World Beyond War is developing a bureau of speakers around the world, as well as a kit to help you become a speaker on the subject of ending all wars. To request a speaker for your event or to propose someone to include here, or for other related inquiries contact us.

LEAH BOLGER — Oregon, U.S.
Leah Bolger retired in 2000 from the U.S. Navy at the rank of Commander after twenty years of active duty service. Her career included duty stations in Iceland, Bermuda, Japan and Tunisia and in 1997, was chosen to be the Navy Military Fellow at the MIT Security Studies program. Leah received an MA in National Security and Strategic Affairs from the Naval War College in 1994. After retirement, she became very active in Veterans For Peace, including election as the first woman national president in 2012. Later that year, she was part of a 20-person delegation to Pakistan to meet with the victims of U.S. drones strikes. She is the creator and coordinator of the “Drones Quilt Project,” a traveling exhibit which serves to educate the public, and recognize the victims of U.S. combat drones. In 2013 she was selected to present the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Memorial Peace Lecture at Oregon State University. Currently she serves as the Chair of the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War.
Find her on FaceBook and Twitter.
Videos:
Peace Conference Workshop
Activist vs. Super Committee
Articles:
Our Afghan War: Immoral, Illegal, Ineffective… and It Costs Too Much
From 1961 to Egypt today; Eisenhower’s warnings & advice hold true

PATRICK T. HILLER — Oregon, U.S.
Patrick, a member of World Beyond War’s Coordinating Committee, is a peace scientist who is committed in his personal and professional life to create a world beyond war. He is the Executive Director of the War Prevention Initiative by the Jubitz Family Foundation and teaches conflict resolution at Portland State University. He is actively involved in publishing book chapters, academic articles and newspaper op-eds. His work is almost exclusively related to the analysis of war and peace and social injustice and advocacy for nonviolent conflict transformation approaches. He studied and worked on those topics while living in Germany, Mexico and the United States. He talks regularly at conferences and other venues about the “The Evolution of a Global Peace System” and produced a short documentary with the same name.
Videos:
The Evolution of a Global Peace System
Is War Inevitable?
Articles and op-eds:
No peace through military strength
Syrian ‘red line’ an opportunity to set new tone of global leadership and collaboration
More Leaks in the Faulty National Security Debate – and How to Fix Them
The new “security dilemma” – on the need of redefining security

ALICE SLATER — New York, U.S.
Alice Slater, New York Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, is a member of the Global Council of Abolition 2000, serves on its International Coordinating Committee and directs the Abolition 2000 Sustainable Energy Working Group.  She is the Secretary for Sustainability on the Green Shadow Cabinet and a member of the Coordinating Committee of the World Beyond War Coalition.  She began her long quest for peace on earth as a suburban housewife, when she organized Eugene McCarthy’s presidential challenge to Johnson’s illegal war in Vietnam.   As a member of the Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control she travelled to Russia and China on numerous delegations working to end the arms race and ban the bomb.  She is on the Advisory Boards of the Middle Power Initiative, the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, and the Rideau Institute.  She is a UN NGO Representative and has written numerous articles and op-eds, with frequent appearances on local and national media.
Videos:
Coalition Against Nukes Congressional Briefing at 25.60 minutes
Russia Today TV interview
Blog:
Renewable Energy

DAVID SWANSON — Virginia, U.S.
David Swanson is Director of World Beyond War. His books include: War Is Never Just, War Is A Lie, War No More: The Case for Abolition, and When the World Outlawed War.  He is the host of  Talk Nation Radio. He has been a journalist, activist, organizer, educator, and agitator.  Swanson helped plan the nonviolent occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington DC in 2011.  Swanson holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including press secretary for Dennis Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign, media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as communications coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. He blogs at davidswanson.org and warisacrime.org and works as Campaign Coordinator for the online activist organization rootsaction.org.  Swanson also works on the communications committee of Veterans For Peace, of which he is an associate (non-veteran) member. Swanson is Secretary of Peace in the Green Shadow Cabinet. Find him on Facebook and Twitter and contact him at david at davidswanson dot org.
Videos:
On a victorious peace movement.
When is murder not murder?
I’ve had enough

BARRY SWEENEY — Ireland
Barry Sweeney is a peace activist, and a primary school, and permaculture teacher, based in Ireland and Italy. He is World Beyond War’s Country Coordinator for Ireland and a member of the World Beyond War Coordinating Committee.

