting firm and spent nearly two years working in India in public health and in microfinance.

 

Sharmila received her JD from Harvard Law School in 2003, her MPA from Harvard Kennedy School in 2003, and her BS in Natural Resources from Cornell University in 1997. She clerked for the Honorable Martha Craig Daughtrey on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (2003-2004). She has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in India (1998); Betty Allebach Award for Public Service at Harvard Legal Aid Bureau (2003); New Advocate of the Year award by the Tennessee Alliance of Legal Services (2006); Article of the Year Award by Nashville Bar Journal (2006); and Pegasus Scholarship by American Inns of Court (2009). She was a Fellow in the Impact Center's Women's Leadership Program (2011) and is currently a member of the Emerging Leaders in Environmental & Energy Policy Network, which is a joint project of the Atlantic Council and the Ecologic Institute. She has also served in leadership roles with several civic and non-profit organizations, including the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. She is currently the Steering Committee Co-Chair of the Boston Chapter of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.

 

Felisa Tibbitts

Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

At Harvard Kennedy School of Government

 

Felisa Tibbitts is co-founder and director of Human Rights Education Associates (HREA), an internationally recognized non-governmental organization dedicated to education and learning about human rights.

Ms. Tibbitts began her work in the human rights education field in the early 1990s in post-totalitarian Europe. She has supported curricular development efforts in human rights, law-related and civic education programming in Albania, Croatia, El Salvador, Estonia, Gaza, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Morocco, Romania, Ukraine and the United States and has carried out trainings in over 20 countries.

 

Ms. Tibbitts has worked as an evaluator for human rights-related training programs for the Ford Foundation, Amnesty International and a range of UN agencies; in 2007, she evaluated the UN capacity-building program for African Union peacekeepers in Darfur and is currently engaged in a global evaluation of UNICEFs efforts in life skills education.

Ms. Tibbitts has published extensively in the area of human rights education and contributed to the development of policy documents at the United Nations. She is a consultative expert for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNICEF, UNESCO, OSCE, the Council of Europe, the Organization of American States and the Open Society Institute.

 

Ms. Tibbitts was trained in educational research, planning and policy through Masters programs at Harvards Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was a Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy during the 2008-9 academic year. In addition to her responsibilities at HREA, she is Adjunct Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the UN University for Peace.

 

Ambassador Swanee Hunt Afternoon Reception

 

Swanee Hunt

Founder, Women and Public Policy Program

At Harvard Kennedy School of Government

 

Swanee Hunt is the founding director of the Women and Public Policy Program (WPPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she also acts as the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy.  Hunt founded WPPP in 1997 as a research center concerned with domestic and foreign policy, which she directed for more than a decade. She teaches "Inclusive Security," exploring how women are systematically excluded from peace processes, the impact, and the policy steps needed to rectify the problem.

 

At the Kennedy School she is also core faculty at the Center for Public Leadership and senior advisor to The Initiative to Stop Human Trafficking in the Carr Center for Human Rights. Hunt has taught "The Choreography of Social Movements" at Harvard College and "Peacebuilding from the Ground Up" at Harvard Law School, and lectured across the university campus including at the College, the School of Education, Divinity School, and Business School.

 

Her mission – the one she has set out to accomplish from the outset and the one she bases all of her actions and associations off of –is to achieve gender parity, especially as a means to end war and rebuild societies, as well as to alleviate poverty and other human suffering. An expert on domestic policy and foreign affairs, Hunt is president of Hunt Alternatives Fund, through which she has committed more than $130 million in endowments and grants to provoking social change at local, national, and global levels. The Fund operates out of Cambridge, Massachusetts and is focused on strengthening youth arts organizations, supporting leaders of social movements, bolstering women’s leadership in conflict regions, combating the demand for purchased sex, and increasing philanthropy.

