Conference Panelists
Safoora Arbab
SAFOORA ARBAB is a doctoral scholar in the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her work centers on exploring how nonviolence was embodied by the Khudai Khidmatgar movement led by Abdul Ghaffar Khan in the North-West Frontier of British India. She has published an article comparing this nonviolent resistance with Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan, in the anthology, Muslims Against the Muslim League: Critiques of the Idea of Pakistan, published in 2017. She has also translated a selection of poems by the iconic Pashtun poet Ghani Khan, which was published in Sagar in 2017.
Christian Bracho
CHRISTIAN BRACHO is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at the University of La Verne, where he is a co-Director of the Center for Educational Equity and Intercultural Research. His research areas include teacher identity, teacher movements, LGBT communities, and nonviolence education. Dr. Bracho has contributed articles to the Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Nationality, the Journal of Homosexuality, and to the volume, The Living Gandhi. A former high school English teacher, Bracho was a 2005 recipient of Ahimsa Center Fellowship and subsequently served as a Curriculum Facilitator at the Ahimsa Center K-12 Institutes. He has served as a consultant/facilitator in Los Angeles County and Europe. Recently, he was awarded a fellowships by the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions and the Transformative Teacher Education program at Arcadia University.
Shara Carder
SHARA CARDER is an educator in the Cupertino Union School District in northern California. She is dedicated to creating an inclusive classroom environment where students find proactive, nonviolent methods of settling interpersonal conflicts. She earned a Professional Teachers' License from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an Educational Specialist Credential from San Jose State University. She experienced first hand the transformative power of nonviolence during her fellowship at the 2011 Ahimsa Institute. Subsequently she created and led group of students, "The Change Agents" in collaboration with a colleague at her school. This initiative is aimed at helping the youth of today become independent-minded leaders of tomorrow. Earlier in 2018 she was honored with the "Outstanding Teacher Award by the Collins PTA and parent community.
Danita Dodson
DANITA DODSON is an English and Spanish teacher at Hancock County High School and Walters State Community College in East Tennessee. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, specializing in 20th-century literature. Dr. Dodson’s research has centered on utopian and dystopian fiction, including a published interview with Margaret Atwood. Loving travel, she was a Fulbright fellow in Turkey and a university professor in Nicaragua. A recipient of a 2015 Ahimsa Center fellowship, Danita promotes nonviolent social change and leads students in daily mindfulness practice. She has served as Guest Editor of the Ahimsa Center Newsletter.
Andrew Duden
ANDREW DUDEN began teaching in 1996 upon receiving his Masters in Arts in Teaching from Lewis and Clark College. He has been a high school social studies teacher for twenty three years. Mr. Duden currently teaches at Lake Oswego High School in Lake Oswego, Oregon. In 2011, he participated in the AHIMSA Center Summer Institute. Subsequently, he spoke on panels at the AHIMSA Center Conferences on Sustainable Happiness and on Giving and Forgiving. In 2014, he published “Educating for Ahimsa: One Teachers Journey Towards Nonviolence” in the Oregon Journal of the Social Studies. Aside from classroom instruction, Mr. Duden is the program director for the Lake Oswego School to Farm Internship Program at Luscher Farm.
Donna Hill
DONNA HILL received BA in English and MA in African Studies from UCLA. She taught high school for thirty-three years mostly at Cleveland Humanities Magnet High School where she periodically teaches as teacher emeriti. She developed and taught curriculum that introduced students to global issues, nonviolence philosophy, and the culture and history of the United States through the lens of class, race, and gender. In 2005 she received ahimsa fellowship to participate in the inaugural 2005 Ahimsa Center Institute for educators. As an experienced teacher of Transcendental Meditation since 1973, and a student of various forms of meditation she is committed to nonviolence and mindfulness in her daily life. She had made many presentations, including at the Ahimsa Center conference. At present she is also a practicing certified hypnotherapist.
Patrisse Khan-Cullors
PATRISSE KHAN-CULLORS is an artist, organizer, and a popular public speaker. She is the Co-founder and Strategic Advisor of Black Lives Matter, which has grown into an international organization with dozens of chapters around the world. She is the Founder of Dignity and Power, a grassroots organization based in Los Angeles. As a senior fellow at MomsRising, she is involved in the project to end maternal mortality and morbidity. In 2016 Patrisse Cullors published her memoir, “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir.” which became a New York Times Bestseller. She has been honored with the Sydney Peace Prize Award (2017); Black Woman of the Year Award (2015) from The National Congress of Black Women; Civil Rights Leader for the 21st Century Award (2015) from the Los Angeles Times; Community Change Agent Award (2016) from BLACK GIRLS ROCK!, Inc.; Women of the Year Award for the Justice Seekers in (2016) from Glamour; and ESSENCE’ first-ever Woke Award. Currently, she is a 2019 MFA candidate at the University of Southern California.