TONY JENKINS — Maryland, U.S.
Tony Jenkins, PhD, is Education Coordinator for World Beyond War. He has 15+ years of experience directing and designing peacebuilding and international educational programs and projects and leadership in the international development of peace studies and peace education. Since 2001 he has served as the Managing Director of the International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) and since 2007 as the Coordinator of the Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE). Professionally, he has been: Director, Peace Education Initiative at The University of Toledo (2014-16); Vice President for Academic Affairs, National Peace Academy (2009-2014); and Co-Director, Peace Education Center, Teachers College Columbia University (2001-2010). In 2014-15, Tony served as a member of UNESCO’s Experts Advisory Group on Global Citizenship Education.

KATHY KELLY — Illinois, U.S. / Afghanistan
During each of 20  trips to Afghanistan, Kathy Kelly, as an  invited guest of the Afghan Peace Volunteers, has lived alongside ordinary Afghan people in a working class neighborhood in Kabul.  She and her companions in Voices for Creative Nonviolence believe that “where you stand determines what you see.” In June, 2016, Kathy participated in a delegation that visited five cities in Russia, aiming to learn about Russian opinions regarding NATO exercises taking place along their border. Kelly has  joined with activists in various regions of the U.S. to  protest drone warfare by holding demonstrations outside of U.S. military  bases in Nevada, California, Michigan, Wisconsin and Whiteman Air  Force base in Missouri.  In 2015, for carrying a loaf of bread and a letter across the line at Whiteman AFB she served three months in prison. From 1996 – 2003, Voices activists formed 70 delegations that openly defied economic sanctions by bringing medicines to children and families in Iraq. Kelly traveled to Iraq 27 times, during that period. She and her companions lived in Baghdad throughout  the 2003 “Shock and Awe” bombing. They have also lived alongside people during warfare in Gaza, Lebanon, Bosnia and Nicaragua. She was sentenced to one year in federal prison for planting corn on  nuclear missile silo sites (1988-89) at Whiteman Air Force Base and spent three months in prison, in 2004, for crossing the line at Fort Benning’s military training school. As  a war tax refuser, she has refused payment of all forms of federal income tax since 1980.

PAT ELDER — Maryland, U.S.
Pat Elder is the author of Military Recruiting in the United States, and the Director of the National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy, an organization that works to counter the alarming militarization of America’s high schools. Elder was a co-founder of the DC Antiwar Network and a long-time member of the Steering Committee of the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth. His articles have appeared in Truth Out, Common Dreams, Alternet, L.A. Progressive, Sojourner’s Magazine, and U.S. Catholic Magazine. Elder’s work has also been covered by NPR, USA Today, The Washington Post, Aljazeera, Russia Today, and Education Week. Elder has crafted bills and helped to pass legislation in Maryland and New Hampshire to curtail recruiter access to student data. He has been instrumental in helping to convince more than a thousand schools to take steps to protect student data from recruiters. Elder helped to organize a successful series of demonstrations to shut down the Army Experience Center, a first-person shooter video arcade in a Philadelphia suburb. Pat Elder worked to pressure the UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child to call on the Obama Administration to adhere to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict regarding military recruiting practices in the schools. Elder hold a Master’s in Government from the University of Maryland and Maryland high school teacher certification. He lives with his wife, Nell on the St. Mary’s River in St. Mary’s City, Maryland.

GREG HUNTER — Edmonton/Alberta
Greg Hunter taught science in Alberta for 30 years. Since his retirement he has been studying and speaking on how cognitive biases are used to manipulate our received world views. His goal is to facilitate critical thinking about history and current events. “Greg’s talks are multi-media extravaganzas that challenge teachers—and all of us—to never assume that received narratives are necessarily true. Such skepticism is the basis of real democracy… This is a marvelous, wonderfully imaginative way of putting all this material together” – Adam Hochschild, Professor Narrative History UC Berkeley, author ‘King Leopold’s Ghost’ – “Of the 100+ speakers The Centre for Global Education host every year, Greg Hunter is among the best.” – Terry Godwalt, director. Education “Besides the human gyroscope ride, your seminar was the most fun I had at the Convention.” Dr. Tom Angelakis, Calgary Board of Education.

