Bryan E. Penprase

I am honored to serve Soka University in the capacity as Vice President for Sponsored Research and External Academic Relations. In this role, I will help foster new externally funded projects that will help SUA’s faculty expand their research and scholarship and also enable SUA as an institution to more fully realise many of its strategic priorities.  I will also be working to expand connections between SUA and regional and peer institutions, to enable SUA to have more academic collaborations and partnerships as it expands and becomes more recognised as a world leader in global liberal arts and as it defines and builds on its mission for fostering global citizenship.

From July 2017 to August 2020 I served as Soka University’s Dean of Faculty, where I was responsible for managing the undergraduate program with its innovative Soka University curriculum and dynamic faculty, and its energetic and diverse community of students. As Dean of Faculty I had the wonderful opportunity to work with SUA faculty to help develop a new interdisciplinary Life Sciences program, develop new programs for incentivising faculty research, to help improve teaching at SUA, help SUA connect with peer liberal arts institutions, and improve Soka’s unique Core and GE curriculum. I was especially grateful for the opportunity to develop the 2018 Globalised Liberal Arts conference, co-organized by SUA, Pomona College, Carleton College, Middlebury College, and  Yale University, work with the Science Advisory Board and SUA faculty to develop the new Life Sciences curriculum, and to work with faculty and administration to develop the new Fellowship advising program, the new CPT program, the accelerated MA degree program with CGU, the new Merit program, the Teaching Innovation Grant program, more inclusive practices in search committees, and to help guide our transition to online instruction with new training programs for faculty. I feel especially grateful to have been able to help recruit 9 excellent new tenure-track faculty to SUA in fields ranging from Studio Art, Writing, Biochemistry, Sociology, French, Mathematics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Biology and am delighted to be able help bring these amazing professors to our academic community.

I was previously was Professor of Science at Yale-NUS College, where I was one of the founding faculty and the inaugural director of the Yale-NUS Centre for Teaching and Learning. In 2012-13 I served as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow at Yale University, where I was one of the authors of the blueprint for the Yale-NUS College Curriculum, and advised Yale’s President Salovey and the Yale Provost on topics ranging from online learning, Math education at Yale, and Teaching and Learning Centers. Prior to my experiences at Yale-NUS and Yale, I was a professor for 20 years at Pomona College, most recently as the Frank P. Brackett Professor of Astronomy. At Pomona College I was Chair of Physics and Astronomy, and was founding co-Director of the Liberal Arts Consortium for Online Learning. I received both a BS in Physics and an MS in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 1985, and a PhD from the University of Chicago in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 1992.

I am very interested in promoting and developing new and more effective forms of undergraduate education, such as Soka’s unique academic program. In addition to developing new courses and curriculum at Yale-NUS College and Pomona College, I have helped to develop a number of international conferences on higher education.  In 2017 I organized a STEM innovation conference at Yale-NUS College in Singapore that featured Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, and two days of talks from internationally recognized science and math educators. With a group from Yale University and Yale-NUS College, we developed the Globalizing the Liberal Arts symposium and workshop at Yale University during June 6-9, 2016. I also have been on the organizing committee for a series of conferences on the Future of Liberal Arts and Sciences in India, as well as additional meetings on STEM education and Liberal Arts at Pomona College, with a 2014 meeting on the topic of Online Learning in Liberal Arts institutions in my role as the inaugural co-director of LACOL, the Liberal Arts Consortium for Online Learning.

I am eager to help students and faculty reach their full potential – especially in regards to teaching. At Yale-NUS College I was founding director of their Centre for Teaching and Learning, and managed a wide range of programming for faculty development, as well as organizing discussions and drafting policies on the evaluation of teaching, fostering innovation in teaching and peer observations of teaching. At NUS I was a member of the NUS Teaching Academy, where we engaged in discussions about advancing teaching and scholarship with NUS administration, and visiting scholars from across the world. At Yale during the ACE fellowship, I was a member of the committee that developed the First-Year Scholars at Yale program – a highly successful summer program for students that helps them develop writing and quantitative skills and integrate into the Yale campus. At Soka, I am working to foster additional discussions and conferences on teaching and learning, and to develop new ways to advance student learning. We have created new programs for enhancing faculty research and teaching, including faculty Merit Awards to recognize excellent faculty research, and Teaching Innovation Grants to allow our SUA faculty to develop exciting new types of teaching.

My work on STEM education and innovative and interdisciplinary curriculum design has resulted in a volume just released by Springer, Inc. The book is entitled STEM Education for the 21st Century, and includes an overview of diversity and inclusion in STEM education, theories of teaching and learning, a review of new types of active learning in science courses, new types of engineering education, a review of global interdisciplinary science curriculum, an overview of online education and some thoughts about the future of STEM education.

I enjoy meeting with students and faculty, and am always available to discuss ways we can move forward at Soka University for further strengthen our undergraduate program and connect with universities, colleges and foundations.

Daniel Talmor

Daniel Talmor, also known as Danny, was born in Saskatoon, Canada and at age 12 moved to Israel. Danny grew up in Jerusalem. His parent’s house was filled with visitors from all over the world and all walks of life.

After high school, Danny served in the Israeli army for three years before going to Ben Gurion University, Medical School, in Be’er Sheva. The teaching hospital in Be’er Sheva was the only hospital for the entire Negev region. As a student and later as a resident and attending physician, Danny was privileged to take care of the entire, incredibly, diverse population of the Negev Desert. He started his career as a cardiac surgeon but later transferred into anesthesiology to follow his interest in taking on the most critically ill patients.

