LOS ANGELES VISIONARY ARTIST AND FUTURIST FABRICE GUERRIER MA ’15 (CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION) has been selected by ��ݮ����’s Alumni Association and its Awards and Nomination Committee as the 2025 Alum of the Year for his work as founder and CEO of (pronounced Syll-a-ble), the first collaborative worldbuilding production house for science fiction and fantasy storytelling. 

“Being selected for this award feels quite unbelievable and affirms my work around collaborative worldbuilding,” said Guerrier, who defines worldbuilding on his website () as “the creation of intricate, plausible fictional universes often found in sci-fi, fantasy, and video games.” 

In collaborative worldbuilding, underrepresented creators from diverse cultures come together to imagine and publish their shared stories. 

A refuge of books

Born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Guerrier immigrated with his family to Coral Springs, Florida, when he was 13. Already fluent in French and Haitian Creole, Guerrier learned English as his third language. 

“It’s kind of magic… being Haitian from an Afrocentric world… being from an island… being able to speak multiple languages,” said Guerrier. 

Nevertheless, Guerrier was an exile in a foreign country, forced to flee the 2004 Haitian coup d’état. He says while he “wanted to be an American,” the more he tried to fit in, the more he felt like he was destroying a precious part of himself. 

Guerrier found refuge at Northwest Regional Library, where he worked as a page, volunteered, helped with community programming, and explored everything from manga and comics to encyclopedias and films to nonfiction and sci-fi books. His curiosity sparked Syllble, an idea that was furthered while reading “Blindness,” an essay in Jorge Luis Borges’ “Seven Nights” collection, as a sophomore at Florida State University. 

“I resonated with how Borges described being in a library as the closest thing to heaven, and how his blindness allowed him to see things in different ways. The impact of his words inspired me to become a writer,” said Guerrier. 

Healing and growth

After graduating from Florida State in 2013 with a bachelor of science degree in international affairs and a leadership studies certificate, Guerrier decided to pursue a master of arts in conflict transformation from EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP).��

As a graduate assistant at the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, he worked with its then-director and CJP professor, Carl Stauffer MA ’02 (conflict transformation), and conducted “humbling and eye-opening” field research on the impact of Fambul Tok International in promoting reconciliation in communities after an 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone (West Africa). 

“EMU was a place of healing for me,” Guerrier said. “My peace studies showed me how personal and interpersonal work affects peace in the world.” 

Guerrier worked with CJP Professor Emeritus Barry Hart MDiv ’78 to explore theories and practices of Strategies for Trauma Awareness & Healing (STAR), and in 2014, he started a chapter of Coming To The Table (), a racial healing and reconciliation organization aimed at Taking America Beyond the Legacy of Enslavement—a program that began at CJP. Guerrier later served on CTTT’s board of managers and became its youngest national president. 

Looking to the future

After graduating from EMU in 2015, Guerrier worked on two novels, revising one to the point of exhaustion. 

“It was probably one of the most painful and loneliest experiences I’ve ever had,” he said. 

Guerrier began researching collaborative writing techniques in Hollywood and beyond, which led him to invite three writers to his home to create a story together. The successful session set Syllble in motion. 

Today, Syllble is enabling marginalized voices across the globe to conceive and tell the stories of their shared universes in order to disrupt modern-day inclinations toward disaster and doom. 

“Imagining radically hopeful futures allows us to replace the realities imposed by capitalism and technology and media with something that’s beautiful, nourishing, warm, and healing,” said Guerrier. “It is how we reclaim what it means to be human.”

Guerrier will share his story at EMU TenTalks, held on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 1:30 p.m. in Martin Chapel during Homecoming 2025. For a full schedule of Homecoming events and activities, visit emu.edu/homecoming.

Eastern Mennonite Seminary announces a new Graduate Certificate in Faith-Based Peacebuilding, launching in fall 2022.

The certificate is designed for faith community leaders who want to more effectively respond to social conflicts, as well as those who seek faith-informed social engagement in the complex justice issues of their communities.

The 18-credit program, a collaboration with ��ݮ����’s world-renowned (CJP), blends skills and practices for leading communities in times of conflict with reflection on the theological commitments that are embodied in these practices.

“In recent years, we’ve heard an urgent call from current graduate students and church and nonprofit leaders for tools to lead communities in the midst of intense, pervasive and polarizing conflict,” said The Rev. Sarah Bixler, seminary associate dean. “Leveraging our combined excellence in theology and pastoral leadership and peacebuilding theory and practice creates a new cutting-edge leadership education to meet these urgent challenges.”

Recent external validation supports this claim: Last week, the seminary was awarded a $1M grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. to develop a new pastoral leadership institute to offer workshops, trainings, and courses on conflict transformation. 