Description: Sleight of Hand Sleight of Mind… breaking the spell for war
Download Sample:  Attribution Bias.ppt

Description: Sleight of Hand Sleight of Mind… Canadian war propaganda
Download Sample: Framing Bia.ppt

Description: Re-examining Munich, 1938… the parable, the geopolitics, the echoes
Download Sample: Libyan Echoes.ppt

DAVID J. SMITH — Maryland, U.S.
David J. Smith has over 30 years’ experience as a consultant, career coach, lawyer, mediator, educator, and trainer. He has consulted with over 400 colleges around the U.S. and has given over 500 talks on peacebuilding, conflict resolution, social justice, and international education. He is the president of the Forage Center for Peacebuilding andHumanitarian Education, Inc., a 501c3 not-for-profit that offers experiential learning opportunities for students and professionals. Formerly, he was a senior program officer and manager at the U.S. Institute of Peace. David has taught at Goucher College, Georgetown University, Towson University and currently at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. David was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar at the University of Tartu (Estonia) where he taught peace studies and dispute resolution. He is a recipient of the William J. Kreidler Award for Distinguished Service to the field of Conflict Resolution given by the Association for Conflict Resolution. David is the author of Peace Jobs: A Student’s Guide to Starting a Career Working for Peace (Information Age Publishing 2016) and editor of Peacebuilding inCommunity Colleges: A Teaching Resource  (USIP Press 2013).   He is a graduate of American University (BA), George Mason University (MS, conflict analysis & resolution), and the University of Baltimore (JD).  He blogs at http://davidjsmithconsulting.com. He can be reached at davidjsmith@davidjsmithconsulting.com and is based in Rockville, MD (outside of Washington, DC).

WILLIAM GEIMER — Canada
William Geimer, author, peace activist, is a veteran of the U.S. 82d Airborne Division and Professor of Law Emeritus, Washington and Lee University. After resigning his commission in opposition to the war on Vietnam, he represented conscientious objectors and advised peace groups near Ft. Bragg NC, once representing Jane Fonda, Dick Gregory and Donald Sutherland in negotiations with police. A Canadian citizen, he lives with his wife near Victoria, British Columbia where he is a member of the Vancouver Island Peace and Disarmament Network. He is the author of Canada: The Case for Staying Out of Other People’s Wars and serves as advisor on policy issues of peace and war to Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament and Leader of the Green Party of Canada.

HAKIM — Afghanistan
Dr. Wee Teck Young (known by Afghan youth as “Hakim”) is a Singaporean physician who 10 years ago decided to leave the comfort of his medical practice to instead provide humanitarian and social assistance to those most affected by the war in Afghanistan. He has since become friends with many ordinary Afghans who are tired of war and dream of a peaceful, nonviolent future for their families and their country. Many of these friendships have developed through his role as a mentor to the Afghan Peace Volunteers, a group of multi-ethnic Afghans dedicated to building nonviolent alternatives to war.

WINSLOW MYERS — Maine, U.S.
Winslow Myers is an artist and activist who lives in mid-Coast Maine. For ten years he coordinated events and activities for Beyond War in central Massachusetts and led many seminars on personal and social change. Later he served on the board of Beyond War while it was based in Portland OR. He has written over a hundred opinion-editorial pieces on the subject of the prevention of war and building a world beyond war, some of which have seen print in national newspapers like the Christian Science Monitor, the San Jose Mercury News, and the San Francisco Chronicle, and all of which have been published online. He is the author of Living Beyond War: A Citizen’s Guide. He serves on the Advisory Board of the War Prevention Initiative.
Article:
Waiting to Launch Armageddon
Audio:
Interview
Interview

LAWRENCE WITTNER — New York, U.S.
Lawrence Wittner is Professor of History emeritus at the State University of New York/Albany.  He began his career as a peace activist in the fall of 1961, when he and other college students picketed the White House in an attempt to block resumption of U.S. nuclear weapons testing.  Since then, he has participated in a great many peace movement ventures, and has served as president of the Peace History Society, as convener of the Peace History Commission of the International Peace Research Association, and as a national board member of Peace Action, the largest grassroots peace organization in the United States.  In addition, he has been active in the racial equality and labor movements, and is currently executive secretary of the Albany County Central Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.  A former co-editor of the journal Peace & Change, he is also the author or editor of thirteen books, including Rebels Against War, The Biographical Dictionary of Modern Peace Leaders, Peace Action, Working for Peace and Justice, and the award-winning trilogy, The Struggle Against the Bomb.  His hundreds of published articles and book reviews have appeared in journals, magazines, newspapers, and online publications around the world.  He has given lectures about peace and disarmament in dozens of nations, and has spoken about such issues at the Norwegian Nobel Institute and at the United Nations.  Find him on his website and at Facebook and contact him at wittner at Albany dot edu.
Videos:
How Peace Activists Saved the World from Nuclear War
Interview regarding “Confronting the Bomb”