In 1999, Danny moved to Boston and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), to pursue further training in anesthesia for cardiac surgery and critical care medicine, followed by a masters degree in Public Health, at the Harvard School of Public Health. At the end of his training, he remained at BIDMC as an attending physician.

Danny’s career progressed as he held multiple roles at BIDMC. He served as the director of Trauma Anesthesia, Chief of Critical Care Medicine, Vice Chair of the Department of Anesthesia and finally in 2014, was appointed as the Chair of the Department of Anesthesia Critical Care and Pain Medicine at BIDMC and The Edward Lowenstein Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School. To this day, Danny oversees a department of 700 members delivering service at eight hospitals.

Throughout his career, Danny has been a prolific researcher and educator, publishing over 250 papers in the field of critical care medicine. His research has focused on individualized care for the mechanically ventilated patient and improving the outcomes of patients undergoing surgery and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He has lectured extensively around the world and takes great satisfaction in helping improve critical care in low and middle income countries. Danny continues to mentor extensively and to welcome physicians from all over the world into his department.

Danny lectures and consults extensively in numerous countries across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Working with doctors around the world to improve patient care is one of the great privileges of his job.

Danny got to know Sherman as a neighbor and later as a friend, spending hours bonding in the dog park. During the COVID pandemic, Danny worked 18 hour days, helping direct the COVID response at BIDMC. When Sherman was diagnosed with COVID, Danny took the time to check in on Sherman daily and be his personal doctor.

Danny and Sherman remain great friends to this day. In 2024, Danny took up Sherman’s offer to join The Trebuchet community as a mentor.

Joshua Reed-Diawuoh launches company GRIA to support African farmers

GRIA cashews help farmers in Africa earn a living

From the Boston Globe:

The cashews from GRIA, a new Boston-based company, are distinctively buttery and plump. The nuts (cashews are technically seeds) are packaged in re-sealable pouches and offered either roasted plain or salted, or lightly seasoned with herbs and spices that don’t overshadow their pure taste. You can choose from flavors like Rosemary Salted, Hot Honey, and Cinnamon Sugar. The most robust flavor is the Spicy Garlic with cayenne. Joshua Reed-Diawuoh founded GRIA, which stands for Grown In Africa, in 2019 after graduating from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, although it was initially a business school project. “It’s personal,” he says about his purpose for starting the company. “I want to support farmers and agricultural developers in West Africa and make sure they’re compensated for their labor.” While born and raised in Boston, Reed-Diawuoh’s roots are in Ghana, where he still has relatives long involved in agriculture. In his many visits to the country and working with producers, he saw their struggles firsthand. To help farmers, he sources only fair trade cashews from the countries Benin, Togo, and Burkina Faso, purchasing only those that are de-shelled, peeled, and roasted there (cashews are customarily exported for processing, usually in Asia) ensuring that more job opportunities and revenue stay local. “This allows producers to earn a living,” he says. Reed-Diawuoh works from CommonWealth Kitchen in Dorchester, where he seasons and packages his cashews after they arrive ($9.99 for 5 ounces). He’s toying with new flavors and perhaps more snack foods down the road. griafoodco.com.

This Month at The Abraham Initiatives

Reasons for Concern and Hope in Shared Workplaces

At the end of last year, The Abraham Initiatives launched a new project to promote cohesion and positive relations in mixed workplaces. These shared workplaces are both an area of concern and opportunity. Since October 7th, we have heard disturbing reports of tensions and discrimination. At the same time, these are islands of cooperation, where Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel interact most often. 

Our Shared Workplaces Initiative is recruiting and training management consultants in offering advice geared toward ensuring fairness and equity in mixed workplaces (one such training is pictured above). A first cohort of consultants recently graduated from our training and have started advising organizations—including in the private sector, education, and municipal government. Our initiative is unique in that we emphasize the importance of intervening in blue collar workplaces, which are among the most diverse in Israeli society and have not received adequate attention. 

A survey we recently completed with the Afkar Institute demonstrates the need for intervention and the effectiveness of our model. The findings are clear: shared workplaces that invest in cooperation between Jewish and Arab employees have much better outcomes across a wide array of categories.

READ MORE

Abraham Initiatives Co-CEO Meets with Mechina Students

 Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, our Co-CEO, spoke with students from Mechina Bina (pre-military academy) about crime and violence in Arab society. Amnon provided background information including some of the deep social challenges behind the problem. Bina is one of the mechinot that participate in our Living in One Land anti-racism education initiative, and the students' interest and curiosity about their Arab neighbors have grown from meeting to meeting. We have observed these changes within their questions as well as in their attitudes and opinions. As Amnon explained, "I am meeting these young men and women of Bina for the second time this year and leave full of hope from their open minds, their curiosity and their growing values."

Training Courses for Educators in the Negev

 

This month we held the final teacher training session of the academic year in educating against violence in schools.As part of our intervention within Bedouin communities of the Negev to stop the cycle of violence and open the possibility of a better future, we continue to provide our personal security and safety courses to young adults, as well as training for educators. The final meeting was impactful, with teachers sharing how beneficial these trainings have been for them in the classroom.

Raising Awareness Abroad

Over the last month, staff experts from The Abraham Initiatives have toured the US and UK to speak about efforts to bolster shared society in Israel, and ensure equity of services and full rights for Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel. In London, Labour Friends of Israel hosted incoming Co-CEO, Shahira Shalaby, and Co-Director of Public Affairs, Moran Maimoni, to provide a briefing for Members of Parliament. In the US, Shahira joined Co- Director of Programs Ruth Lewin-Chen in meetings with supporters, including at the J Street conference in Washington (pictured). Ruth and Shahira also met with community organizations in New York and Chicago that work on issues of violence prevention, police reform, and social cohesion to exchange best practices, models, and experiences.