Jill Heine, a current graduate student in CJP’s MA in Restorative Justice program, will integrate certificate coursework beginning in fall 2022. The Lancaster County, Pa., resident is involved in several community and faith-based anti-racist initiatives; she is also a co-facilitator with a local chapter of the national racial justice group . She sees the value in equipping herself more broadly with tools and the capabilities to grow new dialogue spaces at the intersections of peacebuilding and theology. 

“Whether at work, with my faith community, with family, or with friends, Christian beliefs and narratives are all around me,” Heine said. “So I wanted analysis tools to view peacebuilding through a Christian lens while also helping me to see the blind spots of Western Christian theology.”

The graduate certificate program begins with three core classes exploring conflict analysis, formation for peacebuilding practice, and faith-based social transformation. 

Students choose an equal number of electives in theology and peacebuilding. Theology courses taught by seminary professors focus on racial healing, race and religion in America, missio dei in the cultural context, and Christian ethics, among other offerings.

The certificate offers unique opportunities to explore interdisciplinary intersections, for example, combining a course in theological reflections on trauma with a Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR I) training.

The peacebuilding electives are taught by CJP professors. Topics include mediation and negotiation, facilitation, circle processes, restorative justice and nonviolent mobilization. 

“You are the subject of your own research.” Listening to that inner voice sent Lisa Collins, EdD, on her own journey of autoethnography. Collins is co-teaching Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR), Level 2, with Lead Trainer �����پ������Ѳ��Բ��ھ������, at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding’s

Two five-day SPI sessions remain, beginning June 6 and June 13, with courses in circle processes, restorative practices for sexual and domestic harms, building resilience for challenging systemic racism, and several other courses, including STAR I (June 6).

There is still time to apply to courses. Due to some cancellations from international participants who did not receive a visa, there is still a small amount of partial scholarship funding for individuals as well as organizational discounts available to organizations sending three or more people. To apply to SPI 2022, . (To start your SPI Application, you will need to create an EMU My Forms account)

An educational professional with over 25 years of experience, Lisa Collins holds degrees in psychology and education and works as an assistant professor at Lewis and Clark College and a business consultant in Portland, Oregon.

Learn more about Lisa Collins, her experiences in healing from racial trauma, and how her STAR training changed her healing path in a

Lisa Schirch, the Richard G. Starmann Sr. Professor of the Practice in Peace Studies at Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, will be the first speaker in the Horizons of Change luncheon series, hosted by ��ݮ����’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute. Schirch is a former professor at EMU.

The lecture series featuring experts in the peacebuilding and conflict resolutions fields is an annual tradition at SPI, which draws several hundred peacebuilders from around the world to take courses for both professional development and academic courses. SPI is a program of EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

Schirch will speak Wednesday, May 18, from 12:30-2:30 p.m. in the Dining Hall at EMU. Cost is $20 for community members and $15 for EMU faculty and staff. Email dsilvam@emu.edu to reserve your seat. The deadline to reserve is Monday, May 16. 

Her topic will be “Decolonializing Peacebuilding.” “Decolonising agendas” are emerging in the fields of humanitarian aid, development, anthropology, sociology and many other facets of life, including peacebuilding. Decolonialism refers to the process of undoing colonial worldviews, institutions and impacts. 

Schirch will analyze how the peacebuilding field can respond to the profound sense of chaos and unpredictability in today’s world by addressing the colonial distortions of governance, economy and society. Schirch will talk about how a decolonizing agenda for peace can help us respond to a global set of interacting “ meta calamities” (the pandemic, climate change and weaponisable technologies) as well as rising economic inequality and mass migration, accelerating polarisation and extremism, and urgent demands for racial justice and an end to gender-based violence.

Subsequent lectures will be

• Wednesday, June 1, with CJP Executive Director Jayne Docherty and EMU Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Jackie Font-Guzmán, on the future of CJP and DEI at EMU. Docherty is retiring after 21 years at CJP. Font-Guzmán, an expert in conflict transformation and author with Bernard Mayer of , will begin a new role as CJP’s strategic vision director this summer. She will aid in the search for and transition to a new executive director for the center.
• June 8, speaker TBD
• June 15, with Ram Bhagat, EdD, speaking on “Brown Vs. Board of Education: The Re/Mix –  From Massive Resistance to Massive Resilience. Bhagat, a graduate of CJP, works in the Richmond Public Schools and has taught several courses at CJP. He is a certified Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience trainer.

Cost is $20 for community members and $15 for EMU faculty and staff. Email dsilvam@emu.edu to reserve your seat no later than the Monday before each event.

The day before acclaimed human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson gave the Commencement address at ��ݮ����, 29 graduates of the university’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding gathered virtually for the traditional Ceremony of Blessings.

Joined by faculty, family, friends and supporters, the graduates – many of whom are already working in peacebuilding and adjacent professional fields – shared gratitude for lives changed and transformed in their time together. 