ABDUL AMIR — Pakistan
Abdul Amir is a humanitarian, poet and writer. His official name is Abdul Baqi and his pen name Aamir Gamaryani. For over 12 years he has served several international humanitarian organizations in the field of emergency relief and long term development. He has been working for peace and harmony in Pakistan for over 20 years. His poetry book “The Enlightened Pen” in his native language Pashto was ranked as the best book of the year 2003-04 by a couple of literary forums. He occasionally writes for a mainstream newspaper and several of his columns in Urdu on a variety of issues/subjects have been published under his pen name. He has been honored with several awards by different forums. Recently he has formed a Nonviolent Force at the grassroots level which has successfully organized a week long festival on the occasion of the independence day of Pakistan with a slogan to ‘End all Wars.’ These days he is working on making a school at the grassroots level with a vision to provide quality education keeping in mind the evolving characteristics of children with a nonviolent philosophy of life based on love and compassion.

STACY BANNERMAN — Washington State, U.S.
Stacy Bannerman is the author of WHEN THE WAR CAME HOME: The Inside Story of Reservists and the Families They Leave Behind (Continuum Publishing, 2006) and was a charter Board member of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO). When her husband was mobilized with the Army National Guard in 2003, Stacy began speaking out against the war, and has emerged as a national leader on the human costs of the war in Iraq. Stacy has testified before several Congressional committees. She authored and secured unanimous passage of the Military Family Task Force in Oregon, believed to be the first in the nation.  Stacy’s peace work includes serving as the Executive Director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Outreach Center, and co-creating and producing a human rights multimedia campaign that remains unique to the Pacific Northwest and was nominated for an advertising award.
Read her articles.

MEDEA BENJAMIN — Washington D.C., U.S.
Medea Benjamin is a cofounder of both CODEPINK and the international human rights organization Global Exchange. Benjamin is the author of eight books. Her latest book is  Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, and she has been campaigning to stop the use of killer drones. Her direct questioning of President Obama during his 2013 foreign policy address, as well as her recent trips to Pakistan and Yemen, helped shine a light on the innocent people killed by US drone strikes. Benjamin has been an advocate for social justice for more than 30 years. Described as “one of America’s most committed — and most effective — fighters for human rights” by New York Newsday, and “one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement” by the Los Angeles Times, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women who do the essential work of peace worldwide. In 2010 she received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize from the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the 2012 Peace Prize by the US Peace Memorial. She is a former economist and nutritionist with the United Nations and World Health Organization. Find her on Facebook or Twitter.
Videos:
Speech on drones.
Written:
articles

RONALD GOLDMAN — Boston, Mass., U.S.
Ronald Goldman is a psychological researcher, speaker, writer, and director of the Early Trauma Prevention Center which educates the public and professionals. Early trauma prevention is linked to preventing later violent behavior and has a major role to play in stopping war. Goldman’s work includes hundreds of contacts with parents, children, and medical and mental health professionals. He has a particular interest in perinatal psychology and serves as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology and Health. Dr. Goldman’s publications have been endorsed by dozens of professionals in mental health, medicine, and social science. His writing has appeared in newspapers, parenting publications, symposia proceedings, textbooks, and medical journals. He has participated in over 200 media interviews with radio and television shows, newspapers, wire services, and periodicals (e.g., ABC News, CBS News, National Public Radio, Associated Press, Reuters, New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Scientific American, Parenting Magazine, New York Magazine, American Medical News). Time and Newsweek have contacted him for consultation. He has presented programs to parents, university students (e.g., Brown University, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston University), childbirth educators (Boston Association of Childbirth Educators), and others (Mensa Annual Gathering, Men’s Studies Association, Interface Holistic Health Center, independent living communities). Dr. Goldman also provides consultations to individuals about personal issues.