 

Policy Updates from Israel

 

Our team in Israel regularly produces succinct and evidence-based policy papers and recommendations for government ministries, academic institutions, and a variety public and private entities facing challenges related to shared life. Below are links to recent policy publications translated into English.

Ramadan: Challenges and Policy Recommendations

Cuts to the Budget for Curbing Violence and Crime in Arab Society

Cuts in the Budget for Arab Society

Policy Paper on Supervision of Schools Bill

Peace Education and Shared Society During the War

Call for Applications: Nuclear Futures Fellowship

Call for Applications: Nuclear Futures Fellowship


As we announced in our April News earlier this week, Ploughshares and Horizon 2045 announced our exciting new partnership this week, one that will see us co-creating programs and experiences designed to instill long-term thinking, systems thinking, and cross-issue awareness and collaboration as foundational field-wide capacities. Now we are thrilled to announce the first fruits of this collaborative work - a new opportunity for both emerging and established leaders in the nuclear field: the Nuclear Futures Fellowship. 

The selected Fellows will have the opportunity to engage in a structured learning experience to develop the adaptive leadership practices, tools and relationships necessary to help the nuclear field succeed in a dramatically changing landscape. In particular, the program will focus on developing systems thinking, strategic foresight, and change leadership skills. 

At this time we are inviting applicants for the program and we encourage you to share this opportunity widely with your network. Please read the detailedFellowship guidelines here for further information on the program, application process, and selection criteria.

Cheers,
The Horizon 2045 and Ploughshares teams

Horizon2045.org

Supporting Horizon 2045

Like all nonprofits, we are actively fundraising—and we see all sorts of opportunities ahead for engaging new partners, spawning new collaborations, and bringing our fellowship model to critical questions that other organizations are asking. If you are interested in learning more about how to work with Horizon 2045 and how to support our mission, contact our executive director, Morgan Matthews at morgan@horizon2045.org.
We’d love to hear from you!

Melisa Önel featured at the Boston Turkish Festival

Saturday, April 6, 2024 | 2:00pm

SUDDENLY
Aniden

Dir. Melisa Önel

East Coast Premiere

DIRECTOR PRESENT
Q&A following film screening

Featuring Defne Kayalar, Öner Erkan, Şerif Erol, Ayşenil Şamlıoğlu, Dilan Çiçek Deniz, Aysel Yıldırım

115 min. / 2022

Remis Auditorium
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston


After decades of living in Hamburg, Reyhan returns to Istanbul with her husband for a short time. On the eve of setting back, Reyhan realizes that she has lost her sense of smell. When a doctor’s appointment leaves her anxious about the possibility of a serious illness, instead of undergoing more tests she decides to follow her own instincts to regain her sense of smell. One morning she vanishes, she secretly moves into her late grandmother’s flat, gets a random job at a hotel, meets a blind man. As she ventures away from the life prescribed to her chasing after scents, she goes back to the origins of her biggest wounds; to a fisherman’s coast where her childhood has passed and to a woman called Leman with whom guilt and desire are meshed together. Just as assuming a new life seems easy and plausible, she realizes that she has become a missing person. She considers; is this her chance for freedom?

From the Director

"Feride Çiçekoğlu and I came together for the third time in writing a script. We felt strongly about our character becoming a missing person both a form of transgression and a way to question agency and womanhood. As we worked on the script we tackled issues of what is considered to be ‘permissible’ in terms of female desire… What it means to be a woman, to be selfish, to desire and walk in the streets… A voyeur and flaneuse, does it give a chance to redefine our character; Reyhan… does it give a chance for freedom?"

John-Paul Ghobrial

John-Paul Ghobrial, from Oxford’s directory:

I studied at Tufts, Oxford and Princeton, and taught at Cambridge, before taking up my post at Oxford in 2012.  I am an historian of the Middle East, but my research sometimes drags me into other parts of the early modern world.  My first book, The Whispers of Cities (Oxford, 2013), explored the circulation of oral, scribal and printed information across Istanbul, London and Paris in the late seventeenth century.  My other major interest is the history of Eastern Christianity, by which I mean primarily the history of the Christian communities living in the Ottoman Empire.  Since 2015, I have been the Principal Investigator of an ERC-funded project called ‘Stories of Survival: Recovering the Connected Histories of Eastern Christianity’ (more information can be found here: http://storiesofsurvival.history.ox.ac.uk).  My published work on this subject includes several articles on Eastern Christian migration, the history of orientalism, and the social history of Middle Eastern Christianity.  This project has also given me an opportunity to develop some of my other interests, namely in the history of mobility, the history of information and archives, and the relationship between microhistory and global history. I am the editor of a Supplement issue of Past and Present on Global History and Microhistory, which will be published in November 2019.  I teach widely across the history of the early modern world, and I welcome enquiries from prospective graduate students interested in working in fields and sources relevant to my interests, especially Middle Eastern history. 

My current research involves a number of publications related to my interests in Eastern Christianity.  First, I am completing a book called Leaving Babylon, which is a study of Elias of Babylon who I first wrote about in articles in 2012 and 2014.  My work on the Stories of Survival project has given me the chance to work with an exciting community of scholars based here at Oxford and around the world.  This will result in the publication of two books that reflect my interests in microhistory, Middle Eastern history, and global history.  The first arises from a workshop on Christians and Jews in Ottoman Society, to take place in Oxford in July 2017, which will be published as a collection of essays in 2018.  The second is a set of reflections on microhistory and global history, The Space Between, which will appear in 2019.  Finally, I have recently published articles on a range of topics related to the social history of archives, microhistory, and religious materiality.  In general, I enjoy collaborating with other scholars and especially the opportunity to learn from others working in history, oriental studies, and archaeology.  

