#NoWar2023 Speakers
Gabriel Aguirre
Gabriel Aguirre is Latin America Organizer for World BEYOND War, is from Venezuela, and is currently based in Bógota. He has been an activist and advocate for peace, social justice, international solidarity and human rights, and has more than 13 years of experience in social and community work. He has participated in multiple international events and activities on five continents, always in defense of a stable and lasting peace. He has been a representative to the United Nations to defend the foundations of a more just world without wars or sanctions. His work experience includes participation in several international missions of solidarity to countries that have had military, economic, political, and social conflicts. He has also been an organizer of various campaigns for the closure of military bases, and the lifting of sanctions on countries that suffer their consequences. He holds a degree in Political Science, with a specialization in International Relations, and a master’s degree in Public Policy.
Marna Anderson
Marna Anderson is the Director of Nonviolent Peaceforce USA. She is a nonprofit leader with expertise in organizational effectiveness and major donor fundraising. She has served organizations focused on human rights, conservation and violence against women and children. She traveled extensively in Central America during times of conflict in the late 1980s and lived in El Salvador for four years after the Peace Accords were signed. While in El Salvador she worked in a repatriated community on economic development projects for women and helped establish a program educating women and girls on domestic violence.
Marna holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and Anthropology and a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership.
Jhony Arango
Jhony Arango is from Medellín, Colombia. He is part of the ECAP Colombia team, an international solidarity and accompaniment organization. He is a person who has decided to take actions to promote different transformations in life that are necessary. He is an anti-militarist, and from a very young age he decided not to carry a weapon and to be a conscientious objector to military service in Colombia. This has led him to be an activist committed to social change. He has been an activist for more than 21 years, he began at a very young age assuming these protest actions. Jhony has worked in different antimilitarist organizations and collectives in Colombia and Latin America. He has also done this for other international accompaniment organizations such as PBI (Peace Brigades International) in Honduras. He met ECAP in 2019 and that same year he worked on building a delegation and trained to be a reservist.
Safoora Arbab
Safoora Arbab is an independent scholar and educator. She obtained a doctoral degree from the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. Safoora teaches courses on the framework of nonviolence and is one of the founding faculty members at the School of Nonviolence at the Metta Center for Nonviolence. She also serves on the board of directors for the Center. Currently Safoora is also working on a book manuscript, “The Ecstasy and Anarchy of Nonviolence: the Khudai Khidmatgar Socio-Politics of Love and Decolonization in the North-West Frontier of British India.” This book reads the Pashto literature of this populist nonviolent “army” led by Abdul Ghaffar Khan—also known as Bacha Khan and the Frontier Gandhi—during the 1930’s and 40’s. Safoora can be reached at safoora@mettacenter.org. www.SafooraArbab.org
Dame Pa' Matala
Dame Pa' Matala is a group that presents a social message and an idea of conscience with the firm intention of strengthening grassroots work, against war and for Peace, carrying the proposal of popular organization as an elemental basis for life in society, mixing avant-garde trends and rhythms with Latin American folkloric principles.
James Brooke
James Brooke is an American journalist who currently serves as the Ukraine/Russia columnist for The New York Sun. Previously, he was editor in chief of the English-language Ukraine Business News, and editor in chief of the English-language Khmer Times newspaper, in Cambodia. From 2010 to 2014, he was the Russia/former Soviet Union Bureau Chief for Voice of America, based in Moscow. Previously, he worked as Moscow Bureau Chief for Bloomberg. Before Bloomberg, he reported for 24 years for The New York Times, largely overseas in countries such as Japan, South Korea, Ivory Coast and Brazil. Brooke graduated from Yale University with a BA in Latin American studies.
Vaiba Kebeh Flomo
Vaiba Kebeh Flomo is an outstanding peace and women’s rights activist, community mobilizer, feminist, trauma case worker, and leader, who worked to promote the rule of law and reduce violence amongst community people through training and dialogue, program designing, planning, and implementation, and trauma counseling with a key focus on women and youth who suffered any kind of violence; building women and community capacities through training focusing on peace education, leadership, community development, and equal participation in decision-making highlighting gender mainstreaming. Co-founder of the Christian Women Peace Initiative, and Liberian Women Mass Action for Peace, the movement that advocated for peace, laws reform, and policy implementation. Played a cardinal role in ensuring that every girl child goes to school and provided psychosocial services for women to cope with their long-term multi-traumas from the Liberian war. Worked with community women, youth, and leadership to internalize development and take appropriate actions, mentor young women to discover their potential, and take on leadership roles.