“Deep soul-searching, inspiration, discouragement, understanding, connectedness, support, surprise and sobering reality” was how one graduate named the intellectual and emotional challenges surfaced by CJP coursework and experiences. 

“This finish line looks increasingly beautiful to me,” said another, adding that the passion for justice that she brought to the first day of her studies has been both “intensified” and “solidified.”

With their new degrees, the Class of 2022 will join an expansive network of 726 alumni working around the globe.

The 2022 grads represent eight countries – Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, Honduras, Lebanon, Philippines, South Africa, and the United States. Within the U.S., grads hail from California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin.

They work in the fields of restorative justice, human and victims rights, the ministry, environmental justice, peace education, counseling, LGBTQ+ social justice advocacy, and urban studies, among many others. 

This group of learners joined CJP during a global pandemic, entering perhaps not fully ready for the virtual learning experience of Owl cameras, Zoom, and VoiceThread – but all committed to seeking change and transforming both themselves and their contexts, according to Executive Director Jayne Docherty. 

“Some were in their first course when George Floyd was murdered, and others joined the program after that tragedy, looking for tools to transform the reality of ongoing racism,” she said. “This should tell you something about this particular group of CJP graduates – when the world was burning down, they heard an inner call to be part of the solution. They made a commitment to the future – to a world of possibilities – to the idea that they can make a difference.”

Among their first successes, she noted, was being “co-creators of an authentic liberating learning community that crosses the divisions of time and space.” From that space, “you found ways to make your own learning journeys a gift to others with research projects and class activities that are already changing the world.”

Graduate Katie Mulembe reflected that good, deep questions and the discussions that followed, some with answers and others still unanswered, accompanied all of her learning at CJP – questions about privilege, ownership, justice and who determines what that means, scholarship and who owns the right to say what is truthful, oppressive narratives, when mediation happens and why, and “how we can hold people together in the midst of conflict in order to reach a place of convergence.”

“From here,” she said, “we all carry forward our own answered or hopefully partially answered questions and it will be our life’s work to continue to ask them. As we leave the space CJP has provided for us, I hope that each of us is always accompanied by supportive communities like this, communities that are courageous enough to raise uncomfortable questions and wise enough to understand that the answers may come slowly.”

Learn more about some of the 2022 graduates.

CJP Class of 2022

The following graduates have completed all coursework, or are slated to complete coursework in summer or fall 2022.

Tala Bautista MA ‘20 (conflict resolution), of Tabuk, Philippines, earning a graduate certificate in restorative justice;

Darrell (Drick) Boyd, of Broomall, Pennsylvania, earning a graduate certificate in restorative justice;

Angelique Bradford, of Somerville, Maryland, earning a graduate certificate in restorative justice;

Gabby Bradshaw, of Saegertown, Pennsylvania, earning an MA in restorative justice;

Jessica Brinkley, of Brandywine, Maryland, earning an MA in transformational leadership and a graduate certificate in conflict transformation;

Jes Buller, of Goshen, Indiana, earning an MA in transformational leadership and a graduate certificate in conflict transformation;

Corey Chandler, of Harrisonburg, Virginia, earning an MA in conflict transformation;

Simelwe Dlova, of Qumbu, South Africa, earning an MA in conflict transformation;

Isaiah Dottin-Carter, of Harrisonburg, Virginia, earning an MA in restorative justice;

Jackie Durant, of Redding, California, earning an MA in restorative justice;

Fabiana Espinal, of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, earning a graduate certificate in restorative justice in addition to her MA in counseling degree;

Christine Evans, of Chicago, Illinois, earning a graduate certificate in restorative justice;

Corinne Gunter, of Noblesville, Indiana, earning an MA in transformational leadership;

Jose Juan Hernandez Urueta, of Harrisonburg, Virginia, earning an MA in conflict transformation;

Furst Jenkins of Brooklyn, New York, earning a graduate certificate in restorative justice in addition to her Master of Divinity degree;

Paul Kayembe, of Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic Of The Congo, earning an MA in conflict transformation;

Joy Kreider, of Harrisonburg, Virginia, earning a graduate certificate in conflict transformation;

Sarah Lammert, of Greensboro, Vermont, earning a graduate certificate in conflict transformation;

Samuel Larson, of Winchester, Virginia, earning a graduate certificate in conflict transformation;

Christopher Lenshyn, of Mission, British Columbia, Canada, earning an MA in conflict transformation;

Lucie Martinot-Lagarde, of Paris, France, earning an MA in conflict transformation;

Katie Mulembe, of Washington, D.C., earning an MA in transformational leadership;

Juna Muller, of Ojai, California, earning an MA in conflict transformation;

Paul Mvukiye-Reeser, of Clarkston, Georgia, earning a graduate certificate in conflict transformation;

Samantha Pearl, of Boston, Massachusetts, earning a graduate certificate in conflict transformation;

Iman Shabazz, of Richmond, Virginia, earning an MA in transformational leadership;

Conner Suddick, of Suamico, Wisconsin, earning an MA in conflict transformation;

Addison Tucker, of Harrisonburg, Virginia, earning an MA in restorative justice;

Yassmine Youssef Hawchar, of Sir el Dannieh, North Lebanon, Lebanon, earning an MA in restorative justice.

