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Program Manager/ Global Peace Index President and CEO Membership Coordinator Melanie Geist melanieg@allianceforpeacebuilding.org Director, Government Liaison (Volunteer) hauss@allianceforpeacebuilding.org Program Manager/ Global Crisis Prevention Mechanism Melanie E. Kawano melaniek@allianceforpeacebuilding.org Administrative Assistant/Office Manager Intern Zoë Cooprider is the Program Manager for the Alliance for Peacebuilding and the Global Peace Index, a project that ranks the nations of the world by their peacefulness and identifies some of the drivers of peace. Previously, Zoë was a Research Assistant at the US Institute of Peace where she helped launch the center on Economies and Conflict. During her tenure at USIP, she contributed to special reports on post-conflict employment generation and conflict-sensitive infrastructure planning and published a brief on the political economy of revitalizing state-owned industries. Zoë has also worked at Search for Common Ground, the Business Humanitarian Forum (Geneva, Switzerland), and the Union of Concerned Scientists. In addition, she has experience as the manager of a high-end restaurant, and has bicycled across the US. Zoë holds an MA in International Affairs from Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, from which she was awarded the 2007 Alumni Prize, has studied the Graduate Institute for International Studies (HEI) in Geneva, and received a BA in Urban Studies with honors from Vassar College. She is conversant in French. Chic Dambach became President and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding in November 2005. AfP is a network of private and public organizations dedicated to build sustainable peace and security worldwide. The organization facilitates collaboration and coordination among conflict prevention and resolution professionals, civil society, international organizations, and government agencies. Previous national CEO positions include the National Peace Corps Association, Operation Respect, and National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies (now Americans for the Arts). He is also a writer, lecturer and consultant on nonprofit governance. He is the North American representative to the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, board chair for the Coalition for American Leadership Abroad (COLEAD), and a member of the board of the J. William and Harriet Fulbright Center. In addition, he serves on the board of CityLit Project in Baltimore. In 1998 Chic helped form and lead a team of returned Peace Corps Volunteers to work informally with the leaders of Eritrea and Ethiopia to help end their border war. The team also facilitated joint meetings among the leaders of the combatants in the Congo civil war and participated in the Inter-Congolese Dialogue leading to the formation of a coalition government and the election of the official government. In addition, he served as an official in the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games. He was named the Distinguished Alumnus in 2004 by the Oklahoma State University College of Arts and Sciences, and he received the International Platform Association’s Global Coalition Peace Award in 2001. He was inducted into the Worthington (Ohio) Schools Hall of Fame in 2007. Melanie Geist became membership coordinator for the Alliance for Peacebuilding in July of 2008. She grew up in East Bay California, becoming involved in the political process at an early age through an internship with Senator Art Torres, the California Democratic Party Leader, during the state’s historic gubernatorial recall. She attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg Virginia, spending one year at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. There she studied the economic and social development of Italy as well as developing countries around the world, some of which she was able to experience first-hand. In Rome, Melanie combined her liberal arts education and language skills, organizing and overseeing an international conference of world renowned philosophers. In 2006, she interned for Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher on Capitol Hill, gaining hands on experience in the American political and legal process. Melanie graduated in 2008 with a B.A. in International Relations with an emphasis on development, economics and Italian. Charles “Chip” Hauss wears three professional hats: he teaches comparative politics and conflict resolution in the Public and International Affairs Department (political science) at George Mason University. He is also a member of the Board of Directors and staff of the Alliance for Peace Building where he helps coordinate relations with the United States government. Finally, he is the author of eleven books, including the market leading textbook on comparative politics, two tomes on conflict resolution (with another one pending), and three on French politics. Before moving to George Mason, he taught for 17 years at Colby College in Maine. He also spent three years at the University of Reading in England while his wife was posted at the U.S. Embassy. Hauss is thus one of the few academics who is also deeply involved in “real world” politics. After majoring in ending the war in Vietnam, he wandered politically until he discovered conflict resolution in the early 1980s through the Beyond War movement, now the Foundation for Global Community. Since then, conflict resolution has been the focus of his scholarly and political life, including leading several hundred workshops in places as different as West Belgrade, Maine and the West Bank in Palestine. In 2000, he joined the staff of Search for Common Ground, the world’s largest conflict resolution NGO, when it began a project on U.S. domestic politics. Currently, he works mostly on strengthening ties to the national security community and with Evangelical Christians. At the Alliance, the work with government agencies will be his focus. He holds a BA from Oberlin College, where he serves on the alumni council. His MA and PhD are from the University of Michigan. He lives inside the infamous beltway with his wife, Gretchen Sandles, and their brilliant half border collie, Jessie. Chip and Gretchen have the foolish idea that they could write a book together on redefining national security. In his copious spare time, Hauss devours mystery novels, watches any game on television that has teams and bouncing balls (no golf, yes netball), and delights in explaining the laws of soccer, cricket, and rugby (both codes) to bewildered Americans. Melanie Kawano is the Program Manager for the Global Conflict Prevention Mechanism, a program that applies collaborative peacebuilding in countries and regions that are known to be vulnerable to violence. Melanie previously worked at a university in Northern Viet Name, the International Career Advancement Program, the Center for China-US Cooperation, and IFES. Most recently Melanie worked at the American Red Cross, where Fortune 20 Company sponsored the programs she oversaw. Over three years the programs and grants Melanie ran reached 1.6 million people. Born and raised in Hawai’i, Melanie attended Scripps College, where she received a BA in Psychology and International and Intercultural Studies. She also obtained a Master's Degree in International Studies with a focus on political theory and conflict resolution from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Her research includes exploring Ghanaian proverbs as a means of examining the effects of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the generational affects of war on combatant and non-combatants and the role of ethics in international humanitarian intervention. She has published original poetry and academic material in the fields of psychology and international affair. Through her travels and studies, Melanie studied French, Japanese, Hawaiian, Vietnamese, Twi, and Fanti and and played the piano, the ukulele and the harp. Melanie also serves on the Board of the International Career Advancement Association (ICAA). |
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