Madam Flomo holds a Diploma in Secretarial Science from the Leigh-Sherman Executive Secretarial School, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from the University of Liberia, a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution and Women Leadership from Easterner Mennonite University, and a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Madam Flomo has received training in Mediation, Peace, Negotiation, Gender, Social Protection, Adaptive leadership, and Peacebuilding.
Madam Flomo has worked in 14 of the 15 counties in Liberia training community leaders, local officials, war victims, ex-combatants, and security personnel in trauma healing, reconciliation, and conflict resolution/transformation from 1998 to June 2015. Advocated for 54 women who suffered multi-traumas during the civil war to seek medical attention and reintegration. Madam Flomo served as a Consultant for Yale Reconcile International, Gbowee Peace Foundation-Africa, and the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection.
Madam Flomo served as Volunteer Executive Director for the Christian Women Peace Initiative now, Community Women Peace Initiative in Liberia for five years. She served as Manager for Social Cash Transfer of the Liberia Social Safety Net, Gender, Children & Social Protection in Liberia for three years (2019-2022). Madam Flomo holds an impressive record in supporting community capacity building among women and youth. An exceptional counselor/mentor, Madam Flomo worked for the Lutheran Church in Liberia for seventeen years with a focus on Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Program where she assisted ex-combatant youth to re-enter society. As well, Madam Flomo managed the Women/Youth Desk, and served as Community chairperson, for GSA Rock Hill Community, Paynesville for six years.
In these roles, she designed and implemented activities to reduce community violence, teenage pregnancy, and domestic violence, including rape. Much of this work took place through community mobilization, and in collaboration with a variety of organizations focused on similar issues.
Madam Flomo is the Founder of “Kids for Peace”, Rock Hill Community Women’s Peace Council, and presently serves as an Advisor to the Young Women of Substance in District #6, Montserrado County.
Madam Flomo continued to work with community women and girls on SGBV, good governance, and economic empowerment through microcredit/village saving. One thing Madam Flomo believes in is, “The life of the better is to better the world”.
Phill Gittins
Phill Gittins, PhD, is World BEYOND War’s Education Director. He is based in the UK. Dr. Phill Gittins has over 20 years of leadership, programming, and analysis experience in the areas of peace, education, youth and community development, and psychotherapy. He has lived, worked, and travelled in over 55 countries across 6 continents; taught in schools, colleges, and universities around the world; and trained thousands on peace and social change-related issues. Other experience includes work in youth offending prisons; oversight management for research and activism projects; and consultancy assignments for public and non-profit organisations. Phill has received multiple awards for his work, including a Rotary Peace Fellowship, KAICIID Fellowship, and Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace. He is also a Positive Peace Activator and Global Peace Index Ambassador for the Institute for Economics and Peace. He earned his PhD in International Conflict Analysis, MA in Education, and BA in Youth and Community Studies. He also holds postgraduate qualifications in Peace and Conflict Studies, Education and Training, and Teaching in Higher Education, and is a qualified counsellor and psychotherapist as well as certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner and project manager.
Cym Gomery
Cym Gomery (WBW Montréal) is a community organizer and activist who founded Montréal for a World BEYOND War in November 2021, after attending the inspiring WBW NoWar101 training. This Canadian chapter came into being just on the cusp of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Canadian government's decision to purchase bombers and so much more—our members have had no shortage of actions in which to participate! Cymry is passionate about the rights of nature, the environment, anti-speciesism, anti-racism and social justice. She cares deeply about peace as the barometer by which we can judge the success of all human endeavour, without which it is impossible for humans or other species to flourish.
Randy Janzen
Randy Janzen, Ph.D, has been involved with Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) as a practitioner (accompaniment work in Guatemala), as an educator (co-creating the first post-secondary program in UCP at Selkirk College, Canada) and a researcher. Randy is a recently retired professor of Peace and Justice Studies and currently involved in UCP work in Palestine and Burundi.