 

Hunt also chairs the Washington-based Institute for Inclusive Security (including the Women Waging Peace Network), which advocates for the full participation of all stakeholders, particularly women, in peace processes. She has conducted research, training, and consultations for women leaders in some 60 countries.  She began her career 1979 as Minister of Pastoral Care at the Capital Heights Presbyterian Church, and she worked from 1993-1997 as the US Ambassador to Austria, where she hosted negotiations and international symposia focused on stabilizing the neighboring Balkan states.

 

Hunt is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of Crisis Group. She holds two master’s degrees, a doctorate in theology, and six honorary degrees. She has received numerous awards from groups as varied as the United Methodist Church, United Way, Anti-Defamation League, American Mental Health Association, National Women’s Forum, International Education Association, Boston Chamber of Commerce, and International Peace Center. In 2007, Hunt was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

 

Hunt has authored numerous articles for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Magazine, International Herald Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, and others. Her book, This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace, won the 2005 PEN/New England Award for non-fiction and included a foreword by former President Bill Clinton. Her memoir, Half-Life of a Zealot was published in October 2006. Hunt has also provided news commentary and analysis on international and domestic television networks, including CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and CBS Evening News.

"How to Start a Revolution" Movie Presentation

 

Jamila Raqib

Executive Director, Albert Einstein Institution

 

Jamila Raqib is currently the Executive Director for the Albert Einstein Instution, a non-profit specializing in the study of non-violent resistance. The institute explores non-violent resistance’s policy potential and communicates these findings through print and other media, translations, conferences, consultations, and workshops. Jamila recently presented a TED Talk on non-violent resistance and stared as herself in the film How to Start a Revolution, the story of Noble Peace Prize nominee Gene Sharp’s work on non-violent revolution. Though born in Afghanistan, Jamila has spent most of her life in the United States.

 

Nasser Weddady

Civil Rights Outreach Director, American-Islamic Congress

 

Nasser Weddady is AIC’s Civil Rights Outreach Director. A native of Mauritania and son of an ambassador, Nasser grew up in Libya and Syria, traveling extensively through the Middle East before coming to the US as an asylee in 2000. A long-time activist in the struggle to end slavery in his homeland, Nasser has organized conferences for young activists across the Middle East; has been published in the International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and Baltimore Sun; appeared on Fox’s Hannity & Colmes, BBC World Service, Al Jazeera, and Radio Liberty; and testified to Congress’ Human Rights Caucus. Fluent in five languages, Nasser has lectured at the US Institute of Peace, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and on numerous university campuses.

 

An expert in Muslim reform and interfaith dialogue, Nasser has organized training seminars in Jordan, Morocco, and Washington, as well as participated in numerous conferences for next generation Muslim reformers. He mentors Muslim-American university students through the American Islamic Congress’ campus program, Project Nur. Nasser also coordinates an annual civil rights essay contest that has attracted over 8,000 participants, and manages human rights advocacy campaigns that have mobilized more than 25,000 people. Drawing on his experience with Muslims in the 18-35 year old demographic, Nasser co-edited an 80-page manual entitled “Training the Next Generation: A Leadership Curriculum for Middle Eastern Social Entrepreneurs.”

 

In 2009, Nasser recruited over 25 Muslims of diverse backgrounds to found the New England Council, which he chairs. In its first year, Nasser helped the Council grow its membership base through successful civic programs he co-organized, including the semi-annual Boston Muslim Film Festival and a speaker series entitled “Diversity in the Muslim World: Between Pluralism and Division.” As Council Chair, Nasser interfaced with government officials to organize the first-ever Ramadan civic ceremony at the Massachusetts State House. He has testified before the Massachusetts state legislature, worked with World Boston (the local International Affairs Council) to welcome visiting delegations from across the Muslim world, and briefed the leadership of Boston’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (which includes the FBI, Department of Justice, State Police, and Boston Police). His experience as a liaison between local government and Boston’s Muslim communities shapes his understanding of the need to more broadly define Muslim-American identity through community organizing.