��ݮ����’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion announces the recipients of the inaugural Inclusive Excellence Grants.

The program, which started this academic year, offers EMU faculty, staff, and students the opportunity to develop ideas that advance a community of learners where everyone has an opportunity to grow, learn, and belong together. “Inclusive excellence” is a research-based approach that encourages proactive, collaborative steps towards creating a community in which we all belong.

“The Office of DEI extends congratulations to these awardees for bringing our community together through their projects,” said Jackie Font-Guzmán, vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion. “It has been energizing to read these proposals and see the passion, creativity, and commitment to having an inclusive campus where we celebrate each other for who we are.” 

Inclusivity in Science Mural

This project entails designing and painting a mural at the entrance of the Suter Science Center depicting figures outside the presumed dominant culture of who a scientist is, or can be. To select the scientists that are to be depicted, the project leaders distributed a survey to faculty, staff, and students at EMU. Project leaders wrote: “…creating a mural featuring scientists of color, female scientists, and queer scientists would help address both issues, creating a more welcoming atmosphere in the building for all people.” 

Award: $1,200

Project co-leaders: Asha Beck, student; Grace Harder, student representative from Race and Gender class for social change project; Jake Myers, student; Molly Piwonka, student, and Afton Rhodes-Lehman, student.

Undergraduate Admissions DEI Speaker Series

This project will fund speakers as part of a larger effort of providing training that begins to address the challenges and opportunities that emerge as the undergraduate admissions department personnel encounter increasing diversity in the workplace as reflected in both employee and prospective student demographics. As a historically white institution, there are likely practices, policies, assumptions, and biases that are having a negative impact on creating a deep sense of belonging among the staff and a variable experience of welcome for prospective students and their families. It is anticipated that this training will build upon work that has already been underway at the university and serve as a pilot that can be evaluated and revised for expanded use with other employee groups at the university, in collaboration with the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. 

Award: $1,200

Project co-leaders: Matt Ruth, director of admissions, and Luke Litwiller, senior admissions counselor, in collaboration with Mary Jensen, vice president for enrollment and strategic growth.

At the Crossroads: Using Photovoice to Envision Belonging for LGBTQ+ Students at ��ݮ����

This project uses photovoice to document LGBTQ+ student perspectives in a manner that allows the Office of DEI to learn more about next steps for campus advocacy and inclusion efforts. Photovoice is a type of arts-based participatory action research in which participants use photography and captions to represent their realities. For this project, awardees will slightly adapt traditional photovoice methods to include other visual mediums (painting, collage, video, sculpture, poetry, theater, photography, essay, spoken word, etc). The project leaders will create a multimedia pop-up museum during the annual 2022 ACE Festival at EMU. 

Award: $1,200

Project co-leaders:  Conner Suddick, graduate student, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, and Kathy Evans, professor of graduate teacher education; Zander France, student; Veronica Horst, student; Luke Litwiller ‘19, senior admissions counselor; Katie Mansfield, lead trainer, Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience; Melissa May, adjunct faculty, Intensive English Program; Finn Wengerd ’19, educational tech analyst.

Outdoor Courts Redevelopment

This program aims to foster a space for BIPOC students and create a space that is student-centered. The Student Programs, Student Life Division is partnering with student clubs to offer opportunities for the entire student body to be involved as we install new equipment and celebrate the newly updated space in the outdoor basketball courts. Project leaders aim to create an environment at the outdoor basketball courts that is representative and welcoming to diverse student and community populations. They desire to celebrate cultural diversity within recreational activity through investing in sports such as basketball and soccer. Once the improvements to the courts are completed, Student Programs will host a grand opening party that would offer an official welcoming of the space for the EMU community and the broader community. At this event, project leaders will offer the opportunity for feedback through QR code surveys.

Award:  $1,145

Project co-leaders: Katie Corbit, recreational sports coordinator; Anne Coyne, staff associate; and Tyler Goss, assistant director, all with EMU Student Programs.

Presidential Portraits Relocation

The EMU presidential portraits currently located in Room 303, Sadie Hartzler Library,reflect the historical whiteness and maleness of the institution. The project prospectus points out that this “therefore send[s] the message to current students who use this classroom and are not white or male that they do not belong” at EMU. The grant funds will enable the project leaders to move the portraits out of the classroom to another wall of the building and to generate discussion across campus of the need for diverse representation of people to enhance belonging. As part of their interest in advancing these conversations, the co-leaders will invite to campus a speaker to give a talk on why representation matters and a speaker who will  talk about the work of O. W. “Tom” Schenk, who painted five of the eight portraits. 

