Executive Committee
The Executive Directors provide strategic vision to the Consortium.
Peter T. Coleman
Co-Executive Director
pc84@columbia.edu
Dr. Coleman is Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University where he holds a joint-appointment at Teachers College and The Earth Institute and teaches courses in Conflict Resolution, Social Psychology, and Social Science Research. Dr. Coleman is also the Director of the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (MD-ICCCR) at Teachers College. He currently conducts research on optimality of motivational dynamics in conflict, power asymmetries and conflict, intractable conflict, multicultural conflict, justice and conflict, environmental conflict, mediation dynamics, and sustainable peace. He has authored over 100 articles and chapters, is a member of the United Nations Mediation Support Unit’s Academic Advisory Council, is a founding board member of the Leymah Gbowee Peace Foundation USA, and is a New York State certified mediator and experienced consultant.
Beth Fisher-Yoshida
Co-Executive Director
bf2017@columbia.edu
Dr. Fisher-Yoshida is a faculty member and the academic director of the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program at Columbia’s School of Professional Studies. Dr. Fisher-Yoshida teaches classes in conflict resolution and related fields and conducts participatory action research, and research in the areas of conflict and conflict resolution with a focus on intercultural communication, transformative learning and Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM). She has more than 20 years of experience in working with people in organizations and is the founder of FYI Fisher Yoshida International, LLC, a firm that partners with clients to develop customized interventions aimed at improving organizational performance. Her areas of specialization include working with client organizations in supporting their change efforts through addressing: conflict resolution, diversity, communication, team building, performance management systems and leadership development.
Leymah Gbowee
Executive Director of Women, Peace and Security Program
Section
Leymah Gbowee, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, is a peace activist, trained social worker, and women’s rights advocate. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Women, Peace, and Security Program at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Ms. Gbowee’s leadership of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace – which brought together Christian and Muslim women in a nonviolent movement that played a pivotal role in ending Liberia’s civil war in 2003 – is chronicled in her memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers, and in the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell . Ms. Gbowee holds an M.A. in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University (Harrisonburg, VA), and has received a number of honorary degrees from universities around the world. She is the founder and current President of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, the founding head of the Liberia Reconciliation Initiative, and the co-founder and former Executive Director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-A). She is also a founding member and former Liberian Coordinator of Women in Peacebuilding Network/West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WIPNET/WANEP). Ms. Gbowee advises numerous organizations working for peace, women’s rights, youth, and sustainable development, and has held distinguished fellowships at Barnard College and Union Theological Seminary.In 2016, Ms. Gbowee was awarded the Lifetime Africa Achievement Prize (LAAP) for Peace in Africa by the Millennium Excellence Foundation and in 2017, Ms. Gbowee was selected by the United Nations Secretary General to serve as a Member of United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Advisory Board on Mediation. In 2018, Ms. Gbowee was appointed to the Gender Equality Advisory Council for Canada’s G7 Presidency.