 

Malia West

W2W Alumnae

 

Malia West, a youth consultant for the Mason West Group, is a rising senior at the Randolph School in Huntsville, Alabama. Ms. West has participated in the Youth Leadership organization for five years; traveling across the United States help youth learn to influence their peers, their government and their economy using the people and talents surrounding them.

 

In 2008 Ms. West attended the Women2Women conference. As the youngest attendee present, Ms. West worked hard to keep up with the mature minds surrounding her. Her efforts were rewarded when she was asked to return to the W2W alum conference in Amman, Jordan. For a week Ms. West immersed herself in Jordanian culture and formed close friendships with dozens of girls from across the globe.

 

In the summer of 2012 Ms. West was accepted as one of the top thirty theatre students in the state of Tennessee and asked to attend Governor’s School for the Arts as a Theatre major. She participated in a month of rigorous classes and rehearsals in order to strengthen her theatre education. In addition to her summer activities with the Governor’s School Ms. West was asked to present at the 2012 Women2Women conference. After two years of travel with Women2Women Ms. West serves as a presenter and intern for Empower Peace’s world changing week-long program.

 

Jane Christo

Edward R. Murrow Center at

The Fletcher School

 

As the visionary General Manager of WBUR FM from 1979 to 2004, Jane Christo was one of the country’s first female managers of a top 10 radio station in a major market. Jane Christo transformed what was a special-¬‐interest radio station with a polyglot format in the 1970s into a competitive mainstream radio station by the mid-¬‐1980s and then into one of Boston's top 10 radio stations by the mid-¬‐1990s. She demonstrated to her colleagues around the country that the future of public radio was in news and information, pioneered new techniques in public radio fundraising, saw the potential of the internet far earlier than most and took the local productions of Car Talk, Only A Game, Here & Now, The Connec6on, and On Point to national audiences.

 

In 2005, Boston Magazine wrote, "Over her 25 years, she transformed a glorified college radio station with a $250,000 annual budget and 60,000 listeners into a $20 million operation with an audience of more than half a million. She replaced the penny-¬‐ante music shows and mom-¬‐and-¬‐pop how-¬‐to programs with high-¬‐rolling, far-¬‐reaching fare like All Things Considered and cutting-¬‐edge newcomers like This American Life. The station then developed original programs, such as the quirky sports weekly Only a Game and the erudite talk show The Connection."  And Christo has been honored extensively. In 1992, she won the prestigious Peabody Award, in 2000, she received Public Radio's highest honor, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2003, she received a DuPont Columbia University Award as well as an Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. She also received the prestigious Hatch Award for a radio campaign and a CLIO Award for radio advertising. In 2007, she received The Medal of Gratitude from Alfred Moisiu, President of the Republic of Albania, "for the precious assistance given to organize the free press, the professional preparation and training of journalists and for the feelings of affection demonstrated about Albania and the Albanians." Motrat Qiriazi a national professional Albanian women’s organization based in New York recognized Jane for “inspiring compassion, leadership and wisdom."

 

As noted in her long list of honors, Christo has designed and developed programs for journalists reporting in fledgling democracies. Her vision for mentoring journalists began as new democracies were forming in Eastern Europe following the fall of the Soviet Union. Financial support from the U.S. Department of State and the United States Information Agency allowed Christo to establish the International Training Project. From 1992 to 2004, she directed twenty programs for nearly 100 media professionals from the Balkans, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. She directed workshops, seminars and offered individual mentoring, both in other countries and in the United States, designed to address the challenges confronted by journalists in their daily work. The programs covered topics such as reporting on human trafficking and reporting in areas of conflict.

Since 2004, Christo has been affiliated with the Fletcher School’s Edward R. Murrow Center at Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, where she now conducts journalism symposia and develops international journalism programs.

 

Jane Christo received a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from Boston University and she lives with her husband, Van, in Brookline, Massachusetts. They have a grown son, Zachary. Jane and Van are also proud to have been able to sponsor and financially support seven young people from Eastern Europe to live and become educated in the United States.

