Wisdom Council

The World Peace Library and the Summer of Peace are advised by a Wisdom Council composed of leading peacebuilders from diverse backgrounds. Members include:

 
Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury is an inspirational champion for sustainable peace and development and ardently advances the cause of the global movement of the culture of peace. He served from 2002 to 2007 as the Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations.
Azim Khamisa is founder of the Tariq Khamisa Foundation (TKF), an international speaker, and author of 4 books including From Murder to Forgiveness and the Random House book The Secrets of the Bulletproof Spirit, coauthored with Jillian Quinn.
Cherine Badawi – Citizen to both Egypt and the United States of America, Cherine had the privilege of growing up on two sides of the planet. She has devoted her life to developing and facilitating holistic, transformational experiences that bring diverse individuals and communities together in authentic, purposeful exchange. Currently, in addition to her work as Curriculum and Training Coordinator for Generation Waking Up, Cherine works as an independent consultant offering instructional design and facilitation to a broad client base. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Cherine served as a Senior Leader for Challenge Day and as the Curriculum and Training Director of The Mosaic Project.
Chief Phil Lane Jr. is an enrolled member of the Yankton Dakota and Chickasaw First Nations and is an internationally recognized leader in human and community development. During the past 44 years, he has worked with Indigenous peoples in North, Central and South America, Micronesia, South East Asia, India, Hawaii and Africa. He served 16 years as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada (1980-1996). With Elder’s from across North America Phil co-founded the Four Worlds International Institute in 1982.
Deborah Moldow is the Representative to the United Nations of the World Peace Prayer Society, which promotes Peace Pole dedications and World Peace Flag Ceremonies sending the prayer “May Peace Prevail on Earth” to every country in the world. Deborah is also Co-Director with Diane Williams of the Evolutionary Leaders circle, a project of the Source of Synergy Foundation that brings together visionaries committed to the acceleration of the conscious evolution of humanity in these critical times. Rev. Deborah is an Interfaith Minister who leads innovative monthly Interfaith Sundays at the Chapel at Croton Falls, NY. She performs weddings and other ceremonies, as well as offering spiritual counseling.
Dena Merriam is Founder and Convener of the Global Peace Initiative of Women. She has worked in the interfaith movement since the late 1990s. In 2000, she served as Vice Chair of Millennium World Peace Summit and Spiritual Leaders at the United Nations.
Dot Maver is President of the National Peace Academy and Executive Director of the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding. She is an educator and peacebuilder whose keynote is inspiring cooperation on behalf of the common good. Dot taught at high school and university, served as National Campaign Manager for the Kucinich for President Campaign in 2004 and as Executive Director of The Peace Alliance, and is a founder and board member with the Global Alliance for Ministries and Infrastructures for Peace. She has a DVD, The Maver Method: Secrets of Softball Hitting Success, and is co-author of Conscious Education: The Bridge to Freedom.
James O’Dea is the Lead Faculty and Co-Mentor of The Shift Network’s Peace Ambassador Training program, an advanced course that provides rare access to the leading peacebuilders from around the world. He is also currently Co-Director of The Social Healing Project funded by the Kalliopeia Foundation and former Director of Amnesty International in Washington, DC and former President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
Jamira Burley – After her brother Andre was gunned down in 2005, Jamira founded the Overbrook High Panther Peace Core to provide students with nonviolent alternatives to resolve conflict. Jamira is a recent graduate of Temple University, a founding member of the Campaign for Non-violence Schools, and served as National Coordinator for the Student Peace Alliance. After leading a campaign to put the creation of a City of Philadelphia Youth Commission on the ballot, Jamira was appointed by the mayor as its first Executive Director. Her drive, perseverance, and passion to create a culture of peace are admired both in her home city and nationally.
Michael Nagler is Professor emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature at UC, Berkeley, where he co-founded the Peace and Conflict Studies Program. He is the founder of the Metta Center for Nonviolence Education and served on the Interim Steering Committee of the Nonviolent Peaceforce. He is the author of The Search for a Nonviolent Future; Our Spiritual Crisis: Recovering Human Wisdom in a Time of Violence (2005); The Upanishads (with Sri Eknath Easwaran, 1987), and other books as well as many articles on peace and spirituality.
Ven. Rev. Patrick McCollum is an internationally recognized spiritual leader whose work toward human rights, social justice, and equality for all religions and spiritual traditions, transcends cultural, religious and political barriers. Rev. McCollum received the Mahatma Gandhi Award in 2010. He was also named as a World Inner Peace Ambassador by Thai Buddhists. Rev. McCollum served as an advisor for the United States Commission on Civil rights and serves as Development Director for the United Nations NGO, Children of the Earth. He serves as the Minority Faith Issues Chair, for the American Correctional Chaplains Association, and as Founder and Co-Chair of the National Correctional Chaplaincy Directors Association. Rev. McCollum founded The Patrick McCollum Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting a sacred planetary vision that respects religious diversity and advances progress toward equality, human rights, equality for women, and world peace. In 2012, Ven. Rev. McCollum performed an opening blessing for 100 million attendees at the worlds largest spiritual gathering, the Maha Kumbh Mela, in Allahabad India. Ven. Rev. McCollum was recently recognized as a Saint in India and other countries and speaks worldwide on creating a new narrative for all humanity, one that everyone can live by.
Rick Ulfik is the Founder of We, The World and the WE Campaign at WE.net. We, The World develops global networks of collaboration and action to build mass involvement in the work of creating a peaceful, caring, sustainable world. Rick is Co-Founder and Principal Organizer of 11 Days of Global Unity – 11 Ways To Change The World September 11-21 a platform for change agents worldwide to raise awareness and take action annually with as many as 700 associated events in over 60 countries. Rick is a Nonviolent Communication (NVC) workshop facilitator and leader. He is also an award-winning composer and keyboard player who has performed with Queen Latifah, Phoebe Snow, Carlos Santana and Judy Collins. Rick serves every year as an Emmy Awards Judge for News, Documentaries, and Music.
Sister Jenna is a Member of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organaization and Founder of the Meditation Museum. Sister Jenna’s awards, honors, and activities include Board Emeritus of the United Religions, winner of the Friendship Archway Awards, Team Member of Coast Guards, blogs for GPS for the Soul Huffington Post on Meditation Tips, and has spearheaded America Meditating, Pause for Peace campaign.

