The Armenia-Azerbaijan Initiative > The Participants

The Participants

(The Participants)

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Steering Committee

Craig Barnes, Associate Facilitator, a trial lawyer and political essayist also trained in mediation. He has spent two terms on the Board of Directors of Common Cause encouraging citizen participation in democracy in this country. Mr. Barnes has been active in the former Soviet Union since the early 1980s, speaks Russian, and has extensive experience bringing together parliamentarians, journalists, and scientists in high-level peace negotiations. He was the Executive Editor of Breakthrough: Emerging New Thinking, (Progress Press, Moscow, and Walker Publishing, New York, 1988), and was part of the team that encouraged influential moderates to participate in the Armenia/Azerbaijan Initiative. He has been co-facilitator of our Public Peace Process Dialogue Seminars in California and a delegate on trips to Baku, Stepanakert and Yerevan in 1993, and Baku and Yerevan 1994 and 1995. In 1996, Barnes spent one month in Baku and one month in Armenia as part of the six month team building process. He was part of the facilitation team that convened and lead the 5 day conference in Tbilisi Georgia in September 1996 that culminated the six month process. Together the ten participants and the facilitators created the framework for work plans for six joint projects.

Craig Barnes
R.R. 9, Box 70-B
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Voice: 505-986-6080 Fax: 505-986-6025
E-mail: cbarnes355@aol.com

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Janet Boggia, Public Entity Risk Manager for 18 years, recently retired from the City of Mountain View, where she created and directed its risk management program, to work with Foundation for Global Community. In 1986 she went to Mexico City as a consultant (sole-source provider) for USAID to train school personnel in earthquake preparation. Her prior field was Human Relations and global education. She created and published the first Multicultural Calendar in 1974, reviewed and lauded by the California Teacher’s Association. She was a counselor for 14 years with Occupational Health Services, and since 1986—as co-founder of Conflict Evolution Associates—she developed and taught courses and workshops in conflict transformation. She now spends full time at Foundation for Global Community where she is a member of its coordinating body. She is active in the Armenia/Azerbaijan Initiative, and in 1998, spent one month in the two countries and in Tbilisi, Georgia as a co-facilitator of the fourth dialogue among professionals from the two waring countries. The dialogue resulted in a high level of leadership by participants and a deep commitment to joint projects in ecology, education, and internet communication.

Janet Boggia
c/o Foundation for Global Community
222 High Street
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Voice: 650-328-7756 Fax: 650-328-7785
E-mail: jboggia@jps.net

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William H. Busse, Project Director, was graduated from Stanford University receiving a B.A. (With Great Distinction) in 1952 and an M.A. in 1953. He served as a Naval Aviator and retired with the rank of Commander. He was president of a major West Coast architectural firm, retiring to volunteer full time with the Beyond War Foundation (now Global Community). He was Project Director for Breakthrough: Emerging New Thinking, a first of its kind book by Soviet and American Scientists, published in both English and Russian. He is Director of Commonwealth Relations for the Foundation, and Coordinator of activities related to the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE). Mr. Busse is the Project Director of the Armenia/Azerbaijan Initiative and in that capacity has traveled to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh. His extensive background in project management, and prior involvement with officials and citizens in the Former Soviet Union, have given him experience well related to this project.

Bill Busse
c/o Foundation for Global Community
222 High Street
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Voice: 650-328-7756 Fax: 650-328-7785
E-mail: bbusse@cable-op.com

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Melanie Cohen Greenberg, Project Advisor, Melanie Cohen Greenberg, Project Advisor, Adjunct Professor Georgetown Law Center, on Executive Committee Lawyers Alliance for World Security, Leading Editor on forthcoming book on International Mediation, former Director of the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and former Associate Director of the Stanford Center for Conflict and Negotiation (SCCN). Ms Greenberg is a member of the Armenia/Azerbaijan Steering Committee. She has been a lecturer in law at Stanford Law School and trains attorneys and executives in negotiation and conflict resolution. In conjunction with SCCN and CISAC, Ms Greenberg participated in the planning and facilitation of international dialogues between Israelis and Palestinians and between Armenians and Azeris. Ms. Greenberg graduated from Harvard College and Stanford Law School, where she was the managing editor of the Stanford Journal of International Law. She speaks and writes Russian, French and Spanish.

Melanie Cohen Greenberg
E-mail: mcgreenberg@earthlink.net

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Carol Hwoschinsky, holds Masters Degrees in Special Education and Psychology. She is a licensed counselor in private practice, an educator and a mediator. Hwoschinsky has trained business people, teachers, administrators and public employees in conflict resolution and management of people. Presently she teaches Conflict Resolution, develops diversity and conflict resolution curricula for schools and mediates for a Victim/Offender program in the courts and for community disputes. Currently she is completing a manuscript on personal transformation through conflict.

Hwoschinsky is also a staff member for the Israeli/Palestinian Compassionate Listening Project which takes groups to the region to listen to the stories from people on all sides of the issue to promote understanding.

She is a member of the Foundation for Global Communities Armenian/Azerbaijani Initiative Team. She spent six weeks in the region during July and August 1996, facilitating team interactions in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.