RWCHR’s groundbreaking report exposes ongoing genocide in Darfur

RWCHR’s groundbreaking report exposes ongoing genocide in Darfur

This week, as Sudan marks one year since its brutal war began, we released the world’s first independent inquiry into breaches of the Genocide Convention in the Darfur region of Sudan.  

Not only does our report conclude that genocide is occurring in Sudan, but it exposes a network of state and non-state actors directly complicit in the genocide by funding and arming the perpetrators.

Read the full report here.

Read the Press Release here.

Stand with Darfur by sharing these findings on social media.

Support our ongoing advocacy efforts here.

Special Message from Irwin Cotler Regarding Ongoing Breaches of the Genocide Convention in the Darfur Region of Sudan

When I was a parliamentarian and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, I used every means - both inside and outside of parliament - to mobilize political will to arrest the first genocide of the 21st century, launched in Darfur in 2003.

I could never have anticipated that the calls to action that I shared twenty years ago in parliament, at Save Darfur Rallies, and in international fora would apply equally today, and would resonate so painfully and tragically.

Our Centre’s comprehensive report demonstrates in chilling detail that the same perpetrators of genocide twenty years ago - now under the flag of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) - are committing genocide against the Masalit people and non-Arab tribes in Darfur.

Our report is a wake-up call for the international community and puts the genocidaires and their sponsors on notice that they will be held accountable. It provides the substantive legal framework for justice and accountability for international institutions, NGOs, governments, parliaments, and courts to act upon.

Twenty years ago, the international community at least acknowledged the genocidal atrocities, though it utterly failed to take the necessary action to prevent them. Today, one can only feel shocked – if not betrayed – by the ongoing level of indifference and impunity in the face of another genocide that is being effectively silenced and sanitized.

The responsibility to prevent, punish, and put an end to genocide is not a policy option, but an international legal obligation of the highest order.

The prevailing culture of indifference, impunity, and complicity enabled the current escalation of mass atrocities to reach the point of genocide. But today, we can no longer look away and say we do not know.

We now know, and we must act.

Irwin Cotler

International Chair, RWCHR

Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

About the Inquiry

The report relies on open source testimonies from survivors of massacres and other acts of violence, expert reports, and other publicly available evidence to demonstrate a clear pattern of ethnically-motivated violence targeting the Masalit and other non-Arab tribes of Darfur. It describes massacres, acts of sexual violence against the non-Arabs, mass public executions, assassinations of community leaders, burning of villages, destruction of key infrastructure, and other atrocities.

This inquiry was spearheaded by the RWCHR’s Senior Legal Counsel, Yonah Diamond and Legal Advisor, Mutasim Ali. Already endorsed by dozens of world-leading experts on international law and genocide prevention, including former Chief Prosecutors of international criminal tribunals, it also includes a foreword by Irwin Cotler and a preface by Mukesh Kapila, who bore witness to the first genocide in Darfur as the UN Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan in 2003-4.

Next Steps

We have already briefed high-level US officials responsible for atrocity prevention on our findings, and plan to similarly engage with officials in Ottawa and other major capitals in the coming weeks.

Today, Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly announced that Canada has imposed sanctions against six Sudanese persons for their roles in undermining peace, security, and stability in Sudan and for their links to the main parties to the ongoing conflict. Three of these persons have direct ties to the RSF. Our team recommended four of the six for sanctions as part of our Targeted Sanctions Program.

This is an excellent step, yet far more must be done by Canada and the international community to respond to the gravity of abuses by the warring parties in Sudan.

Our advocacy continues.

Help us raise the alarm about genocide in Darfur on social media now.

Read the Press Release here.

Read the full report, Breaches of the Genocide Convention in Sudan: An Independent Analysis (April 2023 - April 2024) here.

Support our ongoing efforts to end impunity in Sudan and make Never Again more than words.

Ruhal Hardal

Dr. Rula Hardal is the Palestinian Co-Executive Director of “A Land for All – Two States, One Homeland. And a research fellow at the Kogod Center for the Study of Jewish and Contemporary Thought at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

She received her doctorate in political science from the University of Hanover in Germany, after winning a scholarship from the academic organization of the German Catholic Church. She worked as a lecturer at the same university in the Department of Political Science and International Relations and in the program for Advanced Studies in Gender for several years.

In 2015, she returned to Israel and joined Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, East Jerusalem, as an associate professor of political science until the summer of 2021. For some of her years there, she headed the Social Work Department. She was also during the last years a visiting professor of political science at The Arab American University in Ramallah, The University of Osaka in Japan and University of Lisbon in Portugal.

She is a member of two research groups on nationalism and citizenship in Israel and peace based-partnership at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem. She deals in the field of political theory of identity, national minorities, colonialism and post-colonialism, social movements and feminist activism in the Middle East.

Junaid Kamal Ahmad

From the World Bank:

Junaid Ahmad is the Country Director for the World Bank in India. He joined the World Bank’s Delhi office on 1 September 2016.

Junaid, a Bangladeshi national, was formerly the Chief of Staff to World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. He joined the World Bank in 1991 as a Young Professional and worked on infrastructure development in Africa and Eastern Europe. He has since held several management positions, leading the Bank’s program in diverse regions including Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in India and South Asia. 