Award: $1,200

Project co-leaders: Marci Frederick, director of libraries; Arnie Driediger, structural services; and Mike Stellwag, structural services.

Roots Run Deep

This project will explore both the rich and painful history of African Americans in the Shenandoah Valley. At the heart of the project would be a tour, community building, and deep facilitated reflection by all the participants. The co-leaders wrote: “this project builds and strengthens the partnership between ��ݮ���� and the Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project. The Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project will lead a day-long tour, ‘Roots Run Deep,’ on African American history in Harrisonburg and the surrounding valley…[the] widely diverse group of EMU faculty and staff will apply for and be selected to participate in this day-long tour on the history of the African American community from the Zenda plantation in Elkton to the ruins of Newtown, a booming black community until the R4 ravaged it in the 1950s and 1960s, to the current day Northeast Neighborhood.”   

Award: $1,200

Co-leaders: Amy Corinne Knorr, peacebuilding practice director, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding; Monica Robinson, executive director, Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project; and Matt Tibbles, instructor, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and social work department.

Colleagues who joined Jackie Font-Guzmán, executive director of DEI, in evaluating the proposals are:

• Danielle Lickey, head men’s volleyball coach, athletics
• Lindsay Martin, CJP advancement director
• Katie Mulembe, graduate student at CJP and graduate associate for the Office of DEI 
• Adesola Johnson, undergraduate student and inclusive excellence student leader, Office of DEI
• Patience Kamau, digital media strategist and designer at  CJP and associate director for the Office of DEI
• Benjamin Bergey, professor of music.

Important Dates

• Inaugural Hertzler-Koshy Faculty Fellowship Grants will be available on Sept. 30, 2022. Applications will be due by 5 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2022.
• Fall application cycle of The Inclusive Excellence Grants will open on September 5, 2022. We hope you consider submitting a proposal! 

These DEI grants are possible thanks to the generosity of Jose Koshy ‘76 and Jean Koshy-Hertzler ‘79.

Though it’s only March, Bill Goldberg is already looking forward to the 2022 this May and June with anticipation.

After two years of online programming, SPI returns to the in-person format. That means the EMU campus will once again be a nexus of global peacebuilders; traditionally, the four-session programming draws approximately 200 people from around 30-40 countries. They take courses on a range of peacebuilding topics but it’s the informal spaces outside of class – chatting at the daily coffee break or sharing a meal or a walk up The Hill together – that often mean the most to participants.

“We’ve been more successful than I ever could have hoped for in the last two years of shifting to online programming,” Goldberg said. “We found we could attract a lot of people who couldn’t otherwise come in person. Online was the only way they could take courses, and we plan to continue a series of online courses. But our goal was always to be back in person because there is just so much to the SPI extracurricular experience that you cannot easily recreate online.” 

The second reason for Goldberg’s anticipation is a bit more bittersweet: He says this one will be his last. Goldberg has worked with SPI for more than 20 years and been the institute’s director for the last nine. He will step down July 1.

During his tenure, the program’s unique format and holistic curricula has grown to iconic status in the field of conflict resolution. Several SPI “alumni” and faculty members have been inspired to innovate peacebuilding trainings in settings around the world. In 2000, the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding identified 12 such institutes, in Africa, Europe, the South Pacific, North America, and Northeast and Southeast Asia. The 2000 issue of Peacebuilder magazine is devoted to exploring the practitioner-leaders, many of whom earned graduate degrees at CJP, and their unique settings and goals. Find the list here and view the issue here (“Ripples of SPI”).

Goldberg’s reason for moving on is also linked to the field of peacebuilding. His wife Lisa Schirch, a former professor at EMU, is currently serving a one-year visiting professorship at Notre Dame and will join the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies in a more permanent role this summer. At this point, Goldberg has no specific plans beyond transitioning their home to Indiana.

“I’m hoping lots of people will hear this and want to come to SPI to say goodbye,” Goldberg said. “That’s not really a joke. I would really like to visit again with so many of the people who have taken SPI courses in the past.”

The better reason to attend SPI, he adds with a smile, is the dynamic offerings designed with both theory and practice in mind. Several courses focus on aspects of leadership for social change at the community level. Other topics include restorative practices and restorative justice, collaborative practices for transforming community spaces, conflict analysis, circle processes and STAR training.

The summer sessions are facilitated by an “all-star group of instructors,” Goldberg says, many of whom have been waiting for the past two years to return to the in-person teaching format.

Among them is Hizkias Assefa, a co-founder of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and a globally renowned mediator who will teach a course on forgiveness and reconciliation. Based in Kenya, he is currently engaged in peacebuilding in the Christian-Muslim conflict areas of Nigeria.

“Hizkias does high-level mediation around the world and he considers coming to SPI and teaching here a vacation,” Goldberg said. “He chooses to do this on his time off. We are so fortunate that with all the challenges of travel and his work and time for his family, he prioritizes sharing his knowledge with our students at SPI.”