Jørgen Johansen
Jørgen Johansen is an independent peace researcher, bibliophile and trouble-maker living amongst the trees in Southern Sweden. He runs Irene Publishing and has built up a huge library for scholars to use while spending time at his small centre for writers and activists. After 45 years of work in more than 100 countries he has settled and is inspired by Cicero: "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."
Charles Johnson
Charles Johnson is a co-founding member of Nonviolent Peaceforce's Chicago chapter. With the chapter, Charles works to promote and practice Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP), a proven unarmed alternative to armed protection. He has received certification in UCP studies through the UN/ Merrimack College, and has trained in UCP with Nonviolent Peaceforce, DC Peace Team, Meta Peace Team, and others. Charles has presented on UCP at DePaul University and other venues. He has also participated in numerous street actions in Chicago as an unarmed protector. His aim is to keep learning about the many forms of UCP which have sprung up worldwide, as people create unarmed safety models to replace armed models.
Kathy Kelly
Kathy Kelly has been President of the Board of World BEYOND War since March 2022, prior to which time she served as a member of the Advisory Board. She is based in the United States, but is often elsewhere. Kathy’s efforts to end wars have led her to living in war zones and prisons over the past 35 years. In 2009 and 2010, Kathy was part of two Voices for Creative Nonviolence delegations which visited Pakistan to learn more about the consequences of U.S. drone attacks. From 2010 – 2019, the group organized dozens of delegations to visit Afghanistan, where they continued learning about casualties of U.S. drone attacks. Voices also helped organize protests at U.S. military bases operating weaponized drone attacks. She is now a co-coordinator of the Ban Killer Drones campaign.
Ivan Marovic
Ivan Marovic is the Executive Director of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. He is an organizer, software developer and social innovator from Belgrade, Serbia. He was one of the leaders of Otpor, a youth movement which played a critical role in the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic, Serbian strongman in 2000. Since then he’s been advising numerous pro-democracy groups around the world and became one of the leading educators in the field of strategic nonviolent conflict. In the last two decades Ivan has been designing and developing learning programs on civil resistance and movement building, and supporting the development of training organizations, such as Rhize and the African Coaching Network. Ivan helped develop two educational video games that teach activists civil resistance: A Force More Powerful (2006) and People Power (2010). He also authored a training guide The Path of Most Resistance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Nonviolent Campaigns (2018). Ivan holds a BSc in Process Engineering from Belgrade University and an MA in International Relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Ray McGovern
Ray McGovern came to Washington from his native Bronx in the early Sixties as an Army infantry/intelligence officer and then served as a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. Ray’s duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’s Daily Brief, which he briefed one-on-one to President Ronald Reagan’s five most senior national security advisers from 1981 to 1985. In January 2003, Ray co-created Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) to expose how intelligence was being falsified to “justify” war on Iraq. As an act of conscience, on March 2, 2006 Ray returned the Intelligence Commendation Medallion given him at retirement for “especially meritorious service,” explaining, “I do not want to be associated, however remotely, with an agency engaged in torture.” Ray has appeared on The Newshour, C-Span’s Washington Journal, CNN, BBC, a number of domestic Russian TV channels, Aljazeera, RT, PressTV, CCTV and many other TV & radio programs and documentaries. Ray’s B.A. and M.A. degrees – both from Fordham University – are in Russian history, language, and literature, with minors in theology, philosophy, and classics. He has taught Russian as an adjunct at the University of Virginia. Ray also holds a Certificate in Theological Studies from Georgetown University and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. A Catholic, Ray has been worshipping for many years with the ecumenical Church of the Saviour. He leads the “Speaking Truth to Power” section of Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. A former co-director of the Servant Leadership School (1998-2004), he has been teaching there for more than 20 years. His current course is: “On the Morality of Whistleblowing.” Ray is fluent in Russian, German, and Spanish. He and his wife have been married 55 years; they have five children and nine grandchildren.
