Nasser Abufarha is a doctoral student of Anthropology at UW-Madison focusing on conflict, state expansion, and the culture of war and violence. Originally from Jenin, he grew up under Israeli occupation. He is the founder of an organization called the Alternative Palestinian Agenda (APA) and the author of its Peace Initiative. Tom Benevento is an organizer of the Nonviolent Peaceforce Madison Affinity Group. He worked for three years with the Guatemalan Accompaniment Project with returned refugees in war torn areas of Guatemala. He began work with the Church of the Brethren in 1991 as a Brethren Volunteer Service worker in Guatemala (1991-98) and currently coordinates their Latin America Program, focusing on peace, social justice, and environment. His own religious affiliation is Catholic. He is a part of the Third Order Franciscans, a committed peace community within the Catholic Church that vows to not take up arms. Rev. David Courtland Couper, Episcopal Priest, St. John's Episcopal Church, Portage, Wisconsin, was Madison's Chief of Police from 1972 to 1993. He has also been a member of the board of trustees of the Peace Council, an international interfaith group of religious leaders which includes Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama. Joseph Elder is Professor of Sociology and Languages and Cultures of Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was born and grew up in Iran, where his parents were Presbyterian missionaries. He returned to the United States to earn his Sociology BA and MA from Oberlin College and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has lived in India for eight years and has periodically visited Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was the executive producer of a documentary film, Being Muslim in India, released in 1984. He is currently Director of the University of Wisconsin's Center for South Asia, and the courses he teaches at the University of Wisconsin include "Social Structures of Muslim Societies" and "Thought of Gandhi". While a student at Oberlin during the Korean War, Joe sought and obtained conscientious objector status from the Draft Board and soon thereafter consolidated his association with the Quaker faith. He has been a member of the Madison Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends since 1961 and is currently a member of their Committee on Peace and Social Concerns. Joe has served as a volunteer for both the American Friends Service Committee and its British equivalent, British Peace and Social Concerns. In that role he carried messages between opposing leaders in areas of conflict, including North Korea and the U.S., Viet Nam and the U.S., the Tamil Tigers and the government of Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan, and Pakistan and Afghanistan. The languages he speaks include Hindi, Nepali, Persian, Tamil and Urdu. Diane Farsetta is the national field organizer for the East Timor Action Network. She has been involved with East Timor solidarity work since 1993. As ETAN's field organizer, Diane has organized U.S. speaking tours with visiting East Timorese and Indonesian activists, has worked with ETAN's grassroots members across the U.S. to plan and carry out days of action and legislative campaigns, and has organized national conferences on East Timor. Diane spent August and September 1999 in Suai, East Timor as a United Nations-accredited observer of the referendum on independence, and was evacuated with the last international observers on September 6. In addition to taking part in this summer¹s delegation to Ainaro, East Timor, Diane spent several weeks in the East Timorese capital city, Dili, meeting and working with human rights organizations there. Diane has also been a volunteer counselor of hate crime victims, has worked with Latin American solidarity organizations, and is currently a volunteer reporter with WORT 89.9 FM community radio. Her articles on East Timor have appeared in national publications, including The Progressive Media Project, Sojourner and Z magazine. Rev. Cecil Findley is a retired United Methodist minister, having served as a pastor, campus minister, and professor of religion. He taught as Professor of Religion at Southwestern College, Winfield, Kansas, where he had several courses on peace and conflict resolution. He is a long-time peace activist, and in Madison, he convened the ad hoc group, "Beyond Terrorism: Building a World of Peaace," which has sponsored or co-sponsored several events, including twice bringing Father Elias Chacour to Madison to speak from Ibillin, the Galilee, Israel. Thomas Foley has been involved with solidarity work with East Timor for more than ten years. In the spring of 1999, as Indonesian military-organized militia violence was increasing prior to the referendum on independence, Tom traveled with two exiled East Timorese resistance leaders on a several week east coast speaking tour. In addition to taking part in this summer¹s delegation to Ainaro, East Timor, Tom attended the May 20 Independence Day celebrations in Dili and participated in workshops on international solidarity with East Timor post-independence. A carpenter by trade, Tom used his skills in East Timor to help rehabilitate still-demolished schools and hospitals in East Timor this summer. Najat Fraigoon has a B.S. in Mass Communications in Journalism. Her interest is educating the general public about the authentic Islam as a religion of peace. She is an active member of Madison