A new teaching duo this summer is Jackie Font-Guzmán, EMU’s executive director of diversity, equity and inclusion, with her former Creighton colleague, Bernie Mayer, a leader in the field of dispute resolution. The co-authors will be teaching a course based on their book The Neutrality Trap: Disrupting and Cooperating for Social Change, released in January by John Wiley and Co.

Several courses are especially suited to in-person learning, Goldberg said. For example, Frank Dukes and Leanne Nurse co-teach the course on transforming community spaces that will include a field trip to explore Charlottesville and the various projects of that community, including the University of Virginia’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers. Fulbright professors and CJP alumni Ashok and Florina Xavier will teach “Theater for Transformation,” an interactive course building on their experiences of arts-based peacebuilding. 

“The last two years have stretched us in so many meaningful ways,” Goldberg said. “We now offer online SPI programming in February to help meet that need for professional development and training among folks who can’t make the trip to Harrisonburg in the summer. That shift also helped orient our degree programs into online formats. But we’ll be so glad to see everyone here on campus this summer. Peacebuilding is at its root about relationships and there’s no better way to build those than by sharing time together.”

��ݮ���� announces two leadership transitions that highlight and strengthen the university’s core values of commitments to peacebuilding and diversity, equity and inclusion. 

Jayne Docherty, executive director and professor of conflict transformation, announces her retirement this summer after more than 21 years of service to the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. The first non-Mennonite and the first woman in the executive director’s role, she has served since 2019. Prior to this, she spent seven years as CJP’s academic programs director, from 2013-19. She joined CJP in 2001 as professor of conflict transformation.

Jackie N. Font-Guzmán, currently the university’s executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and a tenured professor with CJP, will be elevated to an inaugural role of Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. As part of this broader capacity within the university and with additional administrative support, she will also serve CJP in a two-year term as the center’s Strategic Vision Director. This role includes responsibilities that emphasize high-level leadership and strategic planning — in collaboration with current CJP faculty and staff and EMU’s Vice President for Enrollment and Strategic growth, to build upon current progress in repositioning the center’s academic and non-credit programs for growth and success. This includes preparation for and leadership in a search for CJP’s new executive director, to begin in 2024.

This leadership shift is reflective of recommendations generated from a review conducted in 2021 by an external consultant initiated by CJP. The four-month research project involved input from CJP and the broader university around positioning the center for even greater impact and visibility in the cluttered educational environment.  

“Jayne Docherty has led CJP through seismic societal and cultural shifts, the COVID-19 pandemic, and disruption of the higher education landscape,” said EMU President Susan Schultz Huxman. “On behalf of our entire executive leadership team, I express our immense gratitude for Jayne’s pragmatic approach to embracing disruptive change and her bold visionary leadership in articulating what a renowned peace and justice program should aspire to be.”

“Jayne has positioned CJP well to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the current times, and to integrate with EMU’s distinctive mission,” said Provost Fred Kniss. “We are thankful for Jackie’s willingness to lead the strategic visioning for CJP’s next stage of development as a flagship program in the university. Her skills and experience uniquely equip her for this task, which benefits both the broader university and the diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice work we must all do together.”

Further, Huxman noted: “Throughout the pandemic, philanthropic support for CJP and DEI has been by every measure very successful. These two women have accentuated the sharp positive growth of both programs.” 

Docherty called her two decades of work at CJP “an honor and a gift,” and expressed appreciation and gratitude for her colleagues “and those colleagues masquerading as students.” 

She continued: “When I stepped into the executive director role, I didn’t expect to spend the next three years figuring out how to turn the disruption of a global pandemic into an opportunity to make our programs more resilient, flexible, and robust. I am so proud of the CJP team for starting a new MA program, making our graduate programs more accessible to students who cannot move to Harrisonburg, experimenting with new ways of teaching, and reorganizing our budgeting and management systems to set CJP up for growth as the world emerges from lockdown.”

Font-Guzmán, who joined EMU in April 2021 from Creighton University, is “eager to join CJP in this new role and excited to collaborate with my colleagues to lead together into the 21st century.”

With both academic and practitioner expertise in conflict engagement and DEI, she views her role “as a promising way to more fully integrate DEI into peacebuilding practices and vice versa.”

“There’s a real synergy there,” Font-Guzmán added. “The present reimagining of CJP is a real opportunity to amplify a larger strategic initiative at EMU. Jayne’s leadership and vision have set us up for success in ensuring CJP’s continued legacy of peacebuilding and social justice throughout the world.”  

Docherty will formally step down on June 30, 2022, though she will provide consulting services for an interim period.

The transition will create a new partnership between two colleagues who share a joint respect for their unique capacities for systems thinking and culture change within the conflict resolution field. 