BLASE BONPANE — California, U.S.
Blase Bonpane is the director of the Office of the Americas. He has served on the faculties of UCLA and California State University Northridge. His articles have been published internationally, and he has worked as a contributor to the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. Blase previously served as a Maryknoll priest in Guatemala during the revolutionary conflict of the 1960s. As a result of his work in peasant organizations, he was expelled from that country in 1967. On his return to the United States, Bonpane and his family lived at the headquarters of United Farm Workers with César Chávez, where he was editor of UFW publications. He is host of the weekly radio program World Focus on Pacifica Radio (KPFK, Los Angeles). He was named “the most underrated humanist of the decade” by the Los Angeles Weekly. In 2006, he was awarded the Distinguished Peace Leadership Award by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. His books include: Civilization is Possible (Red Hen Press, 2008); Common Sense for the Twenty-first Century (2004); Guerrillas of Peace: On the Air (2000); and Guerrillas of Peace: Liberation Theology and the Central American Revolution (iUniverse, 2000, 3rd edition).
Videos:
Lecture
The International March for Peace

PAUL K. CHAPPELL — California, U.S.
Paul K. Chappell graduated from West Point in 2002, was deployed to Iraq, and left active duty in November 2009 as a Captain. He is the author of the Road to Peace series, a seven-book series about waging peace, ending war, the art of living, and what it means to be human. The first four published books in this series are Will War Ever End?, The End of War, Peaceful Revolution, and The Art of Waging Peace. Chappell serves as the Peace Leadership Director for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Lecturing across the country and internationally, he also teaches college courses and workshops on Peace Leadership. He grew up in Alabama, the son of a half-black and half-white father who fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars, and a Korean mother. His website is peacefulrevolution.com. Find him on Facebook.
Videos:
Is World Peace Possible?
Interview on the Tavis Smiley Show
Print Materials:
Interview in The Sun magazine

BRUCE GAGNON — Maine, U.S.
Bruce Gagnon is the Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.  He was a co-founder of the Global Network when it was created in 1992. Between 1983–1998 Bruce was the State Coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice and has worked on space issues for 31 years.  In 1987 he organized the largest peace protest in Florida history when over 5,000 people marched on Cape Canaveral in opposition to the first flight test of the Trident II nuclear missile. Bruce has traveled to and spoken in England, Germany, Mexico, Canada, France, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Japan, Australia, Scotland, Wales, Greece, India, Brazil, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic, South Korea, and throughout the U.S. Bruce initiated the Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home in 2009 that spread to other New England states and beyond. Bruce published a new version of his book in 2008 called Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire.  Bruce also has a blog called Organizing Notes. In 2003 Bruce co-produced a popular documentary video entitled Arsenal of Hypocrisy that spelled out U.S. plans for space domination. In 2013 Bruce was featured in the documentary video called The Ghosts of Jeju about the South Korean village fighting against construction of a Navy base. Bruce is an active member of Veterans for Peace and is the Secretary of Space in the Green Shadow Cabinet.

JOHN LINDSAY-POLAND — California, U.S.
John Lindsay-Poland is a writer, activist, researcher and analyst focused on human rights and demilitarization, especially in the Americas. He has written about, researched and organized action for human rights and demilitarization of US policy in Latin America for 30 years. From 1989 to 2014, he served the interfaith pacifist organization Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), as coordinator of the Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean, as research director, and founded FOR’s Colombia peace team. From 2003 to 2014, he edited a monthly newsletter focused on Colombia and U.S. policy, Latin America Update. He participated in the 2012 US-Mexico Caravan for Peace, and has visited Ciudad Juarez four times as part of FOR’s work to address gun trafficking and the US role in violence in Mexico. Previously he served with Peace Brigades International (PBI) in Guatemala and El Salvador, and co-founded PBI’s Colombia Project in 1994. He lives with his partner, the artist James Groleau, in Oakland, California.

JAN OBERG — Denmark
Jan Oberg is cofounder and board member of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, and has been a peace studies professor at Lund University, thereafter visiting or guest professor at various universities. He is the former director of the Lund University Peace Research Institute (LUPRI); former secretary-general of the Danish Peace Foundation; former member of the Danish government’s Committee on security and disarmament. He has been a visiting professor at ICU (1990-91) and Chuo Universities (1995) in Japan and visiting professor for three months at Nagoya University in 2004 and 2007 and four months in 2009 – at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. Oberg has taught peace courses for more than 10 years at the European Peace University (EPU) in Schlaining, Austria and teaches MA courses twice a year at the World Peace Academy (WPA) in Basel, Switzerland.
For his writings and more information, go here.

JAMES T. RANNEY — Delaware, U.S.
James T. Ranney is Adjunct Professor of Law at Widener’s Delaware campus. Professor Ranney joined Widener in 2011, coming out of semi-retirement to team-teach International Law. While in private practice, Professor Ranney specialized in criminal law, class actions, medical malpractice, and employment law. Prior to that, he was University Legal Counsel for the University of Montana and Research Professor of law at the University of Montana School of Law, teaching courses in Criminal Procedure, Legal Writing, Legal History, and Contemporary Legal Problems (“Law and World Peace”). Professor Ranney was a co-founder of the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center (in Missoula, Montana), a Legal Consultant to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Chair of the Philadelphia Chapter of Citizens for Global Solutions, and is currently a Board Member of the Project for Nuclear Awareness. He has been speaking on the subject of ending war for decades.
Articles:
World Peace Through Law

BILL SCHEURER — U.S.