 

Priti Rao

Executive Director, Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus

 

Priti Rao currently serves as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus, a multi-partisan, non-profit organization committed to maximizing the participation of women of all ages in the political process and increasing the number of women appointed and elected to public office and public policy positions. Rao previously served as the organization's Associate Director and most recently as Acting Executive Director. Rao is a Cum Laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College, where she majored in Politics and Spanish. She has coordinated field activities for Congressional and City Council races in New York. Here in Massachusetts she worked in the successful campaign of Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, the first woman elected to Congress in 25 years. As Acting Executive Director and Associate Director, Rao worked to design and execute strategic political and field support that helped fuel the successful election of 5 MWPC endorsed women to the MA House of Representatives in 2008 and the 2009 election of Ayanna Pressley to the Boston City Council, the first woman of color ever to serve on the Council in its 100 year history. Originally from upstate New York, Rao currently lives in Boston.

Keynote Speaker

 

Charlie Rose

Senior Vice President and Dean, City Year

 

Charlie Rose has been a youth worker, organizer and entrepreneur in Boston for nearly 30 years.  As a founding board member of City Year and then staff member who has played myriad roles, Charlie has helped build the organization into a national model for youth community service organizations.  In addition, Charlie has also been a founding board member for seven other organizations including YouthBuild Boston and has served the community through his work with organizations such as Youth Outreach Program, Citizens for Safety, National Toxics Campaign, United Labor Unions Local, Urban Edge and as a VISTA volunteer.  Prior to joining City Year’s staff, he was the Director of Youth Services for the City of Boston’s Community Centers.

Issue Network and Social Media

 

Christopher Tunnard

Professor of International Business,

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University

 

Christopher (Rusty) Tunnard teaches International Business at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and has recently been appointed the Hitachi Fellow for Technology and International Affairs.   For many years, he was a principal at Arthur D. Little (ADL) in their Travel and Technology management consulting practice in Brussels and in London.   He is a recognized expert on innovation and technology-led change in the international communications, travel, and financial service industries. In addition, Tunnard was a senior member of ADL’s Professional Development staff, and he created and/ or delivered a full range of skills courses in consulting and related business skills.  Prior to joining ADL, he directed worldwide strategy and technology partnerships for the Travel Division of American Express TRS Co. He has also run his own consulting firm and owned and operated a hotel barge company in southern France.

 

Tunnard’s consulting background led to a particular interest in research at the nexus of resistance movements, new technologies, and social network analysis. His doctoral dissertation focused on the use of technology in the formation of resistance networks that eventually led to peaceful regime change in Serbia in the 1990s.  Currently, he is looking at the roles that social networks and social media can play in building up institutions and civil society in countries that have used them effectively in bringing down long-time democratic dictatorships, most recently in Tunisia and Egypt. In addition, he is

developing analytical methods to examine public and private social networks and their impact on organizations.

 

Dr. Tunnard holds MA, MALD and PhD degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and he received his AB from Harvard.

 

Further information can be found at: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/faculty/tunnard/default.shtml

 

The Basics of Public Speaking

 

Marianne Adams

M.Ed. Instructor, Wheelock College

 

Marianne Adams' primary interest has been in the integration of the arts into all aspects of children's lives. She worked for 20 years as an Artist in Residence through Arts in Progress, traveling to schools all over Massachusetts as a drama teacher, storyteller, and program developer. She has also served as an Arts Specialist and Humanities Teacher in the Boston Public Schools. She continues to consult and work with teachers to develop integrated curriculums locally and nationally. She is currently working in the Boston Public Schools on a NALC grant.

 

Al Arabiya Broadcast

 

Women2Women Delegates will be featured in an electronic town meeting discussing the issues that impact women around the world. This program will be taped and later broadcast on Al Arabiya, one of the largest television networks in the Middle East.