“Jackie is an innovator and a leader in our field and co-author of one of the hottest new conflict resolution books, ,” Docherty said. “We are fortunate to have her at EMU in a position to advocate for CJP as the university leaders work out the details for establishing a new unit for professional education and CJP implements curriculum changes and new management practices to support STAR, Summer Peacebuilding Institute, and the .”

Among their many goals, the duo plan to connect with graduates, partners and supporters during the next four months, after which, Docherty says, she’ll “take a short break and think about my next calling in the world.” 

Howard Zehr, distinguished professor of restorative justice at ��ݮ����, and co-author Barb Toews MA ‘00 will talk about their book “Still Doing Life: 22 Lifers, 25 Years Later” in a webinar hosted by the .

The free event will be Wednesday, March 16, from 12-1:30 p.m. EST. The book, with a release date of March 15, is published by The New Press. All webinars will be livestreamed on the  and on .

A recording of the webinar will also be available after the event at the organization’s website.

The authors are also participating in an online event in Washington state, where Toews is professor of criminal justice at University of Washington. On Monday, March 21, at 6 p.m., the co-authors are featured guests on . They will discuss the implications of the American criminal justice system and the consequences of life sentences. ADDED 4/19:

Here’s for another event the authors participated in, hosted by the Pennsylvania Office of Victim Advocate.

In 1996, Zehr published Doing Life (Good Books), with portraits of individuals serving life sentences without the possibility of parole at a prison in Pennsylvania. Twenty-five years later, Zehr revisited many of the same individuals and photographed them in the same poses. 

The book presents the two photos of each individual side by side, along with interviews conducted at the two different photo sessions.

Zehr has published other similarly formatted books offering intimate perspectives on people harmed by violence.

In 2001, (Good Books) featured portraits and stories of 39 victims of violent crime. Many of these people were twice-wounded: once at the hands of an assailant; the second time by the courts, where there is no legal provision for a victim’s participation. 

“My hope,” says Zehr, “is that this book might hand down a rope to others who have experienced such tragedies and traumas, and that it might allow all who read it to live on the healing edge.”

Read a 2011 Peacebuilder article on Zehr’s book “What Will Happen to Me?” featuring photos of 30 children whose parents are incarcerated, along with the children’s thoughts, plus some reflections by their caregivers. Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz is the co-author.

Betty Kilby Baldwin and Phoebe Kilby have told their remarkable story of reconciliation and reparation 37 times in seven months across the country, with features in , , and a . 

In March, the co-authors of (Walnut Street Books, 2021) visit Harrisonburg to share more. 

��ݮ���� is a special place to both women; it’s where they met in a five-day class titled “Coming to the Table,” during the 2007 Summer Peacebuilding Institute. Kilby holds a graduate certificate in conflict transformation and was the former first advancement director for CJP. Their connection continued through the development of the CTTT organization; its goal is to bring together descendants of slave owners and enslaved people to talk about racial reconciliation.

Their new book gives space for each woman to tell her story — Betty’s experience as one of the first Black children to attend a desegregated school in Rappahannock County, Phoebe’s desire to repair harms after a privileged life, the story of their meeting and ongoing work together. 

They’ll talk about all of this and answer questions from the audience at two events:

• On Wednesday, March 23, at 10:10 a.m. in Lehman Auditorium at EMU, Baldwin and Kilby will speak at a convocation in honor of Women’s History Month. Masks are optional. This event will be livestreamed on . [You do not need to be a member of Facebook to watch.]

• On Thursday, March 24, from 7-8:30 p.m., Massanutten Regional Library hosts an author event. . 

The talks are sponsored by EMU, as well as the university’s . Kilby earned a graduate certificate in conflict transformation from the center in 2004 and worked as the center’s first development associate.

She and Baldwin met through the racial reconciliation organization , which started at EMU in 2006 and continues today as a program of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth. Nearly 50 CTTT local affiliate groups can be found in 19 states.

First published 3/8

Marshall King ‘92 will be at ��ݮ���� Wednesday, Feb. 16, to speak about his new book “Disarmed: The Radical Life and Legacy of MJ Sharp” (Herald Press, 2022). The convocation begins at 10:10 a.m. in Lehman Auditorium and will be livestreamed at [you do not need to be a member of Facebook to watch.]

The same evening, King will also be at Brothers Craft Brewing at 6:30 p.m. for a reading and interview with Professor Mark Metzler Sawin.

On Thursday, Feb. 17, Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community hosts a 2 p.m. gathering. King will be interviewed by EMU President Emeritus Loren Swartzendruber. This event is not livestreamed. Watch for the recording to be posted after the event on

The book tells the story of Michael “MJ” Sharp ‘05, whose commitment to peace and peacebuilding led him to work with Mennonite Central Committee and the United Nations.

Sharp’s murder on 2017 while working with the United Nations as an armed group expert sent shockwaves around the world. He was ambushed with UN colleague Zaida Catalán of Sweden, who was also killed. The investigation into his death is ongoing; .