Bill Scheurer is Executive Director of On Earth Peace, an ecumenical peace mission founded by people from the Church of the Brethren, and is a frequent speaker on the intersections of peace and faith and politics. He has degrees in Religious Studies and Law, and has worked as a lay minister, lawyer, and technology entrepreneur. Bill and his wife Randi were involved with the peace movement as college students during the Vietnam War, and have been full-time peacebuilders since 2001. They are Co-Coordinators of the Peace Garden Project — a peace garden in every community, and were early members of Military Families Speak Out – a call to bring our troops home and take care of them when they get here. Bill also was the Editor of the PeaceMajority Report — a window on the peace community in America, is a National Council member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation — the biggest and oldest interfaith peace organization in the nation, and is a Board adviser to Save-A-Vet — dedicated to rescuing military and law enforcement dogs and sheltering them with disabled veterans in mutual healing and support. He is active in the intersection of peace with faith and politics, is the author of “us & them: bridging the chasm of faith,” and has been a peace candidate for U.S. Congress several times.

ANDY SHALLAL — Washington D.C., U.S.
Anas “Andy” Shallal (born March 21, 1955 in Baghdad, Iraq) is an Iraqi-American artist, activist and restaurateur best known for owning and operating Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., where he was a candidate for mayor in 2014.

BARBARA WIEN — Washington D.C., U.S.
From the time she was 21, Barbara Wien has worked to stop human rights abuses, violence and war.  She has protected civilians from death squads using cutting-edge peacekeeping methods, and trained hundreds of Foreign Service officers, UN officials, humanitarian workers, police forces, soldiers, and grassroots leaders to de-escalate violence and armed conflicts.  She is the author of 22 articles, chapters, and books, including Peace and World Security Studies, a pioneering curriculum guide for university professors, now in its 7th edition.  She has designed and taught countless peace seminars and trainings in 58 countries to end war.  She is a nonviolence trainer, curriculum expert, educator, public speaker, scholar and mother of two.  She has led eight national nonprofit organizations, awarded grants from three funding agencies, catalyzed hundreds of degree programs in the study of peace, and taught at five universities. Wien organized jobs and safe streets for youth in her Harlem and D.C. neighborhoods.  She was recognized for her leadership and “moral courage” by four foundations and academic societies.  She is featured in Amy Goodman’s book Exceptions to the Rulers, and in The Progressive magazine for speaking out against war.  Her media appearances include The Washington Post, NBC Nightly News, Australian Public Broadcasting, Nuclear Times magazine, and radio interviews in India, Uganda, Zambia, Palestine-Israel, and Australia.  Her areas of expertise are peace education, nonviolent movements, and gender equity.

MAYA EVANS – England
Maya first visited Afghanistan in December 2011 when she worked with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers and Voices for Creative Non-Violence, she met other Afghan peace activists and visited refugee camps, human rights activists, NGOs, journalists and ordinary Afghans. On her return she spoke across the UK, as well as published an account with analysis about her trip. In December 2012 she returned in Afghanistan, leading the first UK peace delegation since the 2001 NATO invasion. lt was in fact an all-woman delegation who had formed Voices for Creative Non-Violence UK, and now campaign at both a grassroots and government level to support non-violent peace in Afghanistan. Maya Evans is a well-known and tireless activist for peace and government accountability. She was famously convicted in 2005 of the “serious crime” of reading aloud, at the London Cenotaph, the names of British soldiers killed in lraq. In 2007 she won Liberty’s Peter Duffy “Campaigner of the Year Award”. In 2010 she prosecuted the British government for war crimes in Afghanistan, after it was revealed in a 2007 Amnesty report that Britain, with other NATO countries, was likely complicit in the torture of Afghan detainees. Her case went to the High Court, where judges gave her a “partial victory”. Later in 2010 she won a High Court legal aid challenge where she successfully blocked cuts to legal aid for cases brought “in the public interest”. She currently has a pending case investigating the legitimacy of secret courts. In 2012 she spent a week in HM Bronzefield Prison for a non-payment of fine relating to a protest outside Northwood Military Base against the bombing of Afghan Wedding Parties by NATO/ US forces. Maya is on the steering committee of the Drones Campaign Network UK, a coalition of UK groups concerned and committed to stopping drones. Last year she co-organised the UK “Ground the drones” peace walk. More recently she co-ordinated the Fly Kites Not Drones 2014 campaign which went international and was the biggest simultaneous mass anti drone action led by Afghans. The campaign included a video Maya made in Kabul with the Afghan Peace Volunteers during her 3 month stay in Kabul earlier this year. Maya coordinated a London conference focusing on Afghanistan post 2014 withdrawal and movement building. The event worked with Afghans in the UK, as well as the peace movement, to come together and hear from the APV in Kabul who spoke about the importance of bridging divisions in order to form peace. The day included speeches by Afghan women, a Guardian Journalist, Afghan community leaders, Stop the War, Drone Wars UK and many others. Maya, despite her bravery and seriousness of purpose, is not at all solemn, but extremely lively and cheerful, and a very entertaining speaker.

