Betty A. Reardon, the founding Director of the Peace Education academic degree concentration and Peace Education Center at Teachers College Columbia University and the International Institutes on Peace Education, holds a doctorate in education from Columbia University and a masters degree in history from New York University. She has taught at universities in several countries and has broad experience in education at all levels, both formal and non-formal. She brings to her specialization in peace education a broad and comprehensive perspective which integrates into the field issues of human security, sustainable development, human rights, ecology and gender. She was an initiator of the Hague Appeal for Peace Global Campaign for Peace Education, for which she now serves as senior advisor, and various other intiatives in the international development of the theory and content and dissemination of the methodology and practice of peace education.
She has more than 40 years of experience in the international peace education movement and 25 years in the international movement for the human rights of women. She has served as a consultant to several UN agencies and has published widely in the field of peace and human rights education, gender and women's issues. Her most recent book is EDUCATION FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE IN A GENDER PERSPECTIVE (UNESCO, 2001.) She has recieved a number of honors for her work, including honorable mention by the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education and a nomination among the "1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize," an iniative intended to recognize the daily work for peace done by innumerable women throughout the world. (top)
Kozue Akibayashi,Ed.D. is Associate Professor at College of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University and has taught courses on peace education, peace research, gender studies and English at universities in Japan and the US. She holds a doctorate in education from Teachers College Columbia University. Her research interest is learning for peace and demilitarizing security from gender and sexuality perspectives. She has conducted participatory research on Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, a women's peace movement for demilitarization in Okinawa, Japan ("Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence: A Feminist Challenge to Militarism". Ed.D. dissertation, 2002). She has worked with peace researchers and educators internationally in International Institute on Peace Education, International consultation on Master's Program in Peace Education at United Nation University for Peace, and others. She has also been active in international women's peace movements in such organizations as Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, East Asia-US-Puerto Rico Women's Network Against Militarism, and Feminists for Demilitarization. She served as alternate UN representative for International Peace Research Association from 1996 to 1999. (top)
Loreta Castro is the Director of the Center for Peace Education of Miriam College, Quezon City, Philippines. Her work involves writing peace-related materials, facilitating in-service teacher training workshops in the Philippines on peace education and building partnerships with kindred organizations in the country, region and in the world. Hence, she has served as a member of the facilitators' team of the Asia-Pacific Network for International Education and Values Education (APNIEVE) and of the Asia-Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU). She is also a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Hague Appeal for Peace Global Campaign for Peace Education. (top)
Janet Gerson is Co-Director of the Peace Education Center, Teachers College, Columbia University, where she oversees research and development of substantive themes, trainings and programming in peace education. Her research concerns are the interrelated of conflict studies, non-violent strategies, civil society tribunals and peace education. As a coordinator of the International Institute of Peace Education (IIPE), she worked in South Korea, Turkey, Greece, India and Lebanon. She has also developed and taught professional trainings in peace education in Tokyo, New York and for the Afghan Institute of Learning. As an expert in peace education pedagogy, she consulted for UNIFEM, for the new Masters Degree in Peace Education at the United Nations University of Peace in Costa Rica, and has collaborated with Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory at the Institute for Popular Education in New York. Her publications include contributions to Learning to Abolish War: Teaching toward a Culture of Peace (Reardon & Cabezudo, 2002), The Handbook of Conflict Resolution (M. Deutsch & P. Coleman, Eds., First Edition, 2000; Second Edition, forthcoming) and articles in Holistic Education Review, Analysis of Social issues and Public Policy (ASAP), and Theory into Practice. For her work in community-building, she was awarded a Citation of Appreciation from the Manhattan Borough President's Office, received funding to attend the United Nations NGO Women's Forum in Beijing, and was featured two ARD German television programs. She has an Ed.M. from Teachers College, Columbia University. (top)
Irma Ghosn holds an MEd in Social Foundations of Education from University of Virginia (USA) and a PhD. in Applied Linguistics/TESOL from University of Leicester. She is Assistant Professor of Education and TESOL at the Lebanese American University in Byblos, Lebanon, where she also serves as Director of the Center for Peace and Justice Education. Dr. Ghosn has several yeas of experience in teacher education and she has conducted in-service teacher development workshops in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and USA. She has published in international refereed journals and is a frequent presenter in local and international conferences. She is past Chair and current Program Chair of the EFL Interest Section of TESOL and a founding member of TESOLers for Social Responsibility Caucus. In 1998, she received the Mary Finocchiaro Award for Excellence in the Development of Pedagogical Materials from TESOL for her 'Caring Kids: Social responsibility through literature', a series for young English language learners in Lebanon. Her main areas of interest in the field of peace education are the use of literature in development of empathy and tolerance in the language class and human dignity and appropriate pedagogy. (top)
Tony Jenkins is Co-Director of the Peace Education Center of Teachers College, Columbia University, where he is also the Director of Research and Administration. In addition, Tony is the General Coordinator of the International Institutes on Peace Education (IIPE), planning and coordinating institutes in the Philippines, Korea, Turkey, Greece and Costa Rica. His current work focuses on pedagogical research and educational design and development with special interest in alternative security systems, disarmament and gender. Tony regularly conducts courses and workshops in peace education at Teachers College New York and Tokyo campuses. (top)
Kathy Matsui holds a BS in Business Administration and Economics from Sophia University, and an MA in TESOL, from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently Dean of Students and a Professor at Seisen University in the Department of Global Citizenship Studies. Classes taught include English Communication Skills for Global Learners, Conflict Management Skills, Comparative Culture of English Speaking Countries: Focusing on Minorities, Business Communications in English and other English Language Courses. Publications, Presentations and Workshops focus on English Language Learning, Sociolinguistics and Peace Education. She is also the Director of the Center for the Global Campaign for Peace Education in Japan at Seisen University, Tokyo, Japan. (top)
Michele Milner is the Peace Program Coordinator at Teachers College Tokyo campus where she oversees the professional development certificate program in peace education. She is also a lecturer in the TESOL graduate program at Dankook University in Seoul, Korea where she teaches courses such as Language and Culture; Global Issues and Language Teaching; Materials Development; and Teaching Methods. She has worked as a resource person for teacher-training workshops with the Asia-Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding, and has given trainings and workshops on areas related to language, peace journalism, the media, multi-modal discourse, global issues and arts-based teaching strategies. She holds an MA in Communication Studies from the University of Windsor, Canada and an MA in TESOL from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently researching how issues of peace are conceptualized in the global news media from a critical discourse perspective as part of her Ph.D. studies at Lancaster University in the UK. (top)