Vinod K Kool
VINOD K. KOOL is Emeritus Professor of Psychology, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, USA, has taught for over five decades at eight universities in India and the United States. He has received three Fulbright awards and his institution’s Goodell Award for research and creativity. He has published seven books, including The Psychology of Nonviolence and Aggression (Macmillan-Palgrave); and served on the editorial board of American Psychological Association’s Peace Division journal for seven years. He also served as a guest editor for Gandhi Marg, a peer reviewed journal in the fields of nonviolence, peace and Gandhian studies.
Jennifer Macon
JENNIFER MACON is the Magnet Coordinator at Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) Cleveland Humanities Magnet High School in Reseda. She graduated from UCLA in 1999 with a degree in African American Studies. She has taught English, History, and Sociology for eighteen years, and in 2011, became the first woman to coordinate the program. With its unique interdisciplinary, thematic, writing-based approach, Cleveland is the first school in LAUSD to be nationally certified by Magnet Schools of America and has been a National Merit Award recipient for six consecutive years. She is also a consultant for the Los Angeles Education Partnership(LAEP) on implementing interdisciplinary instruction.
Michelle Milner
MICHELE MILNER earned her J.D. from the University of Southern California where she received the Shattuck Award for dedication to Public Interest Law. A former Ahimsa Fellow, Michele was honored with the Season for Nonviolence Local Hero Award by the International Agape Spiritual Center for her work creating gardens on Skid Row and hosting classes on nonviolent social change at the Occupy Los Angeles Encampment. As the policy director for Divest Los Angeles, she helped craft and lobby for a Responsible Banking Ordinance that includes social and environmental justice standards. Michele is the author of publications ranging from social justice lawyering to teaching nonviolence.
Michael Minch
MICHAEL MINCH earned his PhD from the University of Utah, and is a professor of peace and justice studies, and political philosophy, at Utah Valley University. He works in theories of conflict and conflict transformation, justice, peacebuilding, and reconciliation; democratic theory, political ecology and political theology. He does peacebuilding work in various global locations, and is now focused on sustainable development and peacebuilding projects in Guinea Bissau. He teaches in Northern Ireland and Russia. He is the founder, CEO, and director of Summit: The Sustainable Development and Conflict Transformation Global Knowledge and Action Network. He is on the Board of Directors of the Peace and Justice Studies Association and Education for Global Peace. Dr. Minch has been awarded the 2008 Gandhi Peace Award by the Utah Gandhi Peace Alliance.
Quixada Moore-Vissing
QUIXADA MOORE-VISSING earned her PhD in Education at the University of New Hampshire, and is now a fellow with the university’s Carsey School of Public Policy. As a civic researcher and public engagement designer, she supports public leaders to collaborate with the communities they serve, and specializes in creating processes to solve problems across differences in the realms of politics, race, and class. Moore-Vissing works with organizations such as the MacArthur Foundation, Public Agenda, and Everyday Democracy. She is a recipient of Ahimsa Center fellowship for K-12 educators She contributed to a collobarative article published in a volume, The Living Gandhi: Lessons for Our Times. She has also published as entries in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Peace.
Daan Phan
DAAN PAN is professor of English at California State Polytechnic University Pomona. He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from University of Rochester, New York. Dr. Pan specializes in cross-cultural and inter-artistic comparative studies, and has published on Chinese poetry, painting, calligraphy, garden, gastronomic culture and emotional healing. He has also made numerous conference presentations on similar and other scholarly subjects. He offers a variety of courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels, including Literary Theory, World Literature, American Multicultural Literature, Children's Literature, War and Peace in Literature, and Traditional Chinese Culture and Civilization. He teaches in the interdisciplinary program in Nonviolence Studies at Cal Poly Pomona.