Nick Mottern
Nick Mottern is Co-coordinator with Kathy Kelly of BanKillerDrones.org and is an organizer of the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal, which will be holding hearings in November 2023. He is a member of the national board of Veterans For Peace. He is also a reporter, whose work has appeared on Truthout, Common Dreams, Counterpunch and on other websites, and he is a researcher and organizer who has worked for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, Bread for the World and Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. While with Maryknoll he coordinated, with Jerry Herman, of the American Friends Service Committee, the Africa Peace Tour, an educational tour that brought Africans to the U.S. to speak about apartheid and U.S. military involvement in Africa.
Al Mytty
Since completing the nine-month JustFaith program, which focuses on building a more just and peaceful world, Al Mytty has been involved in a variety of social justice programs including Pax Christi and World BEYOND War, for which he serves as the Co-Coordinator for the Illinois chapter. Previously, when he resided in Florida, he served as Co-Coordinator for the WBW Florida chapter. Al fulfilled a high school dream of receiving an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy. As a Cadet, he became disillusioned about the morality and effectiveness of war and U.S. militarism and received an Honorable Discharge from the Academy. He completed a Master of Social Work degree and spent his working career as a founder and executive with local health plans. He resides with his wife in Illinois. His four adult children and their spouses and ten children keep Al and his wife busy and traveling.
Daoud Nassar
Daoud Nassar is the Director of Operations for the Tent of Nations. Daoud is a native of Bethlehem, Palestine. He is married to Jihan Nassar, and they have three young children in their family. Daoud is a Palestinian Christian, fluent in Arabic, German and English, with a Degree in Biblical Studies from a Bible School in Austria, a BA Degree in Business from Bethlehem University, and a Degree in Tourism Management from Bielefeld University in Germany. He manages the farm known as Daher’s Vineyard located in the West Bank of Palestine and directs the work of the programs and projects known as Tent of Nations.
Annually, nearly 7,000 international tourists visit the Nassar family’s ancestral land – a 100-acre hilltop site situated between Bethlehem and Hebron in the West Bank. The attraction is the Tent of Nations, an open and free enclave that serves as an educational and cultural center for local Palestinians and Israelis, including the international visitors.
The Nassar family land, purchased in 1916 by Daoud Nassar’s grandfather, is surrounded by Jewish settlements on three sides and the Palestinian village of Nahalin on the fourth. The land is cut off from sources of water and electricity, and the family is resisting the loss of their land by going through the courts with proof of ownership and by employing non-violent responses to Israeli laws that limit growth and personal freedom. Activities such as planting olive trees, developing alternative energy sources, and improving ways to collect, store and use water supplies wisely are just some of the ways in which the Nassars fight for human dignity.
Tent of Nations also offers summer camps for Arab youth so that through shared activities they may learn about one another. Women from Nahalin are enrolled throughout the year at the Women’s Education Center in courses such as English, Computer Science, Management, Accounting and Creative Writing. Students at Bethlehem University have the opportunity to perform service projects on the land itself as a part of their degree studies. Through Tent of Nations, Daoud works each day to prepare the people on the land for the day when the walls come down.
Jose. A. Navarro
Jose. A. Navarro: Simultaneous interpreter and written translator. With more than 15 years of experience in interpreting in sectors such as: manufacturing, pharmaceutical, human rights, official sector (education, presidency, Pacific Alliance summit), NGOs and local government agencies.
Elvis Ndihokubwayo
Elvis Ndihokubwayo is a medical student and peace activist in Burundi. He is the Chapter Coordinator for World BEYOND War Burundi. Pro liberty, Elvis has advocated for human rights since 2017, coordinating young people and students from different universities in Burundi and across the East Africa region to exchange on different topics about peace. Says Elvis, “I believe that once youth are transformed positively, communities are changed and strengthened. I embrace dignity for all and for a peaceful world.”
Nélida Nieves
Nélida Nieves is a Colombian volunteer at Peace Brigades International (PBI) Honduras. PBI is a non-governmental organization that promotes the protection of human rights and the transformation of conflicts by non-violent means. Through international accompaniment, PBI provides protection to individuals, organizations and communities taking action in defense of human rights. PBI always works based on requests from defenders and in response to their needs. In this manner, it contributes to protecting the space for initiatives in favor of human rights, social justice and peace. In Honduras, PBI has been accompanying organizations defending land and territory, freedom of expression and LGBTI+ rights since 2013. Through international presence that supports, protects and opens the space for action for those facing repression for their work, PBI Honduras has sought to contribute to the improvement of the human rights situation in the country.
