Dee Aker, Ph.D. is the Deputy Director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice (IPJ) at the University of San Diego, is a psychological anthropologist and conflict resolution professional with 30 years experience working with international communities and individuals in transition. Most recently at the IPJ, Aker created and directs the Women PeaceMakers Program, Nepal Project, and WorldLink program. Aker has extensive experience in international higher education, including administration, curriculum development and teaching. She worked as a regular TV host, columnist and freelance journalist covering women and gender concerns for ten years, including the production of 234 thirty-minute interviews with women leaders, pioneers and survivors from around the world. She facilitated training, communications and negotiations for groups and individuals in conflict and transition in Europe, Africa, Central America and South Asia. Before coming to the IPJ to work in conflict mitigation, Aker worked with Carl Rogers at the Center for Studies of the Person and the Carl Rogers Institute for Peace on special conflict transformation efforts in Europe and Central America. Currently her work includes specialized public sector programs for youth, women and political leaders designed to increase their awareness of their rights as stakeholders and responsibilities as actors in their communities, as well as enhance skills in strategic negotiation. Aker is the 2007 Harvard Phillip Brooks House (PBH) Fellow, selected to "share a distinguished public service career" with students and staff at the PBH and Center for Public Interest at Harvard. Her career was launched in 1963 when she was selected as an early Peace Corps volunteer serving in Colombia.
The Soka Gakkai International (SGI-USA) Culture of Peace Resource Centers in New York, Santa Monica, Chicago Washington D.C., and Honolulu have launched the Culture of Peace Distinguished Speaker Series to engage people in a dialogue on the values, attitudes and behaviors that reject violence and inspire creative energy toward the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Lecturers in this series focus on one or more of the 8 action areas defined by the 1999 United Nations Declaration and Program of Action on a Culture of Peace: (1) Fostering a culture of peace through education, (2) Promoting sustainable economic and social development, (3) Promoting respect for all human rights, (4) Ensuring equality between women and men, (5) Fostering democratic participation, (6) Advancing understanding, tolerance and solidarity, (7) Supporting participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledge and (8) Promoting international peace and security.
We hope that this eclectic and thought-provoking series of dialogues will empower community participants with a heightened awareness of the subtle shifts in our attitudes and behaviors that can help attain and sustain a culture of peace and to apply what they have learned in meaningful ways to their families, schools, workplaces and local communities. This annual lecture series begins on January 26 of each year to commemorate the founding of the Soka Gakkai International and the yearly publication of a peace proposal by SGI President Daisaku Ikeda. All lectures are free and open to the public.
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Inclusive Security: The Importance of Women's Leadership in Conflict Resolutionby InclusiveSecurity411 views
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