Sharon Perkins Bailey, NCPCR Programs Director, has more than 15 years of teaching, training, development, and management experience. Among her many pursuits, she develops school and community based violence prevention programming for parents, teachers, and youth. Ms. Bailey developed and directed the Ventures in PEACE and Project PEACE programs for youth at risk of violent behavior and their parents through the Bucks County Peace Centers. Based in Philadelphia, she is founder and director of the Organization for African American Excellence through which she developed the Saving Our Selves African-centered violence prevention program for parents. Ms. Bailey has directed NCPCR's Diverse Traditions Project during its first year of operations. She was one of three Conference Leadership Team members for the 1999 NCPCR and coordinated the first African-African American Peace Summit held on May 27, 1999. She is currently coordinating the Practitioner Scholars Writing Project.

Fred Brown is a husband and father of three children. He is the Director for the Mother to Son Program (MTSP), located in Pittsburgh, PA. The MTSP is community-centered, focusing on working with single African American mothers with sons between the ages of 9-13 years old. Mr. Brown has also served in other professional capacities including School Teacher, College Professor, Supervisor of the PYC, Supervisor/CM/ Probation Officer Community Intensive Supervision Project, Project Manager for Reaching Communities for a Cause, Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, Creator/Director: Strong Minded Active Responsible Teens Project (S.M.A.R.T.) and President of Unity Consultants. He holds a M.S.W. degree from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently pursuing a Doctoral - Joint Masters in Public Health Degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Mr. Brown interests include writing about conflicts that exist between African American Males in the professional environment and their European counterparts, from an Afrocentric paradigm.

Ted Coronel graduated from the University of Washington with two B.A.'s - one in History and the other from the Jackson School of international Studies. He is currently working as a distributor of Sara Lee bread products and has another job as a bartender. He is actively involved with the King County Dispute Resolution Center in many aspects. He serves as a member of the Diversity Committee within the organization, and is establishing a new position as a mentor conciliator to assist the new volunteers with the Center. He will soon begin the mediation practicum. He has taken Basic Mediation Training through the City of Bellevue's Neighborhood Mediation Program.
For his first project, he would like to research the procedures other cultures use in peacemaking and dispute resolution. More specifically, are there practices from other cultures that can be incorporated into a vision of conflict resolution? Further, when dealing with cultural barriers, is it possible to customize the resolution process in a case-by-case basis, according to the ethnicities of the clients?
His interest in this project stems from his passion for writing, particularly when the subject matter is challenging.
He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico as the first child of Dimas and Carmina, two black Puertorricans and middle class workers, actually retired. He has two brothers and one sister (Dimas, David and Carmen), all of them living in the United States. His parther's name is María. They have been sharing their lifes for eleven years. His beliefs of respect for the creation make him an activist in different struggles. He is a minister of the Metropolitan Commuinity Churches actually working for the National Ecumenical Movement of Puerto Rico, a religious organization that works with human rights issues.
He wants to explore the relation between the different oppressive structures, reflecting about the complicated survival in a colony and in our plural societies. Considering the idea that the personal is politics and vice versa,. I will take seriously the people's stories. He is looking to say something but also to be touch by the process.

Jerome Jackson is an Outreach Specialist, & Consultant for the City Of Pittsburgh, Mayor's Office, and a former trainer and mediator with the Pittsburgh Mediation Center. He has worked in the field of Juvenile Corrections and Treatment. He also works with youth and community members to help them find constructive ways to resolve their conflicts. He conducts trainings in conflict resolution and mediation skills. He has designed and conducted trainings for a wide variety of agencies. Jerome has presented workshops and been on panels at various conferences. He would like to use this opportunity to write about, what he believes are some key issues and solutions to conflict resolution & mediation in the African American Community. The most compelling reason for his participation in this program is; he would like to write a book someday and this program will provide me the opportunity and skills I need to reach my goal.

