Sam Beck: e-mail sb43@cornell.edu
Sam Beck is a social and cultural anthropologist. As a pre-dissertation researcher, he carried out fieldwork among Yugoslav "guest workers" in Bavaria, Germany (1972) and later carried out doctoral research among "peasant-workers" in Romania (1976-1978).  He carried out post-doctoral fieldwork in Romania with a focus on inter-ethnic relations and economic specialization (1979-1980).  Another post-doctoral award allowed him to research alcohol culture among Cape Verdean Americans in Rhode Island (1980-1981). For the last ten years, Dr. Beck has been teaching an innovative course of study on diversity issues through experience based learning pedagogies.  He directs and teaches the Urban Semester Program through which Cornell University undergraduates may not only study issues of diversity, but also put their ideas about diversity into practice in real world settings and in-context.

Christina Ceballos: e-mail ceba0003@tc.umn.edu
Christina Ceballos has been working in the field of human rights for almost three years. Combined with participating in various education programs for the past five years, the National Training-of-Trainers is a fabulous fusion of her two passions.  She graduated from the University of Minnesota in May 2001, with a Bachelor of Arts in French and Global Studies, and a third focus in Human Rights. In January 2002, she was hired for an education-based AmeriCorps program on the West Side of St. Paul called Get Ready! Her AmeriCorps experience has definitely helped shape her abilities to be an enthusiastic educator and loves working with children in an educational environment. 

Mohamed Ibrahim Elgadi: e-mail Mohamed@educ.umass.edu
Mohamed Ibrahim Elgadi is a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Center for International Education). Mohamed is a community activist in the areas of human rights and is an active member of Amnesty International (Amherst) and the Group Against Torture in Sudan (Philadelphia).  He has spoken at a number of events held in New England area within the AI global campaign to stop torture and is also an environmental activist with a focus on MA and Sudan. His current ongoing dissertation project "Evaluation of the Oppressed" is focused on developing alternative research techniques based on number of covert methods used in his human rights work in Sudan. 

Dan Esparza: e-mail dan@calcasa.org
Dan Esparza has over 5 years experience in the rape crisis field.  Before joining the California Coalition against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), Dan was a rape crisis counselor, volunteer and operations coordinator, and interim Co-Director of the Rape Crisis Center at the Center for Community Solutions in San Diego, CA. He was instrumental in the translation of the San Diego County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Team Handbook into Spanish and has worked on several projects focusing on the needs of monolingual Spanish-speaking survivors, the Deaf Community, the LGBT Community, and male survivors of sexual assault.  

Emily Farell: e-mail emily_farrel@yahoo.com
Presently Emily works for Friends for a Non-Violent World where she coordinates the SAVE (Students against Violence Everywhere) program and assists in coordinating the AVP (Alternatives to Violence) Program.  The Alternatives to Violence Program is a series of trainings done primarily in the prison system as well as with community members and youth. As a trainer, Emily has received the TODOS Training for Trainers, which she has used to help design and facilitate a Multicultural Alliance Building Anti-Racism Youth Camp with the Wilder Foundation. In addition, Emily assists the local school districts in addressing violence in the schools, through leading workshops with youth on multi-cultural conflict resolution and non-violent communication.

Lynn Fena: e-mail lynnfena@chartermi.net
Lynn's profession is social work and she has spent the majority of her career working in public schools.  This path introduced her to children and families who are disadvantaged by the society and the education system. Currently, Lynn works at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Department of Social Work.  She recently completed two terms (eight years) as a Duluth City Councilor.  The most important task she faced as a city councilor was to establish a human rights commission in the city where there is a painful history regarding human rights policy.  Although it took nearly eight years to do so, the task was accomplished in 2001. Professionally and personally, Lynn has become increasingly concerned about human rights in the world, especially about how to teach individuals and communities to understand that "if one of us is oppressed, all of us are oppressed." (Paulo Freire) and being a part of this training workshop is the next step in her path.

Nancy Flowers: e-mail nflowers@igc.org
Nancy Flowers is now a consultant for human rights education after a quarter century as a high school teacher and administrator.  She has worked to develop Amnesty International USA's education program and is a co-founder of Human Rights USA.  As a consultant to UN agencies, governments, and NGOs, she has helped establish national and international networks of educators, develop materials, and train activists, professionals, and military and police personnel in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. She is the author of articles and books on human rights education, most recently Local Action/ Global Change: Learning about the Human Rights of Women and Girls (UNIFEM, 1999) and The Human Rights Education Handbook (Univ. of Minnesota Human Rights Resource Center, 2000) She edits the University of Minnesota Human Rights Resource Center's Human Rights Education Series. 