Prior to joining the President’s office in January 2016, Junaid was the Senior Director for the Water Global Practice, a position he held since the creation of the Global Practices in July 2014. In this role, Junaid has built a strong and collaborative Global Practice and has brought a strong track record of management and leadership in the area of service delivery and international partnerships, combining intellectual and analytical rigor with strategic operational focus. Junaid has championed the Practice’s focus on water and the economy, and emphasized institutions and resilience in water management.

Junaid spent 10 years in the field, first as the Deputy Resident Representative and Principal Economist in Johannesburg, and then as Regional Team Leader of the Water and Sanitation Program in New Delhi. In 2004, he was a team member of the World Development Report (WDR): Making Services Work for Poor People. From 2004-2008, he was the Sector Manager for Social Development in South Asia Region and subsequently for Urban Water & Sanitation before taking on the latter responsibility for the Africa Region in 2010. He was also the Director for Sustainable Development in the Middle East and North Africa Region, a position he held from 2012-2014.

He holds a PhD in Applied Economics from Stanford University, an MPA from Harvard University, and a BA in Economics from Brown University.

Matthew Benson

Dr Matthew Sterling Benson is a social and economic historian of Africa in the Conflict & Civicness Research Group (CCRG) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) researching changing global conflict and peace dynamics. Matthew is also the Sudans Research Director within the LSE CCRG.

Matthew’s forthcoming publications examine how revenue raising practices in Sudan and South Sudan from the start of British-led colonial occupation, into rebel-rule, through to the present contributed to states that work better for a minority in power rather than most people in either country. Dr Benson’s on-going research examines the moral economies of natural resources in South Sudan and how these could inform efforts to limit extractive politics in the country and separately examining changing narratives of civicness or 'medania' in Sudan's democratic and hoped for war to peace transition.

Dr Benson is currently combining his doctoral thesis entitled: ‘Taxation, Local Government and Social Control in Sudan and South Sudan, 1898-1956’, which is based on archival research conducted in Sudan, South Sudan, and UK colonial archives with 500 interviews undertaken throughout both Sudans into a book manuscript. The text will help rethink integral notions of state-society ties including the changing nature of war, state and armed group finance, and state formation in the 21st century.


Matthew’s research informs a range of academic, policy, and practice-oriented debates and is shaped by his professional background that has mixed research with operational roles. Over the past 15+ years, Matthew has held posts in South Sudan with Crown Agents and Sudan with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and researched how to provide public services more equitably in conflict-affected societies with the World Bank, the Rift Valley Institute (RVI), the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and Oxfam America.

Dr Benson has also taught MSc and BA courses on African Political Economy, African History, and the nature of states in different countries at LSE, Durham University, and the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex.

Matthew’s PhD in History (Economics & Social Research Council/ESRC-funded) and MA in Economic and Social History are both from Durham University. Dr Benson also earned an MA in Governance and Development from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.

Additionally, Matthew is the Editorial Director for Boy Brother Friend, a print publication and digital platform examining the Black Atlantic and other diasporas through contemporary art, fashion, and theory.

Brian Adams

Brian T. Abrams is the founder of B Ventures Group, an innovative new investment fund applying venture capital toward global peacebuilding and conflict resolution. Before that, he managed over $1 billion in assets, saw nearly 10,000 startups, sat on over 15 boards of directors, and generated top-tier returns. All of that taught him that a human-centric approach to investment is not only the right way but also the best way. Venture capital should be a financial means to a human end, not the other way around. 

Josh Reed-Diawuoh

Josh’s bio was first published in the winter 2022 issue of Edible Boston.

For Josh Reed-Diawuoh, GRIA Food Co. is a true labor of love, one that combines his appreciation for food, his business savvy, and his personal ties to West Africa. Just a few years since its inception, his thriving direct-to-consumer snack brand features six different flavors of roasted cashews, all using sustainable African crops. 

While traveling to Ghana annually for the past several years, Reed-Diawuoh established ties with business owners, farmers, friends, and family, which sparked his desire to create a symbiotic relationship with local farmers. At home in Boston, where he grew up, he had noticed the lack of African food products on the shelves and grew curious about how he could change that. He wanted to develop a delicious snack-worthy product while creating opportunities for local farmers that would ensure maximum profits would return to local communities. 

With rising support for small businesses, ethical farming, and fair trade products, Reed-Diawuoh knew there was a market for the type of brand he was envisioning. It was important to him to find farming operations with fair labor practices, where farmers were paid a premium and had autonomy over the distribution of their percentage of profit back into their farming and operations.

After careful research about possible products, cashews became the clear winner because of their shelf stability and consistent quality, and the opportunity to support food manufacturing in West Africa. He tested cashews from several suppliers and finally decided to partner with producers in Benin, Togo, and Burkina Faso.

Then, he took his time developing a variety of flavors in his own kitchen (including cinnamon sugar, salted rosemary, and spicy garlic), testing for quality and consistency. He enlisted the help of friends and family as he fine-tuned each flavor, perfecting his starting lineup, which he started selling in 2020. As the business grew, he began to outgrow his home test kitchen, so he applied for the CommonWealth Kitchen’s Ready to Launch 14-week incubation program in Dorchester, Mass., in spring 2022. There, he learned about licensing, permits, marketing, and food safety, and he had access to the test kitchen for production. He is now a member of the CommonWealth Kitchen community, operating out of its kitchen and benefiting from working alongside a diverse group of fellow business owners and entrepreneurs. 

Reed-Diawuoh attended Concord Academy as a day student, and he credits the school with sparking his interest in social justice. “CA was an opportunity to broaden my view of the world,” he says, “to delve into history, to explore creative writing, to take painting and drawing classes, to try and fail at a lot of things I would’ve never considered doing, to meet people from different places and build deep friendships. It was a time where I started really reflecting on and finding my identity as a Ghanaian American.” 