Jane Obiora
Jane Obiora is the Chapter Coordinator for World BEYOND War Nigeria, the Coordinator for Centre for Peace Advancement and Socio-Economic Development (CPAED) and Chairperson of Open Government Partnership (OGP) on improving service delivery where she promotes peace and advocates for strong, functional and inclusive society. She works to inspire the creation of ideas, development and implementation of various projects and programs as well as to provide strategic direction for the achievement of goals. Jane holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the Ahmadu Bello University and has 7-years of hands-on working experience. Well versed in project management, capacity development, peace building and youth activism, Jane seeks to make a tangible, notable and lasting impact. As an energetic and innovative thinker, she focuses on stimulating governments, individuals, and communities to make positive impact.
Janet Parker
Janet Parker is a mother, gardener, musician and war abolition activist in Madison, Wisconsin. Before and during the Iraq War, Janet led civil resistance anti-war actions in Madison and joined actions at the Pentagon and the White House. She is a co-coordinator of the WBW Madison chapter. The Madison chapter, launched in 2022, conducts regular War Abolition Walks and calls on elected officials to reduce military spending, stop F-35 warplanes from coming to Wisconsin, and push for diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine.
Liz Remmerswaal
Liz Remmerswaal is Vice President of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War, and national coordinator for WBW Aotearoa/New Zealand. She is a former Vice President of the NZ Womens’ International League for Peace and Freedom and win 2017 won the Sonja Davies Peace Award, enabling her to study peace literacy with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in California. She is a member of the NZ Peace Foundation’s International Affairs and Disarmament committee and co-convenor of the Pacific Peace Network. Liz runs a radio show called ‘Peace Witness’, works with the CODEPINK ‘China is not our enemy’ campaign and is instrumental in planting peace poles all around her district.
John Reuwer
John Reuwer is a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. He is based in Vermont in the United States. He is a retired emergency physician whose practice convinced him of a crying need for alternatives to violence for resolving tough conflicts. This led him to the informal study and teaching of nonviolence for the last 35 years, with peace team field experience in Haiti, Colombia, Central America, Palestine/Israel, and several US inner cities. He worked with the Nonviolent Peaceforce, one of very few organizations practicing professional unarmed civilian peacekeeping, in South Sudan, a nation whose suffering showcases the true nature of war that is so easily hidden from those who still believe war is a necessary part of politics. He currently participates with the DC Peace Team. As adjunct professor of peace and justice studies at St. Michael’s College in Vermont, Dr. Reuwer taught courses on conflict resolution, both nonviolent action and nonviolent communication. He also works with Physicians for Social Responsibility educating the public and politicians about the threat from nuclear weapons, which he sees as the ultimate expression of the insanity of modern war. John has been a facilitator for World BEYOND War’s online courses “War Abolition 201” and “Leaving World War II Behind.”
Juan Gómez Ruiz
Juan Gómez belongs to the Acteal Bees in Chiapas, which is a group of Maya-Tsotsil origin, Christian and pacifist, whose objective is to promote peace, justice and anti-neoliberalism. This group was formed in the Chenalho municipality, Chiapas, as a consequence of family disputes and political injustices over the land that left a person dead in 1992. Juan was born in the community of Chimix, located in the Municipality of Chenalhó (in the State of Chiapas), a community of 250 inhabitants. Juan has dedicated his life to peasant work. He has also been part of the board of directors of the Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Association for 3 periods, in which he has worked for pacifism, nonviolence, justice, and the respect for the Human Rights of the native peoples and their right to land.
Stefania Sani
Stefania Sani is a co-coordinator of the World BEYOND War Madison chapter. She has participated in anti-war activities since the Viet Nam era. Stefania says, "My aspiration is to turn the protest into war abolition work."
