, PhD in Social Work 2008, Osmania University in Hyderabad, India. Dissertation title: “A Study of the Quality of Life of Sri Lankan Refugees Living in Camps in Tamil Nadu.” Current work: Chief Zonal Officer in CASA (Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action). “We work in the villages of India. I coordinate development efforts in the four southern states of India. Our focus is on poverty alleviation and political awareness and empowerment of the oppressed classes, particularly the dalits, tribals, women and backward castes.”

, PhD in Theology 2005, University of Durham in the United Kingdom. Dissertation title: “Corporate Discipline and the People of God: A Study of 1 Corinthians 5.3-5.” Current work: College and seminary professor of religion and a mediator in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Previously Brenneman was an assistant professor of religion and the director of peace and conflict studies at Mennonite-affiliated Bluffton University in Ohio. “My dissertation was a study of community discipline in the ancient church in Corinth, with implications for churches today.”

, PhD in Peace Studies 2008 from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom. Dissertation title: “A Transformative Approach to Public Dispute Resolution: A Study of the U.S. Model and the South Korean Case.” Current work: Education and publication, including book writing, focusing on peacebuilding and conflict transformation; lecturer at universities, special events and workshops for different groups. “I published a book titled Conflict Resolution in Korean Society in 2010. I also translated a book entitled Managing Public Disputes. Both books are my efforts to introduce conflict resolution/transformation to Korean society and encourage people to take different approaches to conflict based on dialogue and collaboration.”

, PhD in Political Science 2004 from Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India. Thesis title: “Refugee Problematic and Regional Security in South Asia.” Current work: Assistant professor in the  in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Kaushikee’s online curriculum vitae list dozens of seminars given, workshops led, conferences organized, and papers, monographs and a book published, both in India and in other countries, notably the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United States. Her range of interests is wide—from human rights to conflict resolution—but she has demonstrated a particular interest in the Gandhian approach to peace and conflict resolution.

, Doctor of Letters (D.LItt.) 2012, Drew University in New Jersey. Dissertation title: “On the Survival of Mennonite Community in Modern-Day America: Lessons from History, Communities and Artists.” Current work: Editor-in-chief at 91����Ƶ, including writing and editing Peacebuilder magazine. “The Mennonite church-community offers the world a distinctive and much-needed minority voice on behalf of living peacefully and helping people who are suffering. I hope this community will resist the historic trend of the assimilation of minority communities into the dominant culture.”

, PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution 2010 from the School for Conflict Analysis & Resolution at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Dissertation title: “The Politics Of Ritual: Exploring Discourse Regarding The Use Of Ritual In Northern Uganda.” Current work: Chief of Programming and Training for Africa Region of the United States Peace Corps. “In this role I provide strategic oversight and guidance to the development efforts of 25 country programs in Africa.  It is the largest regional program in the Peace Corps—approximately 41 percent of Peace Corps Volunteers serve in Africa. Though not the largest part of what I do, I have started a post-conflict support initiative for our programs in Rwanda, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Liberia.”

PLUS: Three female graduates earned doctoral-level law degrees before enrolling in CJP: , Doctor of Law 1988 from the Catholic University in Quito, Ecuador; , JD 1988 from George Washington University School of Law; and , JD 1987 from West Virginia University School of Law.

Arlington, Virginia

Krista Rigalo arrived at 91����Ƶ in the fall of 1998 with considerable international experience. She already held a master’s degree in agricultural education and had focused on agriculture in the Philippines as a Peace Corps volunteer there in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In the mid-1990s, as a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) volunteer, she shifted her attention to the ravages of war while co-directing MCC’s program for Rwandan refugees in the eastern Congo.

As an MA student in conflict transformation from 1998 to 2000, Krista spent a semester at the Carter Center in Atlanta, where she focused on how conflict between Uganda and Sudan might be eased.

Upon graduation from 91����Ƶ in 2000, she returned to Africa on behalf of MCC to work at the Africa Peacebuilding Institute at the Mindolo Ecumenical Center in Zambia, where she taught courses in trauma healing and in peacebuilding. She also worked for MCC in Angola.

She returned to the United States in 2003 and entered the doctoral program in conflict analysis and resolution at George Mason University, always maintaining her focus on Africa.

In her current Peace Corps role as acting chief of programming and training for Africa, Krista spends considerable time coordinating with other offices to ensure that the Corps’ 27 country programs in Africa receive the desired number of volunteers, with the requisite skills. Krista often arranges special trainings to see that people in the Corps are well-suited to their work assignments. She is in charge of overseeing the training of both the volunteers and the staff involved with Africa.

“My MA from 91����Ƶ has been extremely beneficial in terms of my ability to help the Peace Corps identify needs and design training materials,” Krista says. “The CJP degree is a practitioner’s degree in the sense that the practice component is really highlighted and developed. When I was there, many of the courses were taught almost as trainings, which makes it that much easier for me to adapt CJP’s content for trainings conducted for the Peace Corps.

“I still go through my notebooks from my classes and pull out relevant material that can be used as a starting point for materials for Peace Corps volunteers.”

She notes that Peace Corps volunteers in Africa work largely in education, but some also work in improving health, developing small enterprises and non-profit organizations, supporting agriculture, and protecting the environment.

“Our average volunteer is 24 to 26 years old, with very limited experience dealing with atrocities and protracted conflict,” says Krista. Yet some of these young adults are placed in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, northern Uganda, and Kenya, all of which have undergone bloody conflicts in the recent past. “They are definitely facing the realities of what it means to try to do development work in a post-conflict community.”

With support from her leadership, Krista has been able to start what she calls a “post-conflict initiative” in which she is developing new materials appropriate for preparing volunteers to work in regions emerging from war. The materials will cover “psychosocial work” and “conflict-sensitive development.”

In the summer of 2010, Krista sent a Peace Corps program manager from Uganda to 91����Ƶ to take STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience). With her new skills, Krista says, the manager “will be used by the agency as an on-continent resource to other country programs.”