Jill Goldesberry: e-mail jillg@stanleyfdn.org
Jill Goldesberry is a Program Officer for Global Education K-12 with the Stanley Foundation, Muscatine, Iowa.  For over 12 years, she has worked with educators to bring global perspectives to their classrooms.  She directs youth programs that focus on global themes, and provides presentations to Iowa schools.  She sees a convergence between global education and human rights education where each is essential to the other.  She has presented global education sessions during many regional and national educators' conferences.  Recent presentations have promoted the Human Rights Here & Now activities, as Jill was part of the working group for that document.  The Stanley Foundation has co-published the Human Rights Education Series.

Phoenix Hill: e-mail peacefulgoddess@msn.com
Phoenix Hill has demonstrated this commitment through her tireless struggle to promote opportunities for women to get off dependency systems - such as welfare, and build their capacity to work towards their dreams - without having their dreams turned into nightmares by the complex dynamics of systemic oppression. She has demonstrated a clearly evolved capacity as a respectful, facilitative, and passionate leader with the righteous anger of a committed activist. She has proven community organizing, outreach and recruitment, interviewing, evaluating and organizational skills.  She is an articulate communicator and effective trainer who motivates colleagues and assistants to work at their best. Ms. Hill has recently started a one-person consulting firm, Bennu Enterprises, Inc. As a Community-Based Consultant she designs, facilitates and hosts seminars focused on building the power of low-income woman of color and grassroots organizational development. Ms. Hill is the Steering Committee Chair, for Sister to Sister a group, which emerged to become a powerful and recognized entity within economically, marginalized communities of color.

Rebecca Janke: e-mail janke005@umn.edu
Rebecca Janke is the co-founder and co-director of the non-profit organization Growing Communities for Peace.  She is a peace education consultant for pre K-college educators and a peacemaker artist in resident for pre K-elementary school children.  She is the co-author of The Compassionate Rebel: Energized by Anger, Motivated by Love, which contains stories, questions and resources regarding social action.  The book Peacemaker's ABC's for Young Children, which she co-authored with Julie Penshorn is now being used in 6,000 locations worldwide.  Her current focus is developing an on-line peace and human rights bookstore in partnership with the Human Rights Resource Center.

Michelle Leen: e-mail mleen23@hotmail.com
Michelle Leen has worked on a variety of legal issues involving asylum and immigration law. Ms. Leen completed a course of study at an ABA accredited summer program on international and comparative human rights law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland, Galway.  In the Spring of 1999, she participated in the Semester at Sea, a study abroad program sponsored by the University of Pittsburg, which provided her with many opportunities for exploration and study of many of the people, places and cultures around the world.

Atireme Matos: e-mail matosa@forefrontleaders.org
Atireme Matos is a Program Associate of Forefront.  She has several years experience in writing and creating civil rights publications with US grassroots organizations and commercial magazines.  Currently, Ms. Matos is developing the addition of a Public Education component to the work at Forefront.  The project aims to inform young US residents about global human rights concerns through education, youth mobilization and personal interaction with frontline Human rights defenders.  Atireme has a Master of Arts in Journalism from The University of Texas at Austin and a BA in Graphic Design.

Tonya McClary: e-mail TMcClary@afsc.org
Tonya McClary is a criminal defense/civil rights lawyer and activist. She is currently serving as the Naional Director of Criminal Justice for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).  She is implementing a two-year project designed to bridge the gap between attorneys and grassroots activists that work on death penalty cases. Ms. McClary also serves as Vice Chair of the ABA's Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities Death Penalty Committee as well as the Women's Steering Committee for Amnesty International USA.  She is also on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, USA. Ms. She has also been featured as a keynote speaker, panelist and workshop facilitator at international as well as national and local conferences.

Rita Moore: e-mail ritamoore1@yahoo.com
Rita Moore has been in academia for most of her professional life and has become persuaded that its inability to promote real, meaningful, and lasting change for peace and justice stems from its remoteness from society.  By the time students reach college; their views of the world and their definition of justice have already been formed.  She is hoping that this training will give her some new teaching methodologies appropriate to younger audiences so that she can participate more actively in efforts to incorporate human rights education into primary and middle school curricula and activist programs for mass education on human rights.

Jennifer Narod: e-mail jnarod@esi-intl.com or jnarod@bcsolutions.org
Jennifer Narod has worked in a variety of professional settings, including the health insurance, publishing, and online learning industries. Jennifer's recent endeavors include providing diversity training for law enforcement officers; designing workshops in conflict resolution and life skills for refugees; designing and facilitating a series of conflict resolution skills and diversity workshops for Washington, D.C. high school students; facilitating cross-cultural and inter-generational dialogues; and facilitating groups of Washington, D.C. residents in building consensus on neighborhood concerns and priorities.  She has conducted extensive research on various communities, religious, ethnic, cultural and "extremist" groups, as well as analyzed the dynamics of violent confrontations between some of these groups. Ms. Narod is a co-founder and project manager with Building Collaborative Solutions, Inc.  She is trained in project management, cultural diversity, narrative analysis, facilitation, mediation, prejudice reduction, discussing controversial issues, and conflict resolution training. 