Ramy Shaath
A prominent Palestinian-Egyptian nonviolent activist and co-founder of BDS Palestine, Ramy Shaath has fought for decades in the Egyptian and Palestinian political scenes on human rights causes. He was at the front lines of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, leading both in demonstrations and in organized political activity. His wife, Céline Lebrun-Shaath, is a community organizer and political activist. After seeing huge success organizing for Palestinian solidarity in Cairo, the pair were targeted by the Egyptian regime; Céline was deported in the middle of the night, and Ramy was kidnapped, disappeared, and spent over two and a half years in prison without charge. From Paris, Céline organized a worldwide campaign for Ramy's freedom; the campaign reached President Emmanuel Macron, was supported by hundreds of lawmakers from around the world, and featured dozens of celebrities and public figures, ultimately culminating in Ramy’s release and deportation to France.
Yurii Sheliazhenko
Yurii Sheliazhenko, PhD, is a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. He is based in Ukraine. Yurii is executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, a board member of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection, and a council member of the International Peace Bureau. He obtained a Master of Mediation and Conflict Management degree in 2021 and a Master of Laws degree in 2016 at KROK University. In addition to his participation in the peace movement, he is a journalist, blogger, human rights defender, and legal scholar, an author of academic publications and a lecturer on legal theory and history. He has been a facilitator for World BEYOND War’s online courses. Yurii is a winner of the International Peace Bureau’s 2022 Sean MacBride Peace Prize.
Rachel Small
Rachel Small is Canada Organizer for World BEYOND War. She is based in Toronto, Canada, on Dish with One Spoon and Treaty 13 Indigenous territory. Rachel is a community organizer. She has organized within local and international social/environmental justice movements for over a decade, with a special focus on working in solidarity with communities harmed by Canadian extractive industry projects in Latin America. She has also worked on campaigns and mobilizations around climate justice, decolonization, anti-racism, disability justice, and food sovereignty. She has a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University. She has a background in art-based activism and has facilitated projects in community mural-making, independent publishing and media, spoken word, guerilla theatre, and communal cooking with people of all ages across Canada. She lives downtown with her partner and kids, and can often be found at a protest or direct action, gardening, spray painting, and playing softball.
Karen Spring
Karen Spring is the Co-Coordinator for the Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN) and coordinator of a so-to-be-organization, Honduras Now. She is a human rights activist and researcher that has lived and worked in Honduras since the U.S. and Canada-backed 2009 military coup in Honduras. Karen supports Honduran community-based organizations and human rights groups including women, Afro-Indigenous, Indigenous, small farmer (campesinos), and mining-affected communities, and focuses on the role of Canada, the U.S., North American corporations, and international financial institutions in supporting impunity, corruption, and environmental injustice in Central America. Starting in 2018, she helped lead a campaign to free 22 Honduran political prisoners - including her partner Edwin Espinal - that were criminalized and jailed by the narco-dictatorship of Juan Orlando Hernández. Karen is currently a PhD student at the University of Ottawa (while continuing work in Honduras) and the host of the Honduras Now podcast (hondurasnow.org).
Rivera Sun
Author/Activist Rivera Sun has written numerous books and novels, including The Dandelion Insurrection and the award-winning Ari Ara Series. She is the editor of Nonviolence News and the Program Coordinator for Campaign Nonviolence. Her articles are syndicated by Peace Voice and published in hundreds of journals nationwide. Rivera Sun serves on the Advisory Board of World BEYOND War and the board of Backbone Campaign. www.riverasun.com
David Swanson
David Swanson is Co-Founder, Executive Director, and a Board Member of World BEYOND War. He is based in Virginia in the United States. David is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk World Radio. He is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and was awarded the 2018 Peace Prize by the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation. Longer bio and photos and videos here. Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook. Sample videos.
Dinah Thorpe
Dinah Thorpe has been called "a composer of infinite cleverness," a singer with a "gorgeously deep and weary alto," "a wicked multi-instrumentalist," and "provocative and supremely artful." Thorpe lives and works in Toronto—sacred land of the Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and the Mississaugas of the Credit River.
Thorpe has been favourably compared to Portishead, Beth Orton, Grace Jones, Feist, Laurie Anderson, and David Bowie among others. But she draws on a diverse range of influences—from folk to trip hop, orchestral to techno—and distils them into a musical style that is unmistakably her own.
Thorpe's side projects include The Mistress Class—a workshop series organized with the Canadian Music Centre and the Songwriters Association of Canada, and Superbutch—parties and performances that celebrate queer masculinities.
