IPCR Skills Institute Instructors include a number of academics and practitioners with various backgrounds and skills. Below are descriptions for the IPCR Skills Institute professors for the Fall, 2007 Semesters.


639-001 Amr Abdalla

Amr Abdalla is a professor at the University of Peace in Costa Rica, as well as a leader in the field of peacebuilding and conflict resolution education and practice. Dr. Abdalla is actively involved in inter-faith dialogues in the United States and pioneered the development of the first conflict resolution training manual for Muslim communities in the US.  He also founded Project LIGHT (Learning Islamic Guidance for Human Tolerance), a community peer-based anti-discrimination project funded by the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ).  Dr. Adballa received his Ph.D. from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

639-002 Bonnie Miller

With over 35 years of international experience in clinical social work, teaching and public service, Bonnie Miller has devoted her career to providing mental health services, training professionals and advocating for the disadvantaged women and children. Bonnie Miller has worked in diverse locations across the globe including Bosnia, Georgia, Greece and Thailand. 

639-003 Cynthia Cohen

Cynthia Cohen received her PhD in education from the University of New Hampshire and is the Executive Director of the Slifka Program in Intercommunal Coexistence and Director of Coexistence Research and International Collaborations.  She has presented her work at numerous universities across the United States as well as in diverse locations such as Belgium, Canada and Kenya.

639-004    Ariela Blätter

Ariela Blatter is an international human rights lawyer and the founding Director of the Crisis Prevention and Response Center (CPRC) at Amnesty Ainternational USA. In this role she has directed strategic operations on the crises in Darfur/Sudan, Iraq, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Haiti and Nepal. Since 2005 she has been involved in an innovative prohect to use satellite imagery as a global human rights monitoring systems for mass violations and genocide that has been used to detect war crimes in Darfur, eastern Chad and Lebanon, illegal housing demolitions in Zimbabwe and secret detention facilities in Jordon. Most recently she launched the widely acclaimed "Eyes on Darfur" project (www.eyesondarfur.org), which uses satellite technology to protect highly vulnerable villages in war-torn Darfur and eastern Chad.


639-005    Louise Diamond

Dr. Louise Diamond is an educator and consultant whose life has been devoted to building healthy and peace-full human systems of every size.
She is the co-founder (with Ambassador John McDonald) and President Emeritus of the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy in Washington, D.C., where she worked for many years as a professional peacebuilder in places of violent conflict around the world. She is also the founder of The Peace Company, seeking to make peace practical, popular, and profitable while showing that peace is good business.
Louise currently directs Peace Systems, where she is focused on training global leaders who can help humanity make the quantum leap in evolution that our times require. To that end she is offering How to Change the World, an advanced year-long change-leadership program wisdom-based in the truth of our inter-connectedness. 

She also directs the Peace Councils Project, dedicated to making the principles and practices of peace mainstream in our society, and to accelerating the global movement for a culture of peace.  In addition, she publishes The Peace Report, an online monthly newsletter linking the personal and global by reflecting on world affairs through a peace lens.
Louise is an international public speaker, trainer, conference presenter, and consultant on issues related to peace and peacemaking.  She is also a conference planner, having recently designed and delivered the Building a Culture of Peace conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Louise writes extensively, bringing a peacebuilding perspective to daily life. Her recent publications include The Peace Book: 108 Simple Ways to Make a More Peaceful World, and The Courage for Peace: Daring to Create Harmony in Ourselves and the World. She has also written How to Raise a Peaceful Child in a Violent World, co-authored with Elizabeth Slade; and Multi-Track Diplomacy: A Systems Approach to Peace, co-authored with Ambassador John McDonald.
Louise received a Ph.D. in Peace Studies from the Union Institute in 1990 and an advanced CAS degree in Human Resource and Organizational Development from the University of Vermont in 1974. She is a systems thinker with expertise in applied human behavior, organizational consulting, individual and family therapy, diversity, leadership, change management, healing, and human relations training. She has worked with the whole range of human dynamics, from individual to organizational, inter-group to global.  Her past clients include CARE, Heifer Project International, The World Bank, and others.  Louise is also a Peace Minister with Sunray Meditation Society, where for many years she directed an international, intercultural program of training called The Peacekeeper Mission.