King’s book “explores what compelled Sharp to travel the world working for peace and the ongoing impact of his life and death in the ongoing story of Christian peacemaking in a war-torn world,” according to publicity materials.

King, a longtime journalist and former managing editor of The Elkhart Truth, lives in Goshen, Indiana, where he is head storyteller for the Community Foundation of Elkhart County.

The MJ Sharp Peace and Justice Endowed Scholarship honors MJ’s memory, providing need-based aid to graduate students at EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding with priority given to students from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The scholarship’s total stands at nearly $265,000 – a sum which has enabled David Nyiringabo MA ’20 and Yolanda Emedi to study at CJP.  

Read and learn more 

Look for Peacebuilder podcast’s next episode Wednesday, Feb. 16, featuring King, and linking episodes of in the coming weeks.

The Jan. 21 issue of Anabaptist World includes , as well as a feature article about MJ titled capturing some of the tensions around his work and death, and an article about and their search for justice.

The 2019 Dream Hike, a trek to the top of Kilimanjaro, helped to raise money for the scholarship. A book capturing images of the hike came out in June 2021. Visit the hike website.

Hear John Sharp, Michael’s father, speak about during the 2019 Homecoming and Family Weekend.

This year’s top news stories from EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding mark life and professional transitions, celebrate impactful work, and connect us to the challenging issues of the day.

Three of the articles below also appear in a separate list – EMU’s Top News of 2021 – illustrating the importance of CJP itself and its values with the broader institutional community.

The EMU News blog is the most-visited page on the university’s website and our analytics show a global distribution with nearly all the countries in the world represented (Tonga and French Polynesia excepted!). 

Most readers find our news through various distribution platforms: the CJP Facebook page, the main EMU social media handles, and our weekly Tuesday morning News Digest. Join our 10,000 subscriber-strong community!

You may also enjoy the Top Photos of 2021 collection.

MOST READ and MOST COMMENTS: EMU’s inaugural LGBTQ+ Month event

An announcement of EMU’s October 2021 inaugural – and history-making – LGBTQ+ Month commemoration event generated two records of more than 2,360 reads and 61 comments. Executive Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Jackie Font-Guzmán noted in the release EMU’s harmful history, the beginning of the work towards holding and healing that harm, and that the event “represents the first time we are publicly acknowledging and celebrating LGBTQ+ history.” 

In Memoriam: Terry Beitzel

CJP has long been a nurturing place of discernment and encouragement where many begin their journey and explore where their true work lies in the vast peacebuilding and conflict transformation fields. Terry Beitzel, who died of COVID-19 in January 2021, was one of those who came to CJP looking for answers. After a year of study here in the early 2000’s, he went on to earn a PhD in conflict analysis and resolution at George Mason University and to work at James Madison University as professor and director of the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence. He remained strongly connected to EMU and CJP, however, teaching in the undergraduate social science programs and at CJP as an adjunct professor while studying at GMU. Beitzel also mentored many CJP alumni in research and academic publishing. (1,700 reads)

Transitions

Readers were interested in transitions at CJP this spring: combined totals of hits on the following articles reached nearly 2,800: 

• The departure of Professor Carl Stauffer to the US Institute of Peace in February 2021;
• In the same month, an announcement of EMU’s new executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion Dr. Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán (formerly professor of law and conflict studies and director of Creighton University’s Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Program);
• A summer 2021 announcement of a talented new group of faculty and staff. 

Jan. 6

CJP readers looked to the center and to EMU for a response after the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington D.C. A combined 1,000 readers viewed an article summarizing EMU response, which included links to CJP’s reflection with context, analysis, and resources (published on the Peacebuilder webpage).

Alicia Garza and CJP’s 25th anniversary

News about our rescheduled 25+1 Anniversary Celebration in summer 2021 combined to reach the fourth spot. Readers enjoyed the preview article and post-event coverage. The announcement of available recordings has also become an important resource. 

CJP grad in Libya

Our news articles often share good news about the work our alumni are doing around the world. This year’s highlight was the appointment of lawyer and human rights activist Najla El Mangoush MA ‘15 as Libya’s first female foreign minister in March 2021.

And once again, our All-Time Greatest Hit:

CJP readers might be interested to know that our 2021 Top Read, at 19,572 clicks, and our All-Time Greatest Hit with more than 65,200 total clicks is the 2016 article on Mark Loving and his great grandparents. Mark, then a sophomore, generously shared the story of his great-grandparents, Mildred and Richard Loving, as he and his family prepared to attend the Charlottesville world premiere of the movie “Loving.” June 12, the anniversary of their successful Supreme Court case to allow interracial marriage, is now celebrated widely in the United States (and around the world, as well). Mark graduated in 2019 and is pursuing his goal of becoming a physical therapist.