After CA he attended Tufts University and became fascinated by politics and government. That led him to graduate school at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he learned about finance, accounting, operations, and sales, gaining the tools and resources he needed to found GRIA in 2019, while still a student. At MIT, he researched sustainably sourced and shelf-stable produce, ethical labor practices, and branding and marketing. By the time he graduated in 2020, he was ready to launch his business. After three years of running it part time, in September 2023 he was ready to quit his day job and go all in on GRIA. 

Reed-Diawuoh still runs all elements of GRIA himself, including recipe testing, development, distribution, branding, and sales. Over the summer, he began selling at a farmers market at Harvard University. “It was great to meet customers and start to see demand for the product pick up,” he says. “Getting immediate feedback from hundreds of people on a weekly basis really helped me refine some of my recipes and get the proportions and roasting conditions right.” 

He’s looking forward to increasing production and unit sales within the next year, but for now he wants to keep the business small. He’s focusing on quality control—GRIA recently became a Fairtrade America partner—and selling his product locally, with hopes of expanding his catalog to include new flavors, snacks, and products in the near future. You can find GRIA Food Co. products at select local markets, on the shelves at the new Dorchester Food Co-op, and at GRIAfoodco.com. 

Purpose-led Leadership Lessons for the 21st Century - Organized by Achilleas Stamatiadis

Purpose-led Leadership Lessons for the 21st Century

Premises: Kaireios Library premises (Andros), Andros Yacht Club

Organized by Convisero mentor Achilleas Stamatiadis

Dates: 23-25 August 2024

Mission Statement: Learning from the past - Reshaping our Future


Purpose-led leadership is a leadership approach that emphasizes the importance of aligning an organization’s mission and values with the personal values and goals of its leaders. It goes beyond traditional leadership models that primarily focus on achieving financial goals and instead places a strong emphasis on making a positive impact on society and the world.

Key characteristics of Purpose-led Leadership include:

  • Mission and Values Alignment

  • Inspiration and Motivation

  • Social Responsibility and Impact

  • Long-term Thinking

  • Stakeholder Responsibility and ESG

  • Adaptability and AI literacy

  • Ethical Leadership

  • Employee Well-being

  • Measuring Impact to Society

That is why it’s more important than ever, today. We live in an era in which there’s often a vacuum of role models. The aim of our conference is to bring about and inspire such models via a live contact with Purpose-led leaders which will stimulate a discussion and bring forth new models of Leadership and Societal Impact to help alter our future.

Conference Speakers/Participants

  1. Yannis Perrotis, Chairman CBRE Atria Group

  2. Emmanuel Vordonis, Former Chairman Thenamaris Ship Management Company

  3. Alexandra Mitsotakis, President of World Human Forum, Social Entrepreneur

  4. Andreas Andrianopoulos, Director of the International Institute of Diplomacy and

  5. Foreign Policy at New York College, Former Minister

  6. John Molfetas, Investor Relations Manager, Thenamaris

  7. Achilleas Stamatiadis, Founder and CEO Faros Co. Ltd. Educational Ventures

  8. Irene Papaligouras, Founder of Leaders Excellence Partners

  9. Faidon Tamvakakis, Chair and Co-Founder of Alpha Trust Mutual Fund

The Conference will take place under the auspices of: The Municipality of Andros, The Kaireios Library Foundation (and it’s director Academy of Athens Member Dr. Michalis Tiverios), The Yacht Club of Andros and will be further supported by the Andriot maritime and business community at large.

Achilleas Stamatiadis

Achilleas A. Stamatiadis holds a BA from Northeastern University in
Government and International Affairs. He is a Harvard GSAS program
alumnus having spent a research year in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and
holds an MA in Comparative literature, Classics and Leadership from the
University of Chicago. A section of his thesis has been published by
UPenn’s Classical studies journal and can be traced via The Library of Congress webpage. 


In addition to Achilleas’ academic work, he has been Expo Power
Systems’ CIO/Director full-time since 2019. In this role he has dealt with
several of his company's most pressing issues ranging from Strategic
Expansions, PPC Projects, HR Excellence Programs and CSR on Purpose led
Leadership. He has also served, for a term, as a Special Adviser of the
Alternate Minister at The Hellenic Republic's Foreign Affairs Office.

Achilleas is one of the most intriguing and accomplished young mentors,
noted for his eclecticism, excelling in both academic, scholarly pursuits
and in the arena of global business. In both divergent pursuits, 
the common denominator is intellect and integrity.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel - A Convisero Gathering

Pictured here are friends and allies who have come to a Trebuchet/Convisero meeting for Physicians for Human Rights Israel at my home, moderated by Convisero mentor Susannah Sirkin, former longtime policy director at Physicians for Human Rights (U.S.).

Here is the invitation from Susannah:

 

I'm very pleased to join Sherman Teichman and Iris Adler who are graciously hosting a discussion with Drs. Guy Shalev and Lina Qassem-Hassan of Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHRI). *

They will talk about their efforts to respond the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank as well and PHR-I's longtstanding and ongoing work to promote dignity, equality and justice for all people living under Israel's responsibility control. 

These human rights leaders will be on a short visit to the Northeast U.S. to raise awareness and broaden their network for advocacy and support.

Sunday evening, March 31st, 7 pm, at Sherman's home

Dr. Guy Shalev—Guy is PHRI's Executive Director and a research fellow at the Minerva Center for the Rule of Law Under Extreme Conditions. He is a medical and political anthropologist specializing in the intersection of medical professionalism, ethnonational politics, and bioethics in Israel/Palestine. Guy received his Ph.D. from The University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill in 2018, and his publications have appeared in American Anthropologist, Israeli Sociology, and Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry. 