KERMIT HEARTSONG — Califorina, U.S.
Kermit Heartsong is co-author of Ukraine: Zbig’s Grand Chessboard and How the West Was Checkmated.

NATYLIE BALDWIN — Califorina, U.S.
Natylie Baldwin is co-author of Ukraine: Zbig’s Grand Chessboard and How the West Was Checkmated. Baldwin lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in various publications including Sun Monthly, Dissident Voice, Energy Bulletin, Newtopia Magazine, The Common Line, New York Journal of Books, OpEd News and The Lakeshore. Website.

SCOTTY BRUER — U.S.
Scotty Bruer is the founder of PeaceNow.com. He is also an author, a public speaker, father, grandfather, entrepreneur and graduate of Purdue University with a degree in Forest Management. Scotty is a U.S. veteran of the USMC and has been a volunteer within the Veterans Administration hospital system chaplain services and is a member of Rotary International. Website.

NICK MOTTERN — New York, U.S.
Nick Mottern has worked as a reporter, researcher, writer and political organizer over the last 30 years. While in the U.S. Navy he was in Viet Nam in 1962-63. He graduated from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1966, and he has worked as a reporter for the Providence (RI) Journal and Evening Bulletin, a researcher and writer for the former US Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, a lobbyist for Bread for the World and a writer and co-organizer of speaking tours in the United States on US involvement in Africa for Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. In this job he visited a number of African nations and war zones in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Mozambique as well as Israel and the West Bank. He is the author of “Suffering Strong”, recounting experiences of his first trip to Africa. He has also been involved in grassroots action in the Lower Hudson Valley. He manages www.consumersforpeace.org and www.KnowDrones.com.

RORY FANNING — U.S.
Rory Fanning left the Army Rangers as a war resister just days after his unit-mate Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire. Disquieted by his tours in Afghanistan, Fanning set out to honor Tillman’s legacy by crossing the United States on foot. Fanning wrote Worth Fighting For: An Army Ranger’s Journey Out of the Military and Across America. The Chicago Tribune said of the book, “[Fanning] shows us the imperial and harmful objective of U.S. foreign policy. He shows us the courage to walk away from it, and he shows us a path to a saner society.”

JOHN KETWIG — Virginia, U.S.
John Ketwig is the author of …and a hard rain fell: A GI’s true story of the War in Vietnam.

MICHAEL KNOX — Florida, U.S.
Michael D. Knox speaks on the topic, “Ending Our War Culture by Honoring Peacemakers.” He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1974 and is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of South Florida in the Departments of Mental Health Law and Policy, Internal Medicine, and Global Health.  He is currently Chair of the US Peace Memorial Foundation and Editor of the US Peace Registry. In 2007, he was awarded the Marsella Prize for the Psychology of Peace and Social Justice at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, recognizing him “for more than 4 decades of outstanding contributions to peace and humanitarian assistance.”  His biography is included in the latest editions of Who’s Who in the World and Who’s Who in America. In 2005, Dr. Knox founded the US Peace Memorial Foundation (a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) public charity).  The Foundation directs a nationwide effort to honor Americans who stand for peace by publishing the US Peace Registry, awarding an annual Peace Prize, and planning for the US Peace Memorial as a national monument in Washington, DC.  Knox believes that “these educational projects help move the United States toward a culture of peace, as we recognize the thoughtful and courageous Americans and U.S. organizations that have taken a public stand against one or more U.S. war or who have devoted their time, energy, and other resources to finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts.  We celebrate these role models to inspire other Americans to speak out against war and to work for peace.” He can be reached at Knox@USPeaceMemorial.org.

