Office of the Dean
Dean's Message
Welcome to the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies!
The Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies is dedicated to advancing the field of peace studies and a world-view of peace as human development. The school nurtures and disseminates interdisciplinary scholarship and advanced practice to educate and prepare peacebuilders. Our school is home to a dialogue and a discipline of scholars and practitioners immersed and educated in peace as philosophy, methodology and creative act.
Bringing peace and justice studies to life on the University of San Diego campus requires active engagement in peacemaking through education, research and dialogue with practitioners. Our vision for the school is to become a nexus of dialogue and engagement, drawing together practitioners, theorists and academics, as well as religious and laypeople, American and internationals, professionals and volunteers, frontline activists and recent college graduates. They will inform, challenge, support and inspire each other with the idea that peace can be imagined and built.
The school will draw on the capabilities of its active institutes and programs. The Trans-Border Institute (TBI) will continue to work with the people who live on both sides of the busiest border crossing in the world, to conduct research and inform effective policies for the border region.
The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice (IPJ) will continue its vital work to offer both expertise and dialogue to frontline peacemakers and a concerned community on the subjects of conflict resolution and human rights.
We will train our graduate students with the knowledge and skills they will need to address some of the world’s most complex challenges. Our newly revised Master of Arts in Peace and Justice Studies will prepare students to build peace in many of the world’s conflict-ridden regions.
Joan Kroc understood that this is a time of great danger and great possibility. A new type of institution is required to educate the peacebuilders of the 21st century. She wanted to build an institution that would be engaged fully - to “not only talk about peace, but make peace.” With Mrs. Kroc’s generous endowment, we are working towards this goal.
As founding dean, I am proud and honored to help move this extraordinary school forward. And I invite you to join us.
Peace be with you,
William R. Headley, C.S.Sp, Ph.D.
Dean