 Dr. Lina Qassem-Hassan—Lina is the Chairperson of PHRI's Board of Directors. She is a family medicine specialist with Clalit Health Services in the Haifa and Western Galilee District, specializing in end-of-life care. In addition to regularly volunteering with PHRI's West Bank mobile clinic and medical delegations to Gaza, Lina volunteers with their Prisoners and Detainees department, accompanying Palestinian hunger strikers. Recently, Lina volunteered with PHRI's emergency make-shift clinic for survivors of the October 7 massacre and has spoken out about her belief that all victims of this war deserve medical treatment.

Much appreciation,

Susannah (Sirkin), former longtime policy director at Physicians for Human Rights (U.S.)

The horrific events of October 7th in all its brutality and sadism, and the subsequent Israeli regime’s rampant operational reaction to destroy Hamas with its abhorrent loss of thousands of innocent lives have shaken me. Elsewhere I have addressed strategies attempting to restore deterrence but for me, the imperative has always remained how to struggle to secure a humane future for both Israeli and Palestinian peoples (NIMEP Insights). 

This meeting of PHRI is, among others I have hosted including the Abraham Initiatives, of organizations I believe have integrity in the midst of all this horrific chaos. 

I have defended the concept of self-determination for both Israel and Palestine for many decades. Immediately after the days after the ’67 war, influenced by Prof. Leibowitz who I had met at Givat Ram Hebrew University “warned against the state of Israel and Zionism becoming more sacred than Jewish humanist values”… and of the “dehumanizing effect of the occupation on the victims and the oppressors.”

We were privileged to have in our midst Prof. Liebowitz's grandson Akiva and his wife Hila. 

Rabbis for Human Rights - Dahlia Shaham

In the midst of the ongoing horror of the Hamas-Israeli conflict, I continue to struggle to find emotional equilibrium and answers to “The Day After” and beyond.  

 My dear friend, EPIIC TA, and Fletcher School alumna Dahlia Shaham, has written me:

 Sending love from the wounded land and her peoples. I believe there are islands of peace still, and good people to sail across the storms with.

 With this message, I hope you may also find some solace in this. 

Here is a link to her vocal rendition of Believe a poem by an Israeli poet laureate, and medical doctor, Shaul Tshernichovsky He wrote the poem 130 years ago in Hebrew in Odesa, during the period of the Russian pogrom massacres. (Translations are in Hebrew and English).

Dahlia is a member of Rabbis for Human Rights.  She has sent me this appeal:

You may recognize the voice, because it's me. I gladly added my voice to Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) campaign, as I have gladly volunteered my time and energy to this organization for the past 4 years, in various capacities.

I volunteer and support RHR gratefully, as it has been for me a home for brave spiritual leadership and a light house of faith and action in these days of storm and despair.

We, over 150 rabbis from all of Israel, across all denominations, faced with the flames of religious extremism across the land, insist to continue to uphold the ancient legacy of our faith, the everlasting faith in peace among nations and protection of human dignity.

In the hands of RHR lean and super talented team, the organization supports dozens of communities of all faiths and nationalities, through solidarity action, human rights protection, advocacy and poverty alleviation through community building.

In the time it took me to get to send this email, my friends have gathered almost all the funds required.

Dahlia

https://youtu.be/3A79FzfLMBc?si=wbLvxNDdRGBTBLs8

 

Here is the link to support RHR.


Here are several recent articles worth reflecting on:


The War in Gaza Told through One Man’s Pain by Nicholas Kristof

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/09/opinion/gaza-israel-war.html

 

Israel is Falling Into an Abyss by David Grossman

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/01/opinion/israel-gaza-palestinians-hostages.html

In the Belly of the Beast - Mort Rosenblum


NEW YORK — One World Trade Center gleams above the Manhattan skyline on the footprint of the twin towers a handful of Islamist zealots brought down with a sucker punch. The mast atop it reaches to 1,776 feet, symbolizing a year that matters far more than 2001.

Jeffrey Fagan, a world-savvy criminologist, took me through the warren of streets he was driving past when those planes struck. He had seen rescue crews brave the inferno as terrified people leapt to their death. In all, 3,000 died. Yet the lesson of that day went unlearned.

A stricken nation obsessed over that question — why do they hate us? In fact, few did. But blind fury set the world ablaze. Today, lots of people hate America. And opposing factions at home hate each other. As Fagan says, too many Americans twist facts into their own preferred biases.

Voters need the “mainstream media” to provide firsthand reporting and informed comment so 1776 continues to signify more than what history will recall as the starting point of a once-noble democratic endeavor that ended in 2025.

————

For some perspective, I visited Cheryl Gould, an uncommonly wise news maven I met in 1977. She joined NBC as a radio reporter in Paris, later produced the Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, and left the network as senior vice president a decade ago, disgusted by internal politics.

She has since worked to uphold principles in journalism, a profession as old as prostitution, which it now often resembles. The Ronna McDaniel flap had just erupted, and Cheryl was livid. NBC hired McDaniel after she was fired as head of the Republican National Committee.

Rachel Maddow eviscerated McDaniel on MSNBC, detailing her role in sending fake elector tallies to Washington in 2020 and then trumpeting lies about a stolen election. Cheryl beavered away in the background to explain why one bad hire was so fraught with deeper meaning.

Cheryl rarely uses Facebook, but a series of posts went viral. They were toned down versions of letters she sent to Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, and top NBC bosses. She excoriated Conde, who is also on the boards of PepsiCo and Walmart.

