Student and Alumni Profiles
STUDENT NEWS
Aung Tun, a student in the International Relations master's program, wrote a breakdown of the ongoing violence in Myanmar and the prospects for the creation of a viable federalist state. Read the full article, A war of many interests in Myanmar, originally published in The Asia Times, March 5, 2013.
Conflict Resolution Master’s student Ricardo L. Ramos, 
currently on leave from the program, is working for the recently elected Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Hon. Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto, as Special Assistant for Legislative and Public Affairs. In this role he serves as liaison with the State Legislature of Puerto Rico, represents the Mayor at public events, and assists in the coordination of the administration’s public message. His duties include drafting municipal ordinances, Executive Orders, and proposed legislation. Ricardo was actively involved in in the historic campaign that resulted in the Mayor’s election http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/opinion/2012/12/04/new-mayor-san-juan-carmen-yulin-girl-who-triumphed-over-hawk/, serving as a member of the Platform Committee; he was also a key member of the transition team. Ricardo is spearheading the planning for an innovative public budgeting process, using principles of deliberative dialogue and civic engagement which he was exposed to in the Conflict Resolution program. He plans to make this the basis of his capstone Master’s Project.
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra, Global Governance and Human Security doctoral program student, is editor of the new book Conflict and Peace in Eurasia published in October 2012 by Routledge. (read more)
Michael Denney, 
international relations student in the McCormack Graduate School and Research Associate in the Center for Governance and Sustainability, was accepted as a Summer 2012 intern for the prestigious Horn of African Regional Environment Center and Network (HoAREC) at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. Michael will spend half the summer supporting HoAREC in their Addis Ababa location, helping to establish an external relations department for the university. 
Michael will spend the other half of his summer in the southwest Gambella region of Ethiopia. Gambella is known for its pristine natural beauty, its relative underdevelopment, and its highly biologically productive land. The latter truths make Gambella an attractive location for agricultural land investors. In Gambella, Michael will work on creating an environmental institutional map of the region in order for think tanks such as HoAREC to better understand which governmental organizations, UN organizations, and NGOs are at work in the region. With this information, HoAREC will be better prepared to develop a long term land use plan for Gambella that incorporates aspects of economic development, agricultural development, and environmental preservation; the plan will seek to serve the needs of investors and locals alike. You can follow Michael’s work in the region at the Center for Governance and Sustainability blog at www.environmentalgovernance.org.
ALUMNI NOTES
Debor
ah Mendez-Bowen [MA Conflict Resolution 2000] took up her functions as Director of Mediation on 1 October 2012, after having served as Senior Mediator in the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services at Headquarters since July 2010. Before joining the United Nations, Ms. Mendez was managing director and founding partner of the Institute for Dispute Resolution Ltd., a private firm in Trinidad and Tobago.
Camillo Azcarate [MA Conflict Resolution 1999] has been the Manager of Mediation Services for the World Bank Group since November of 2008. Previously, he was the Ombudsman at Princeton University and the Director of the Conflict Resolution Institute at the Center for Leadership and Innovation.
Ngozi Ifeoma Malo [MA Conflict Resolution 2005] was recently named chief of staff to the Minister of Energy in Nigeria. She has also been selected as a 2013 Desmond Tutu Fellow by The African Leadership Institute. The programme is run in conjunction with Oxford University and is designed to provide a wide range of leadership learning experiences to a select group of young Africans who are expected to rise to top leadership positions in their spheres of activity over the next five to 20 years.
Maria Gertrudis Hernandez-Palacios (Gherta) [MA Conflict Resolution 2003] has joined the recently created Mediation Office at the Inter-American Development Bank http://www.iadb.org, headquartered in Washington, DC, as Mediation Secretary.
Jamie Kirsch [MA Conflict Resolution 2011] and a 2011 Presidential Management Fellow in the US State Department’s Bureau of Conflict Stabilization Operations, is currently working in the Istanbul office. Jamie writes: “I am assigned to Operations Team 1, which largely covers Near Eastern and North African Affairs. .... I have been to the White House to participate in National Security Staff interagency planning and to Capitol Hill a few times to support our principals in congressional briefings.”
Anita Aherne [Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution 2009] announces that she and colleagues are very excited about their new mediation agency The Mediation Collaborative. See attached brochure for details and contact information.
Since December 2009, Sarah Gyorog [MA Conflict Resolution 2004], has been the Restorative Justice Coordinator at the Center for Women in Transition in Champaign, Illinois. In this role, Sarah's responsibilities include:
• Design and implement practical restorative justice programming for women interfacing with the criminal justice system.
• Assist agency in developing restorative practices within the organization at every level including training of staff.
• Prepare and facilitate restorative justice talking circles with clients on a weekly basis.
• Offer training on Conflict Resolution, Restorative Justice and Peacemaking to staff and colleagues.
• Represent CWIT to local organizations and restorative justice networks throughout region.