Selina C. Low has been a mediator with Community Boards, a community mediation program in San Francisco, California . She has served on over 100 mediations including workplace, family, neighbor, business and victims/offender disputes. Additionally, Ms. Low is a group facilitator and conflict resolution trainer.

Ms. Low has written in public relations, marketing and fund raising capacities including preparing outreach materials for the Chinatown Youth Center, Solem & Associates and Community Boards and proposals and correspondence for the Bay Area Broadcast Skills Bank and Partners for Democratic Change.

Her present writing interests for the PSWP project are:

The disparity in numbers between mediator s of color as volunteers and professionally .
(New) What makes lawyers more qualified for panels than non-lawyers? Legitimate or discrimination?
What unique and vital assets do mediators of colors bring to mediations?

I am grateful to be a part of this project because I want to share my position as a relatively young woman of color mediator who has mediated for over ten years , which I understand is a rare perspective in mediation.

Rodolfo Moreno Mina Colombiano. Medico y Cirujano. Catedrático Universidad del Valle, Sede Norte del Cauca en Resolución de Conflictos. Coordinador en Derechos Humanos de la Fundación Cultural Afrocolombiana MASAI. Magíster En Epidemiología de la Universidad del Valle. Especialista en Gestión Publica de la Universidad ESAP. Resolución de Conflictos Universidad George Mason, O.E.A. (USA) Resolución de Conflictos y Negociación, Antigua, Guatemala, O.E.A, Instituto de Paz de los Estados Unidos. Diplomado en Resolución de Conflictos y Negociación Política, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, O.E.A. Curso interdisciplinario en Derechos Humanos y Participación política, IIDH, San José de Costa Rica. Cátedra Constitución Política Colombiana, Universidad del Valle, sede Norte del Cauca. Reunión de Expertos contra el Racismo, la Discriminación Racial, xenofobia y otras formas de intolerancia, Santiago de Chile, O.N.U Conferencia Ciudadana contra el Racismo, la Discriminación Racial, xenofobia, y otras formas de intolerancia, Fundación IDEAS, Santiago de Chile, O.N.U. Foro de las Américas por la Diversidad, Quito, O.N.U. Participación en la National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution Participación en la Conferencia Mundial Contra el Racismo, la Discriminación Racial, xenofobia y otras formas de intolerancia, Durban, Sudáfrica. Ex Miembro del Consejo Nacional de Paz de Colombia.

Deseo escribir sobre los siguientes temas:
1. Derechos Humanos y la Perspectiva Thnica En Colombia
2. Participación de la Poblacion Afrocolombiana en Los Sltos Cargos del Nivel Nacional
3. El Proceso de Paz en Colombia y la Poblacion Afrocolombiana

Victimas del Conflicto Armado
Inclusión en las Fuerzas Armadas defendiendo un Estado que no los visibiliza
No son reconocidos en los diálogos ni en el proceso de negociación

Najeeba Syeed-Miller is currently the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center (APADRC). APADRC has provided mediation and conciliation services for the diverse Los Angeles Asian community for 12 years. APADRC co-founded and implements the Foshay Peer Mediation Program. Ms. Syeed-Miller has attended over 400 hours of conflict resolution training. Her trainers include: H. Jamal Muhammad of Pennsylvania State University, Jay Siegel of Harvard University School of Government and Bill Warters of Wayne State University. Most recently, she returned from a one-month training held at The Hague, by the International Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution and the University of Erasmus.

Margaret Mitchell Armand, M.S. LMHC is a conflict resolution consultant, educator, psychotherapist and community activist with added certification in Family Mediation and Arbitration.  She  presents nationally and internationally at Conference pertaining to Conflict Resolution, Transformation and Healing.  Her clinical experience in the field of psychotherapy, her mediation skills and her community advocacy continue to promote access to a better life for those she serves. Margaret grew up in her native country of Haiti and resides in Florida. She believes that Peacemaking and Community building begin within. Her poetry and writings speak of struggles of the people of her native land as well their misrepresented culture of the Vodou tradition. She is fluent in French Haitian-Creole and Spanish.

Kelly Parker