Keynote Panel

Local and Global Opportunities for Careers in the Field of Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution

Time: Friday, April 5, 8:45 -10:15 a.m.
Location: 
Bob Evans Auditorium, Room 145, Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor Dr., Columbus, Ohio

This keynote panel will provide an overview of the skills and experience needed to work in this diverse field and options for volunteering, internships and jobs. This will include opportunities with the United Nations (Inglis), Organization of American States (Soto), Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (Miletic), National Association for Community Mediation (Mawn) and careers in law enforcement (Epperson).

Yadira Pinilla Soto is a senior policy officer for the Department of Sustainable Democracy and Special Missions in the Organization of American States (OAS). She has published several works on the development of regional policies to mainstream conflict management within governmental entities. Pinilla Soto helped develop the OAS youth policy and strengthen the OAS model program for university and high school students. She has been chairwoman of the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT) since 2016.

D.G. Mawn is president of the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM). He co-developed the cultural intuitiveness process and provides consultation and coaching to state, public and community-based organizations on human services/system development and effectiveness, leadership development, strategic planning and communication, cultural intuitiveness, sustainability and evaluation. Mawn is an attorney licensed in Illinois and Kentucky. He received his mediation training in 2000.

Kristina Miletic is regional coordinator for Project Assistant Knowledge, Policy and Advocacy and regional coordinator for the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, Western Balkans, Serbia. Previously, she worked on the EU-funded project Whole-of-Society Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding (WOSCAP). Prior to joining GPPAC, she worked with the Italian Atlantic Committee as a researcher covering politics
and current issues in the Western Balkans.

Shelley Inglis is executive director of the Human Rights Center and research professor of human rights and law at University of Dayton. She comes from the United Nations Development Programme, where she held management positions working on peacebuilding, democratic governance, rule of law and human rights, and the Sustainable Development Agenda at headquarters in New York and regionally based in Istanbul, Turkey.

Chief Chet Epperson is a retired police consent decree monitor and litigation consultant. He served the Rockford, Ill., Police Department for over 30 years, the last 10 years as chief. He also serves as a police litigation expert for police and jail use of force, police shootings, training, mental health, and other practice areas. Epperson is serving a third-year term appointment from the Illinois State Supreme Court as a Hearing Review Board member for the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.

Facilitator: Julie Shedd is associate dean of the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University. She teaches both introductory courses and courses on terrorism, extremism, global conflicts, and ideologies. Her research includes work on the relationship of media to conflict, specifically focused on media coverage of terrorism and the role of women in political violence. For the last three years she has co-directed the Benjamin Franklin Summer Institute with Central Asia.