Marcy Winograd
Marcy Winograd volunteers as the Coordinator of CODEPINK CONGRESS and a co-producer of CODEPINK Radio. A long-time anti-war activist, Marcy also volunteers as Co-Chair of the Peace in Ukraine Coalition, advocating for a ceasefire and diplomatic resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war.
In 2010, Marcy mobilized 41% of the vote in her primary congressional peace challenge to then incumbent Jane Harman. In 2020, Marcy served as a CA DNC delegate to Bernie Sanders, mobilizing 500 other DNC delegates to challenge the influence of neo-conservatives on foreign policy. During her work on the Bernie campaign, Marcy organized polling locations on almost every college campus in Los Angeles County and Orange County.
Marcy also co-founded the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party to demand the funding of human needs, not endless war. Marcy's activism began in high school when she marched against the Vietnam War and later joined the defense team of beloved Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.
A retired English and government teacher, Marcy blogs about militarism and foreign policy at Common Dreams, CounterPunch, Salon, LA Progressive and Responsible Statecraft.
Brad Wolf
Brad Wolf is Executive Director and co-founder of Peace Action Network of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, an affiliate of Peace Action and a partner of World BEYOND War. A former lawyer, prosecutor, professor and community college dean, Brad is a full-time activist for peace and justice and his writings have been published in The Progressive, Common Dreams, Counterpunch, Antiwar.com, Consortium News, and Dappled Things. He recently authored a book on Philip Berrigan's collected writings entitled "A Ministry of Risk."
Zaira Zafarana
Zaira Zafarana works on human rights, disarmament, nonviolence and culture of peace; she collaborates with activists and human rights defenders in different parts of the world, also in partnership with local and international organisations, in advocacy, awareness and solidarity initiatives. She is the representative at the UN of IFOR - International Fellowship of Reconciliation and recently - last June - she collaborated in the realisation of the Vienna Peace Conference on the war in Ukraine together with other partner organisations including IPB, WILPF, CODEPINK and Europe for Peace, participating in the realisation of the working group on conscientious objection to military service. She worked together with WRI, EBCO and Connection e.V on the launch of the #ObjectWarCampaign in 2022, which is still ongoing and calls on Europe to protect objectors and deserters from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. She has experience in the UN and collaborates with EBCO - European Bureau for Conscientious Objection for which she contributed to the 2021 and 2022 report on conscientious objection and is a member of an international advisory group for the conscientious objection campaign in Turkey. She has coordinated a specific research and reporting project on the right to conscientious objection to military service worldwide for the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) - an international peace movement founded in 1914. She is currently in charge of the international relations of the Italian branch of IFOR - MIR Italy - where she has held various positions including that of vice-president. She has been a member of the bureau of the International Coordination for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence. She has managed several international projects on peace issues, including the "2014 Sarajevo Peace event", "Discover Peace in Europe", and realised the Peace Trail of Torino-Italy, together with the local working group of the Italian branch of IFOR. Over the years, she has collaborated in peace and nonviolence education projects and workshops. She studied International Sciences and Human Rights at the University of Turin, with a thesis on the UN Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence and then a master thesis on reconciliation processes and case studies. She started to engage in the field of nonviolence as a young volunteer through a Civil Service project on "The Power of Active Nonviolence".
Greta Zarro
Greta Zarro is Organizing Director of World BEYOND War. She is based in New York State in the United States. Greta has a background in issue-based community organizing. Her experience includes volunteer recruitment and engagement, event organizing, coalition building, legislative and media outreach, and public speaking. Greta graduated as valedictorian from St. Michael’s College with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology/Anthropology. She previously worked as New York Organizer for leading non-profit Food & Water Watch. There, she campaigned on issues related to fracking, genetically engineered foods, climate change, and the corporate control of our common resources. Greta and her partner run Unadilla Community Farm, a non-profit organic farm and permaculture education center in Upstate New York.
Carlos Zorrilla
Carlos Zorrilla is an environmental activist, farmer, biologist, conservationist, writer, photographer, and teacher. Cuban-born, he has lived for more than 40 years in Ecuador, where he is a leading activist opposing extractivism in the country, and a leader in the successful effort to defend the cloud forests of the Intag Valley in North Western Ecuador for the past 30 years. He is the co-founder and Executive Director of DECOIN (Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag).