Clarkson Obasi: e-mail clarksonobasi@yahoo.com.co.uk
Clarkson Obasi has been doing human rights work since 1995 and co-founded the Human Rights Defense Group (HRDG), a Cameroon based human rights NGO.  Mr. Obasi was the Secretary General from inception up till 1997 when he voluntarily relinquished the post.  In 1997, he attended a human rights summer study program at the International Institute of Human Rights, Strasbourg, France.  Upon return, he established Christian human rights NGO, HELP OUT, the head office located in Buea, South West Province, Cameroon (Africa). He has been working closely with the Hamline University School of Law on the establishment of collaboration between Hamline and HELP OUT on issues of Alternative Dispute Resolution. HELP OUT has a very sound working relationship with Cameroon's National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms and a host of other human rights organizations. 

Kristi Rudelius-Palmer: e-mail krp@umn.edu
Kristi Rudelius-Palmer is a human rights educator, activist, and idealist. Kristi has been involved in the field of Human Rights Education (HRE) since 1986 in various capacities.  She founded a campus Amnesty International group, facilitated prejudice reduction workshops for teachers, taught decision groups and parenting classes for fathers in prison and for mothers on the outside, and developed a self-esteem class for young children with parents in prison.  Kristi edited the first report for Article 19, a freedom of expression organization, in London and assisted economically disadvantaged individuals obtain legal ssistance with the Minnesota Justice Foundation for two years. In 1989, Kristi became a founding Co-Director of the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota.  She organized three community-wide HRE series from 1989 to 1992, including a mock trial of Christopher Columbus, which was carried in newspapers throughout the world. In 1997, Kristi was a founding member of Human Rights USA and creator of the national Human Rights Resource Center and Web Site, which services the nation with resources and training for building a human rights movement in this country. Kristi directs the publishing of The Human Rights Education Series, produced by the Human Rights Resource Center with diverse organizational partners.

Badrinath Rao: e-mail brao@kettering.edu
Badrinath Rao is an Assistant Professor in Sociology and Asian Studies in the department of Liberal Studies at Kettering University in Flint, MI. Mr. Rao is originally from India and arrived in Canada in the 1990s to pursue graduate studies in Sociology. For some time, he worked as a Staff Correspondent in The Hindu- a national English newspaper of India- in Bangalore. Later, he worked as a Special Correspondent of Frontline- a national fortnightly magazine of the Hindu group- in Bombay. Bradrinath Rao has an abiding interest in issues concerning human rights and minority rights.  He has been a member of the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties in India.  Currently, he is involved in a research project that critically examines the trajectory of the human rights movement in India since independence.

Loretta J. Ross: e-mail loretta@nchre.org
Loretta J. Ross is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Human Rights Education (CHRE) in Atlanta, Georgia.  CHRE is a training and resource center for grassroots activists on using human rights to address social injustices in the United States. She is an expert on human rights, women's issues, diversity issues, and hate groups and bias crimes.  She is a political commentator for Pacifica News Service, and has appeared as a political commentator on Good Morning America, The Donahue Show, The Charlie Rose Show, CNN, and BET.  She was one of the first African-American women to direct a rape crisis center in the 1970s.  Ms. Ross is presently writing a book on reproductive rights entitled Black Abortion.

Kimberly Walsh: e-mail yujung007kr@yahoo.com
Kim Walsh is finishing her senior project for graduation at the University of Minnesota. She was one of the recipients for the Upper Midwest International Human Rights Fellowship Program and has recently returned from South Korea, interning at the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR), an NGO based in Seoul. Ms. Walsh has also volunteered for the University-YMCA for 2 years, guiding and facilitating social justice travel trips for students to be exposed to global issues and become more reflective of their roles within the world changing systems.  Other abroad experiences were for an NGO in Guatemala that assists in the development of rural health care, advocacy and education for indigenous groups.

Tammie Yak: e-mail vanwinta@yahoo.com
Tammie Yak is a recent graduate from Minnesota State University Moorhead with a Bachelor of Social Work and a Bachelor of Arts in Gerontology.  Recently completed an internship with the Moorhead Human Rights Commission and was hired on as part-time staff.  She also serves as a board member for PEPP (People Escaping Poverty Project).