Programs
2010 Peace Writers
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Sofia Javed has an undergraduate degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a graduate degree in international peace studies from the University of Notre Dame. But outside the classroom Javed has learned about the human condition. She has heard strength in the sighs of her mother, an immigrant widowed in a land of opportunities. She has felt survival in the callused hands of women and girls in post-Soviet rural Uzbekistan, where she served as a Peace Corps volunteer. And she has seen despair in the blank stares of young men on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay while working as an interpreter and translator. Javed is a perpetual student of languages and cross-cultural communication. She has reported for news agencies in Jerusalem and Chicago, facilitated peace workshops for youth in conflicts and worked with a refugee assistance organization in Uganda. In her current position as an editor and production manager for the U.S. Department of State’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report, Javed works alongside experts devoted to the fight against modern slavery.
Javed worked with peacemaker Nora Chengeto Tapiwa of Zimbabwe and wrote the narrative "Caring for the Diaspora."
Read about Javed and Tapiwa in an article in Inside USD.
Updated 3/11 - Javed was awarded an Alfa Fellowship through CDS International. The program is a high-level professional development exchange program that places young professionals at leading organizations in Russia. She will live and work in Moscow for a nearly year-long placement.
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Sara Koenders holds a B.S. in cultural anthropology and an M.A. in conflict studies and human rights, both from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. As a student, she has written extensively about social inequalities and the human and political dimensions of violence, conflict resolution and peacebuilding. Born and raised in the Netherlands, her commitment to justice, peace and human rights has been fostered by her personal experiences abroad. After high school Koenders traveled to Peru, where she volunteered in a children’s daycare. For her bachelor’s thesis she researched local politics and political participation in an indigenous town in post-conflict Guatemala. Her master’s research in Brazil focused on the coping strategies of women trying to raise their children in a Rio de Janeiro shantytown marked by violence, fear and insecurity. Back in her home country, Koenders worked to raise awareness about life in conflict situations. Her current job as a civic integration consultant has allowed her to work with a diversity of people from all over the world.
Koenders worked with peacemaker Vaiba Kebeh Flomo of Liberia and wrote the narrative "The Bullet Cannot Pick and Choose."
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Mary Liepold is editor in chief for the global community of Peace X Peace, an e-network for women around the world. Since 2005 she has interviewed hundreds of peacemakers in more than 100 countries for Peace X Peace’s PeaceTimes and Voices from the Frontlines. Before that she created the magazine Children’s Voice and wrote speeches, proposals and a range of advocacy materials for the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). In the 1980s, before her 15 years at CWLA, she was assistant director of the American Catholic Lay Network, a project of the Center of Concern, and a regional coordinator at Peace Links. She also wrote and edited publications for the National Science Teachers Association, FEMA and the American Geophysical Union. Earlier still, she earned a doctorate in American literature from the Catholic University of America while operating a family daycare business. Both undertakings offered rich opportunities for passionate peacebuilding. Liepold is also a mother, grandmother, Secular Franciscan, board member of Pax Christi Metro D.C.-Baltimore and student of Nonviolent Communication.
Liepold worked with peacemaker Merlie "Milet" B. Mendoza of the Philippines and wrote the narrative "The Power of Powerlessness."
Read her article, "Outward Bound, and Opening," written with former peace writer Alicia Simoni.
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A freelance writer and editor, Sigrid Tornquist believes that putting words to an experience can be a catalyst for change. Most of her varied work experiences have been focused on respecting and elevating the opportunities and rights of people whose value is often not recognized by society at large. She has worked with children with disabilities, senior citizens in a resident setting and in the community, and for an elementary school with a high at-risk student population. Tornquist has a B.A. in writing from Metro State University and is currently pursuing her M.F.A. in writing from Hamline University, both in St. Paul, Minn. She spent several weeks in Cameroon writing about the Birth Attendant Training Program class offered annually by the Life Abundant Program, which seeks to empower people in the community to combat the high mortality rates of women and children.
Tornquist worked with peacemaker Sarah Akoru Lochodo of Kenya and wrote the narrative "Empowered to Hope."Updated 12/10 - Tornquist's column "Perspective," in the magazine Speciality Fabrics Review was awarded Gold in the category Best Regular Column. The award is given by the Minnesota Magazine & Publishers Association.
*Photos by Michele Zousmer