Islamic Center in Madison and has given presentations in several interfaith dialogs. Ken Hannaford-Ricardi of Voices in the Wilderness is a native of Worcester, Massachusetts and a member of SS. Frances and Therese Catholic Worker Community there, where they house the homeless and work for peace and justice both in the community and in the world at large. He describes himself as a committed pacifist. He has been a member of Voices in the Wilderness since July of 1998. He fasted across the street from the UN with the Voices community (the "Fast for Life") in 1998. He has spent considerable time working in VITW's Chicago office and has traveled three times to Iraq with Voices. Angie Hougas is the Wisconsin Coordinator for Amnesty International and a long time human rights activists. She speaks in the schools regarding human rights and has run a human rights club for 7th & 8th graders at Eagle School. She has done radio shows, public speaking, presentations and workshops on a variety of human rights issues. She is also a parent of a 13 year old and wants to leave the world a more peaceful place for his generation. Kathryn Kingsbury, a freelance journalist and member of Madison Mennonite Church, traveled to Israel and the West Bank in the summer of 2001 as part of a Christian Peacemaker Team. She has given presentations on the Middle East, pacifism and Christian discipleship at Ripon College, Lake Edge United Church of Christ, Zwingli United Church of Christ (Mt. Vernon), Madison Mennonite Church, First United Methodist Church (Madison), and Mother Fool's Coffeehouse. Midge Miller learned first hand about the devastation of war when she was a missionary to war devastated Japan after World War 2. Midge served 14 years in the Wisconsin State Legislature. She authored the First Statewide Nuclear Weapons Freeze Referendum to pass in the country. Midge served as National Committeewoman from Wisconsin to the Democratic National Committee. She managed the state office for Senator Eugene McCarthy's campaign for President, which was based on ending the Vietnam War. She was a founding member and served on the first National Women's Political Caucus Policy Council. Midge founded The Madison Institute, a "think-tank of concerned citizens in the progressive tradition." She was instrumental in getting the state legislature to hold hearings on the Gulf War and again in hearings about War in Iraq. Mary Mullen is a fourth grade teacher who also plays guitar and harmonica in a women's folk band called Dark of the Moon Contra-Band. Her primary peace activities have been writing letters and taking part in Take Back the Night marches. She is a member and past Executive Board President of Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society. Amy Owen is a graduate student studying the process of forgiveness, and a member of James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Congregation. Last fall she attended the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. She has led several worships on forgiveness and her experiences at the UN conference, and plans to return to South Africa for her master's and doctoral research. Dan Proud was a social action activist in the twin cities before moving to Madison with his wife and guitar. He is a member of Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society. Salwa Rashad is a UW-Madison graduate with a PhD in engineering and a Masters Degree in computer science who teaches math and computer science courses at MATC and Lakeland College. She is an active member of Beyond ism Peace group, Madison Area Peace Coalition, and Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice. Her focus is on educating the public, especially the youth, about the importance of promoting universal peace and justice by participating in seminars, distributing leaflets, and giving presentations at colleges, churches and public libraries. Robert Reuschlein is the author of Peace Economics (since 1985, three books1986, 1989, 1999) and taught "Peace Economics" at the University of Oregon (1987-89). He has been a monthly columnist for the Oregon Peaceworker (1989-97) and chair of the board for Eugene Peaceworks (1991-93). He taught a "Weather Wealth and Wars" course on University of the Air, Radio For Peace International (1997-1998). He is currently President of the Madison Chapter of the World Federalists Association (and has served on their Board since 1994). Other memberships include the United Nations Association (1989-1993 Eugene, Oregon), the Madison Area Peace Coalition (since 2001) and US Out Now (since 1999). Lois Swenson, a Lutheran peace activist, is a former elementary school educator from Minneapolis, where she became involved with the Every Church A Peace Church movement. Jackson Tiffany has served as a mediator in neighborhood and nonprofit organization settings. He occasionally teaches an eight session reconciliation workshop. He is a member of the Madison Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends and currently a chairs their Committee on Peace and Social Concerns. Rosalind Woodward is a retired nurse-midwife and health educator. Throughout her 40 year career she used music to calm and heal clients in distress. Her peace activities until recently have been confined to teaching and healing individuals who led chaotic and painful lives complicated by drug addiction. In April she initiated a weekly "Sing-along for Peace" on State Street, which continued until the end of August. |