Rebekah Fiehn [MSPA/International Relations 2012] is now Administrative Coordinator at Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers
An article by Adam Kleinberger [MA Conflict Resolution 2007], "Improvisation, Intuition and Spontaneity: A New Approach for the Ombuds Trainer" appears in the most recent issue of the Journal of the International Ombudsman Association. Download the article .pdf; or see the entire IOA Journal Volume 5, Issue 2 at http://www.ombudsassociation.org/resources/ioa-journal.
Chloe Berwind-Dart [MA Conflict Resolution 2009] is a Field Associate in the Reflecting on Peace Practice Program at the CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, www.cdainc.com. Chloe is a trained mediator and dialogue facilitator. The focus of her peacebuilding work in West Africa was inter-faith and intra-communal conflict as well as conflict sensitivity capacity building.
Mukesh Baral [MA Conflict Resolution 2011] is employed with the Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program (URMP), a program under Lutheran Social Services. In his role as a case manager, Mukesh works with the foster care children and adolescents from various countries and cultures, ages 5 – 21 years. The population includes clients with severe autism as well as other challenging issues. He prepares plans with the long-term goal of independent living and assists clients with plan implementation. Mukesh reports that he does this incorporating many of the tools he learned in his conflict resolution studies, including listening without judgment, clarifying, researching, facilitating, and negotiating.
Joe Bettencourt [MA Conflict Resolution 2012] has been hired by the Institute for Family Centered Services (IFCS) http://www.ifcsinc.com/ , an affiliate of The MENTOR Network as a Bilingual Family Centered Specialist, providing community-based services to youth with emotional, behavioral and medically complex challenges and their families. He starts the job 11/16/12, right after Thanksgiving.
Lisette Smith [Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution 2010]. Lisette is currently the manager of Closely-held & Family Business Mediation at MWI in Boston where she mediates and facilitates business transitions as well as divorce cases involving business assets. Prior to beginning her full-time career in conflict resolution, Lisette gained extensive experience in closely-held businesses, both as a founding partner of two independent financial advisory firms and as an advisor to business owners on financial and business matters.
Jeffrey Range [MSPA/International Relations 2009] has joined CDR Associates in Boulder, CO [link: http://www.mediate.org/about-us/ ], where he’ll be involved in mediation, facilitation and stakeholder and community engagement, working on projects involving natural resources, infrastructure/transportation, and development.
Joseph (Yusuf) Atang Tanko [MA Conflict Resolution 2009] has been appointed to the Peace and Reconciliation Committee for the Nigerian state of Kaduna, which has been the site of extensive inter-religious violence in recent years. Joseph is the Executive Director of Conflict Triangle Consulting, (A Conflict Resolution and Public Policy Consultancy) in Abuja and Secretary at the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin.
Doron Pely [MA Conflict Resolution 2008] is a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus, an online publication of the Institute for Policy Studies - dubbed as “Washington’s first progressive multi-issue think tank”. (see UMass Boston news) His essay, “Resolving Muslim-Western Disputes”, was posted in late January 2012. Link to Doron Pely’s article, “Resolving Muslim-Western Disputes”
Lindsay Lamarre [MA Conflict Resolution 2009] is a Consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton. There are 4 main capabilities within the firm: Strategy and Organization, Technology, Engineering and Operations and Analytics. Lindsay works in the Strategy and Organization capability, within the Center of Excellence called Organization and Process. She is currently working on a project with the Department of Defense for an organization called Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR), which is a part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The main mission of CTR is to have cooperative engagement with countries to promote nonproliferation. Lindsay is a part of the Strategic Planning and New Projects Team, which is within the Advisory and Assistance Support team. She works on strategic planning and conducts research on various countries. Lindsay indicates that due to the many stakeholders involved, she uses her conflict resolution skills on a daily basis.
Joshua Yelapi [MSPA/International Relations 2010] financial advisor, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management
Helen Barrington [MA Conflict Resolution 2006] has been promoted to Executive Director for Programming and Content at New England Public Radio, WFCR and WNNZ
Cassidy Evans [MA Conflict Resolution 2011], currently a J.D. Candidate at University of South Carolina, has begun work as a
Volunteer Juvenile Arbitrator at Department of Juvenile Justice - Lexington County, S.C.
STUDENT PROFILES
Jeffrey Cox is a graduate student in the Conflict Resolution Program at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. He is a graduate of University of Evansville (Indiana), Boston University, Salem State University, and the Episcopal Divinity School in theology, pastoral counseling, and clinical social work. He currently is Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Worker serving as Advocate for the US Army Wounded Warrior Program and as a Behavioral Health Officer in the Massachusetts National Guard. Active in the community, he has served on national church boards, supporting the Boy Scouts of America, and is the President of North Shore Cyclists. He is involved in numerous fraternal organizations such as the Shriners, American Legion, and the Veteran of Foreign Wars. Mr. Cox is an Iraq veteran and has hobbies in cycling and gardening.
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