USD Women PeaceMakers Program Hosts Four Women Focused on Shaping Peaceful Societies in U.S. and Abroad

The University of San Diego’s Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice is hosting four internationally recognized women peacebuilders at USD from October 5 through November 16. This year’s Women PeaceMakers cohort features a leader from the South Sudan women’s movement, an environmental peacebuilder from Israel, a Pakistani expert on countering violent extremism and a Native American politician and educator. These women are ending cycles of violence and building more inclusive communities, both locally and globally.

This year’s program features several exciting new changes, including the participation of the first ever Woman PeaceMaker from the United States.

• Ruth Buffalo (United States) is a political healer, community organizer, public health professional and educator, and the first Native American Democratic woman elected to the North Dakota Legislature.
• Rina Kedem (Israel) is an environmental peacebuilder and entrepreneur who develops and directs cooperation projects with Palestinians, Israelis and Jordanians.
• Mossarat Qadeem (Pakistan) is an internationally known expert on women’s peace and security, preventing/countering violent extremism (P/CVE), and de-radicalization. She has spoken in the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.
• Lilian Riziq (South Sudan) is one of the prominent leaders in South Sudan’s women’s movement, a member of the leadership team of South Sudan National Dialogue Steering Committee, and served as State Minister of Finance and State Minister of Agriculture in the former Western Bahr El Gazal State in South Sudan.

For full bios of this year’s Women PeaceMakers, please visit https://www.sandiego.edu/news/peace/detail.php?_focus=72675.

Over their six-week residency at USD, they will learn from each other, develop partnerships to sustainably fund peace initiatives and share about their work with our local community.

As a new aspect of the program, four international peacebuilding partners will be coming to San Diego for a retreat from November 4-8. These impressive partners include representatives from UN Women and Search for Common Ground, among others. Together with the Women PeaceMakers they will work to co-develop powerful new ways to build effective and equitable peacebuilding partnerships.

Throughout October and November, the Women PeaceMakers will take part in several speaking engagements, both on and off-campus, and will have the opportunity to share their stories with the wider San Diego community. The annual Women PeaceMakers panel will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 5, from 6-8 p.m. in the Joan B. Kroc Peace and Justice Theater at USD.

For more information on the USD Women PeaceMakers Program, please visit http://www.sandiego.edu/peace/wpm.

About the University of San Diego

The University of San Diego sets the standard for an engaged, contemporary Catholic university where innovative Changemakers confront humanity’s urgent challenges. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. USD recently concluded our successful $317M Leading Change: The Campaign for USD, which represented the most ambitious fundraising effort in the history of the university. In September 2016, USD introduced Envisioning 2024, a strategic plan that capitalizes on the university’s recent progress and aligns new strategic goals with current strengths to help shape a vision for the future as the university looks ahead to its 75th anniversary in the year 2024.