Dr. Kevin Avruch

Kevin Avruch is a Professor of Conflict Resolution and Anthropology in the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR), and faculty and senior fellow in the Peace Operations Policy Program at George Mason University. He received his B.A. from the University of Chicago and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego. He has taught at three universities and served as Coordinator of the Anthropology Program at GMU. In 2005, he became Associate Director of ICAR.

Dr. Avruch has published extensively on a wide variety of subjects in conflict analysis and resolution. He served as book review editor of Anthropological Quarterly and is currently on the editorial boards of three esteemed publications. He has lectured widely in the U.S. and abroad, and his work has been recognized by the International Association of Conflict Management and the United States Institute of Peace, where he was senior fellow in the Jennings Randolph Program for International Peace.

Dr. Avruch is currently working on projects investigating sources of political violence in protracted conflicts, the role of human rights and truth and reconciliation commissions in postconflict peacebuilding, and cultural aspects of humanitarian and peacekeeping operations.

Dr. Joseph Bock

Joe Bock directs the Master’s in Science for Global Health program at the Eck Institute for Global Health at the University of Notre Dame.  He is the liaison to Catholic Relief Services for Notre Dame and an editorial adviser to Development in Practice, founded by Oxfam GB.  

He received his Ph.D. in International Relations from the School of International Service of American University and an MSW and BSW from the University of Missouri-Columbia.  Dr. Bock has twelve years of humanitarian relief and development experience with Catholic Relief Services and the American Refugee Committee. He was a Fellow with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Executive Director of the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship at Haverford College and the Secure World Foundation, and a member of the Working Group on Reconciliation of Caritas Internationalis. He served six years in the Missouri House of Representatives, with various leadership positions.Dr. Bock has taught at four prestigious universities and published numerous works. He is currently completing a manuscript based on his consulting work with The Asia Foundation in Sri Lanka.

Dr. Tamra d'Estree

Tamra Pearson d’Estrée has a PhD in Social Psychology from Harvard University. She co-directs the interdisciplinary Conflict Resolution Institute at the University of Denver, and is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Conflict Resolution in the Josef Korbel School of International Studies. She has led trainings and facilitated interactive problem-solving workshops in various inter-communal conflict contexts, including Israel-Palestine, Ethiopia, and in US intertribal disputes. She also has directed and evaluated projects aimed at conflict resolution capacity-building in Israel-Palestine, the Caribbean, Ukraine, and Georgia, with projects funded by the State Department and USAID. She has served as an evaluation consultant to community and non-governmental organizations as well as UNESCO, UNDP, and USIECR.

Dr. d’Estrée’s research areas include identity dimensions of social and ethnic conflict, procedural justice, intergroup relations, and the evaluation of international, community and environmental conflict resolution. She worked with community mediation centers in Colorado to develop a common evaluation framework, and is co-author, with Bonnie G. Colby, of Braving the Currents: Evaluating Conflict Resolution in the River Basins of the American West (Springer), as well as numerous book chapters and articles in various interdisciplinary journals. She is on the boards of the Association for Conflict Resolution and the Colorado Office of Dispute Resolution.

Ms. Karen Osborne

Karen Osborne has been active in the non-profit world of the San Francisco Bay Area for many years.  She was a member of the Salvation Army Board and a founding member of two multi-cultural organizations for seniors, Senior Action Network and Planning for Elders in the Central City. She currently hosts a monthly lecture series, Conversations, in Carmel, California. Ms. Osborne had a career in health care administration and education and is the parent of four children.  She was the first public member of the Ethics Committee of the California State Bar and founder of the San Francisco Long Term Care Committee, which developed the plan for long term care in San Francisco County.  She lives in Carmel and San Francisco, California.

Prof. Richard Rubenstein

Richard E. Rubenstein is Professor of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs at George Mason University.  He is a faculty member of the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution (formerly known as the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution).

Professor Rubenstein was educated at Harvard College (B.A. 1959, magna cum laude), Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar (M.A. 1961), and Harvard Law School (J.D. 1963). He practiced law in Washington, DC, taught political science at Roosevelt University in Chicago, and was professor of law at the Antioch School of Law.

Professor Rubenstein is the author of eight books, the most recent of which is Reasons to Kill: Why Americans Choose War. He is an expert on popular narratives of war and   peace, religious conflict, terrorism, and methods of resolving serious international and domestic disputes. He has lectured throughout the US and abroad and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows and film documentaries discussing these issues.