 

Previous Summer of Peace Wisdom Council members include:

 

Adam Bucko is a co-author of Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation. An Activist and spiritual director to many of New York’s homeless Youth, he is a co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation, empowering homeless youth to break the cycle of poverty, and HAB, a “new monastic” fellowship focused on training young people in radical spirituality and sacred activism.
Avon Mattison is a Peacebuilding and Inter-Organisational Consultant, Advisor and Mentor with over three decades’ experience. She works with innovative leaders, groups and organisations on the “frontline” building Cultures of Peace inter-generationally and inter-culturally for future generations. She is Founder and President of Pathways To Peace (PTP), an international peacebuilding, educational and consulting organisation. Through Pathways To Peace, she created the CULTURE OF PEACE INITIATIVE (CPI), in 1983 in colleagueship with former UN Assistant Secretary-General Robert Muller. This local/global Peacebuilding Initiative unites the strengths of over 4,000 international organisations and focuses co-operative activities. Avon coordinates PACEM – Pathways Consulting, Educating and Mentoring. http://www.cultureofpeaceinitiative.org
Fumi Johns Stewart is Executive Director of The World Peace Prayer Society promoting May Peace Prevail on Earth activities worldwide. She was born in Tokyo, Japan and grew up with a sincere wish to bridge the two cultures of her American and Japanese parentage. Fumi was instrumental in introducing the Japanese based May Peace Prevail On Earth movement to the international community in the early 1980s. She brought The Peace Pole Project out of Japan and helped to establish the international Peace Pole Movement. She assisted in opening the International Headquarters of The World Peace Prayer Society which was registered as a non-profit in the state of New York in 1988. Fumi also serves as US liaison to sister organization, the Goi Peace Foundation of Japan. She currently lives in San Francisco and travels extensively to promote May Peace Prevail On Earth activities.
Susan Collin Marks is the Senior Vice President of Search for Common Ground, an international non-profit organization working to transform conflicts in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the USA.
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