She wrote:

“Ms. McDaniel SHOULD be on the air: as an interviewee, not as a commentator given how she openly bashed MSNBC and other mainstream media outlets she called ‘fake news.’ She helped promulgate the lies and vitriol of her leader.”

A revolt among NBC’s news staff soon forced McDaniel out. She is demanding her $300,000 annual salary along with a payout for the remainder of her contract.

Conde took over in 2020 and caused an uproar. Joe Biden and Donald Trump were to debate on ABC primetime. When Trump pulled out, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos grilled Biden alone in a town hall format. In the same time slot, Savannah Guthrie interviewed Trump, who evaded questions about his calamitous Covid-19 response and QAnon supporters. (Links below.)

“(NBC) went for a ratings grab rather than doing the right thing for democracy by letting the American people watch both candidates, forcing them to make a choice,” Cheryl wrote. “That told me all I needed to know about the insouciance or worse, cynicism of the leader who apparently has still not learned what it means to run a respected news division.”

She had an answer to the network’s feeble argument that McDaniel could shed light on the Trump-polluted Republican Party: “That’s like saying you would hire known terrorists to do commentary on terrorism because they know it from the inside.”

NBC is hardly alone. Les Moonves at CBS crowed unabashedly at the profits Trump coverage brought in. Jeff Zucker admitted a similar bump in CNN ratings. Now under new management, CNN cameras still linger on the MAGA circus that menaces America. Among others.

————

New York, where Trump has for decades brought rot to the Big Apple’s core, makes the global threat blindingly clear. Despite some hopeful signs, apathy and ignorance run deep, particularly among young people who must suffer the consequences.

I walked up Broadway to Cheryl’s place above 104th in what she calls So-Har: south of Harlem. That was my hood briefly in the 70s. As a Council on Foreign Relations fellow, I hobnobbed with heads of state and big thinkers with ideas about stability in a post-Vietnam world.

Broadway then was hometown America, alive with mom-and-pop shops, Jewish delis and such melting-pot mixes as Cuban-Chinese eateries. The only police incident I recall was the cop on a scooter who ticketed Odious Beast, my Belgian shepherd, for peeing on a tree in Riverside Park.

It is different now. At one point, my eyes suddenly burned, and I struggled to breathe. Some fool had tossed a teargas grenade. People panicked, yelling for help. This being America, I had neither mask nor wet rag. I ducked into an upwind doorway, then walked on faster.

Returning to midtown on an express train, I heard a speaker blare: “From the river to the sea, we’re gonna fight to be free.” It emanated from a young Chinese American’s boombox. I decided not to interview him.

It is never a great idea to confront strangers on the subway, and the mood was especially fraught. The New York Times had just front-paged a lengthy piece. Some lout told a stranger for no apparent reason, “I’m going to beat you up.” A knife emerged. Another passenger shot and wounded the aggressor.

Exiting, I paused to eye the guy with the speaker. He looked up and pronounced: “You’re ugly.” No argument there. When we both got off at the same stop, he whirled around and asked, “Why are you following me?” I kept walking, and he shouted, “Free Palestine!”

That was no small-bore episode if you think it through. Americans are prone toward simplistic reaction to complex situations. Trump’s demagogic gift is an animal instinct to exploit that to his advantage.

I’d bet a lot that guy had no idea which river or which sea. Nor did he realize that battle cry harks back to Arab armies in 1948 trying to dislodge Jews from a homeland they were meant to share with Palestinians after the Holocaust. It has since been used by extremes on “both sides.”

Simplistic generality only deepens rifts. Hamas’s vicious assault targeted “liberal” kibbutzniks who favor a separate Palestine. Benjamin Netanyahu, a corrupt hardliner who condones mass murder to stay in power, no more represents Jews than Trump does Christians.

Trump helped Netanyahu crack down on Palestinians, backing more West Bank settlements and incursions into East Jerusalem. Now Biden is doing more than any American president to push for workable solutions not only in the unholy land but also the Middle East beyond.

The irony is tragic. Trump helped Mohammed bin Salman escape condemnation for the grisly murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi crown prince later gave Jared Kushner $2 billion for his equity firm’s grand projects.

At the height of Israeli onslaught, Trump’s son-in-law told an interviewer the Gaza seafront was “very valuable” property. It could be cleaned up and developed after Palestinians were relocated, preferably in the Negev desert.

Still, many Palestinian sympathizers in America heap scorn on Biden and plan to abstain or cast a ballot for an alternative candidate. That, in effect, amounts to another vote for Trump.

————

It is pointless to rail against entrenched social media and propagandists. Some people want authoritarian rule. There is no cure for stupid. America’s best defense is “legacy media” that tries to get the story straight and independent reporters with proven credibility.

Old-style approaches are evolving fast in the “mainstream,” on air or in print. But democracy depends on bedrock principles. Staff journalists ask questions. Newsmakers answer if they choose, expecting tough follow-ups if they mangle facts. Paying them corrupts the process.

A better-informed America would have learned after 2001 that while domestic issues affect individuals, existential threats come from abroad. Wealth and weaponry can avert potential crises. Or they can create unstoppable conflict and yawning gaps between rich and desperate.

Trump’s reign defined his ignorant, self-focused worldview. Now he rants about gutting NATO, embracing tyrants, imposing tariffs, slamming shut borders, slashing foreign aid and much else. Imagine a new term with sycophantic incompetent ideologues replacing adults in the room.

Biden’s long life in politics and diplomacy is uniquely suited to the moment. He knows why Vladimir Putin must be stopped and Xi Jinping needs to see advantage in accommodation with the West. But good luck making the case to that clueless guy on the subway.