WERNER LANGE — Ohio, U.S.
Having been born in the rubble that was Germany following WWII, Werner Lange has been an active participant in peace movements since he cut his political teeth campaigning for Eugene McCarthy and serving in the US Peace Corps in the 1960s to his peace work as a 2016 Sanders delegate to the DNC. His service in the Peace Corps in the malaria eradication program in NE Thailand during the height of the CIA war in Laos was very brief, ending in his voluntary resignation when realizing that he was, in actuality, being primed for eventual use in that secret war. As an active participant in the anti-war movement he organized or joined several protests, including the large one on the OSU campus on May 4th (1970), when another contingent of the Ohio National Guard killed 4 students at KSU, his place of employment as a sociology professor for some 19 years until it was unjustly terminated for his consistent progressive ideas and relentless social criticisms. He continued his efforts on behalf of a world without war as director of the Cleveland Peace Council; community issues director for the Inter-Church Council of Greater Cleveland; regional Peacemaking Enabler for the Presbyterian Church (USA); and social justice advocate for the NE Ohio branch of the American Friends Service Committee. The largest Muslim congregation in Ohio awarded him its first Interfaith Peacemaking Award. After graduation from Ashland Theological Seminary he was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ and served three congregations before retuning to his teaching career in 2004. While at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, he organized several peace events and repeatedly spoke out against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as Islamophobia. In 2009 he joined a US humanitarian delegation to Gaza, and in 2017, as a participant in the annual conference of the Association for Humanist Sociology, he went to Havana, Cuba, to present a paper on W.E.B. DuBois, one of the unsung heroes of the worldwide effort to ban nuclear weapons and establish a secure peace based on social justice and racial equality.
Select articles:
http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/sr.html#.WeYyKUyZOi4
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/08/on_the_passing_of_web_dubois_a.html
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/amish_bishop_sam_mullets_11-ye.html

JAMES MARC LEAS — Vermont, U.S.
James Marc Leas is a founding member of the Stop the F-35 Coalition in Burlington Vermont. He has published some two dozen articles on the F-35 and F-35 basing in Vermont on Truthout, Counterpunch, The Burlington Free Press, and VTDigger. Running on an anti-war and anti-F-35 platform statewide, in 2013 he ran for the office of Vermont Adjutant General, the leader of the Vermont National Guard, which is elected by the legislature. A few months ago he ran against the incumbent for a South Burlington City Council seat featuring opposition to F-35 basing in South Burlington and he got 46% of the vote. Before becoming a patent attorney James was an engineer at IBM, and he holds over 40 patents for his inventions. While an IBM employee he led an 8-year campaign among employees to end IBM sales to South Africa that featured stockholder resolutions and speeches each year at IBM’s stockholder meeting. He also helped lead the largest campaign ever among IBM employees in opposition to cuts in pensions and retirement medical that won a substantial partial victory. James served as a staff physicist for the Union of Concerned Scientists in its Washington, DC office for a year in the aftermath of the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. James is a graduate of MIT and completed all but the dissertation toward a PhD in physics from the University of Massachusetts. He is a member of the Vermont Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the National Lawyers Guild. James has also written on how Vermont can overcome Citizens United all by itself – no constitutional amendment needed – including articles in the Vermont Law Review and the Vermont Bar Journal. James gave a talk on the subject at the Vermont Bar Association Annual Meeting last October. James is a past co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild Palestine Subcommittee. He drafted submissions to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on behalf of the Palestine Subcommittee that showed that neither the facts nor the law fit Israel’s claim that it acts in “self-defense” against rockets. He collected evidence in Gaza immediately after Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012 as part of a 20-member Code-Pink organized delegation from the US and Europe, and he authored or co-authored articles describing findings, including “Why the Self-Defense Doctrine Doesn’t Legitimize Israel’s Assault on Gaza.” He also participated in the February 2009 National Lawyers Guild delegation to Gaza immediately after Operation Cast Lead in 2009 and contributed to its report, “Onslaught: Israel’s Attack on Gaza and the Rule of Law.” Over 20 of his articles on Israeli attacks on Palestine have been published on Truthout, Counterpunch, Mondoweiss, Opednews, and the Huffington Post. He has been an active participant in the campaign to end Israel’s wars and occupations since 1982.

More great speakers can be found at PeaceIsLoud.org.