Lisa Pate
LISA PATE is a field educator for Ethical Choices Program (ECP) serving northern El Paso and Douglas counties in Colorado. She holds an MA in Teaching from Colorado College specializing in Southwest Studies. A recipient of a 2013 Ahimsa Center fellowship, Lisa promoted nonviolent social change and sponsored student organizations for Human and Animal Rights while teaching math and psychology. She retired from full-time public education in 2017. She now speaks at schools addressing issues related to the impact of food choices on the world around us. She encourages students to make thoughtful and responsible choices while developing critical thinking skills concerning sustainable living, healthier bodies, and a more compassionate society.
Tazeen Rashid
TAZEEN RASHID teaches AP/IB Economics in Florida. Her passion for equity in teaching led her to the fellowships at the Ahimsa Center in 2011 and Teachers for Equity at Business Innovative Factory in 2016-17. Tazeen has presented on this topic at the Ahimsa Center Conference in 2012 and has co-presented at Virginia International University in April 2018. Tazeen is the 2017 State winner of the Governor's Award Program for Excellence in Teaching Economics for Personal Financial Literacy. Tazeen has an article published in A City for All. She received a Masters degree in Social Policy from the London School of Economics.
Johnny Reyes
JOHNNY REYES is a Middle School Math teacher at Pomona Unified. He holds a Bachelors degree from San Diego State University and a Masters in Education from United States International University, San Diego Campus. He has taught high school Math as well as Business Education, Computer Applications and AVID. He has also presented Math lessons at the California Mathematics Council in Palm Springs and twice at the Robert Noyce Summit in Washington DC. For the past three years, he has been engaged with the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) team with an emphasis in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and served as LEOs advisor. He is a recipient of 2005 Ahimsa fellowship to participate in a K-12 institute for educators on Nonviolence and Social Change.
Viviane Seyranian
VIVIANE SEYRANIAN is a social psychologist who researches how communication and narrative content can be framed to optimize influence and behavioral change. Her award-winning research on her theory called Social Identity Framing (Seyranian, 2013, 2014) provides support for the idea that implicating social identity in communication helps to garner support for social change. In addition to her social influence research, Dr. Seyranian develops and tests psychological interventions seeking to empower minority populations in the educational realm. Seyranian earned her Ph.D. in social psychology from Claremont Graduate University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Southern California. Dr. Seyranian is a faculty member in the department of Psychology at Cal Poly Pomona.
Travis Sevilla
TRAVIS SEVILLA teaches Digital Art and Design at Canyon Crest Academy. He works with new teachers through the SDSU School of Teacher Education, guest lectures at CSUSM, and serves on the board of directors of ArtHatch, a non-profit teen arts program. Travis earned his MFA in Studio Art and Critical Theory from UCI, and his BFA in Sculpture and New Genres from Otis College of Art and Design. He’s a fellow at the Center for Teaching Critical Thinking and Creativity at SDSU, a 2011 Fellow of the Ahimsa Institute for Nonviolence Studies, and the 2012 Teacher of the year for Excellence in Arts Instruction from Otis College.
Peggy Sia
PEGGY SIA teaches at Palm Elementary School, in the Los Angeles County. She received B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from the University of California, Irvine; and M.A. in Education from the Claremont Graduate University. Her areas of interest include character and environmental education, global citizenry, social justice and empowerment, and nonviolent social change. Peggy is a recipient of the Ahimsa Center fellowship for K-12 Educators, and has served in 2015 as a mentor teacher for the Residential Summer Institute for K-12 Educators focusing on Gandhi and Mandela. She has written for Daily Good, and is a member of Education for Global Peace (EGP), a grassroots movement dedicated to mainstreaming peace education. There, she is a lead teacher for project, Classroom Connect, aimed at building connections and understanding between classrooms across the world. As a representative of EGP, she made a presentation at UNESCO TECH 2017.
Vikas Srivastava
VIKAS SRIVASTAVA is a 2007 Ahimsa Center Fellow, holds a BA in Sociology from UCSD, and M.Ed. from Harvard. He specializes in educational design, culture and curriculum with an emphasis on non-violence, creative confidence, entrepreneurial mind-set and sustainability. He has worked in public, private and charter schools as a teacher, councelor, and administrator as well as in nonprofit and business sectors as a consultant and coordinator. His presentations include Gandhian School Design, The Mindful School Project and Deconstructing Diversity. Currently, he is the Director of Mindfulness at Legacy Early College Charter School (South Carolina); serves on the Board for Kids For Peace, and The Tariq Khamisa Foundation; and an advisor to Good Neighbor Gardens. He is writing a book on how to teach children to change the world.