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Larissa Keet, Conflict Resolution Trainer, is a professional trainer in conflict resolution and a psychotherapist in private practice. She is on the Board of Directors of the Center for Economic Conversion, focusing on a citizen/government partnership to shift the United States from a military-dominant economy to a sustainable peace economy. She participated in the Foundation for Mid-East Communication, a citizen organization which facilitated American Arabs and Jews, Israelis and Palestinians with conflict resolution approaches to explore harmonious and creative solutions to the Mid-East conflict. Mrs. Keet is a volunteer staff member of the Conflict Resolution and Armenia/Azerbaijan Initiative Teams of the Foundation for Global Community. In 1996, Keet spent one month in Baku as part of the six month team building process.

Larissa Keet
12345 Briones Way
Los Altos, CA 94022
Voice: 650-948-4036
E-mail: lkeet2@aol.com

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Lorelei Kelly, Special Projects for Congresswoman Elisabeth Furse, and former Curriculum Researcher, and Research Fellow, Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. Her focus is peace and conflict resolution issues. With her 1988 Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Grinnell College, she moved to Vienna then Berlin to research women's involvement in arms control and disarmament as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow. During 1989 she participated in civil- society democracy movements in Eastern Europe. Lorelei has also been active in domestic policy issues. Before graduate school at Stanford, she worked at the Oregon Peace Institute and produced the environmental radio program "Earthwatch." In Portland she became a trained mediator and worked in public institutions including juvenile court, small claims court, and the Mayor's Office of the Ombudsman. Ms. Kelly specializes in conflict themes in U.S. Foreign Policy. She currently is advisor to U.S. Representative Elizabeth Furse, her former Oregon Peace Institute colleague. With her 1995 Master's degree from Stanford in International Policy, Lorelei brings to SCCN a background in both academia and national politics, as she focuses on making conflict resolution scholarship more accessible to policy decision makers. In 1996, Kelly spent six weeks in Armenia as part of the team building process. She was responsible for collecting evaluation data to assist SCCN in their part of the process. She was also part of the facilitation team that went to Tbilisi Georgia in September, 1996 with ten participants from the region. Together the participants and the facilitators create the framework for work plans for six joint projects.

Lorelei Kelly
c/o Congresswoman Elisabeth Furse
316 Cannon HOB
Washington D.C. 20515
Voice: 202-225-0855
E-mail: lorelei.kelly@mail.house.gov

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Thomas E. McLellan, Logistics Coordinator, received his B.S. in 1950 from the University of California at Berkeley. After a long professional career, he retired from the architectual firm of McLellan and Copenhagen in 1989 to become a full-time volunteer with Beyond War, (now Foundation for Global Community). In 1992 Mr. McLellan coordinated the participation of Global Community in UNCED (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) sending a team of 22 to Rio to represent Global Community. Mr. McLellan is on the steering committe for the Armenia/Azerbaijan Initiative and is involved in the planning and logistics for the continuation of the Project. In 1996, McLellan spent one month in Baku as part of the six month team building process.

Tom McLellan
Foundation for Global Community
222 High Street
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Voice: 650-328-7756 Fax: 650-328-7785
E-mail: fgc@globalcommunity.org

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Lawrence M. Probes, M.D., Technical Advisor, a Michigan psychiatrist in private practice, is fluent in Russian. Since 1987 he has travelled to the Former Soviet Union a dozen times, in relation to physician and medical student exchanges, academic projects, humanitarian endeavors, and peace efforts. During 1992 he evaluated medical needs in Russia and other newly independent republics, as medical coordinator of the Moscow Regional Delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). He has worked for the World Health Organizations's European Regional Bureau in Copenhagen, Denmark to develop a computerized data base for humanitarian assistance to the New Independent States (NIS). Dr. Probes was the American bilingual translator and documentarian for both of the Armenia/Azerbijan Initiative seminars. In April 1994 he traveled to the Caucasus on a fact-finding trip. He is skilled in bilingual computer word processing and telecommunications, particularly electronic mail, enabling him to provide the vital communications link for many organizations working in the NIS as well as for our Armenia/Azerbaijan Initiative.

Lawrence M. Probes, MD
832 Forest Hill Avenue SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546-2326
Voice: 616-940-9001 Fax: 616-940-7355 Home Fax: 616-897-8987
E-mail:

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Professor Lee Ross, Project Advisor, has been a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University since 1969. He teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in social psychology, dispute resolution, and peace studies. His research on shortcomings in human interference, judgement, and decision- making, has provided important insights for theorists and practitioners seeking to understand sources of conflict and misunderstanding. This research has also served to explicate strategic and psychological barriers to conflict resolution and to suggest techniques for overcoming such barriers. Dr. Ross is a co-founder of the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. In 1991 he helped facilitate the Palestinian-Israeli conference, jointly sponsored by the Stanford Center and the Foundation for Global Community. Professor Ross is on the steering committee of the Armenia/Azerbaijan Initiative.

Professor Lee Ross
Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation
Crown Quadrangle
Stanford, CA 94305
Voice: 650-725-2447
E-mail: ross@psych.stanford.edu

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Dr. Harold Saunders, Project Facilitator, worked continuously in the government for twenty years, first at the National Security Council (1961-1974), and then at the State Department (1978- 1981), where he was Director of Intelligence and Research, Deputy Assistant Secretary, and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. He was engaged in the Kissinger shuttles, negotiating the Camp David accords, and the Egyptian- Israeli peace treaty. He also helped negotiate the release of the American hostages from Iran in 1981. Since leaving the government, Dr. Saunders did extensive research under the aegis of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy and was a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Since 1991 Dr. Saunders has been Director of International Programs at the Kettering Foundation. In 1991 he facilitated the conference for Israelis and Palestinians co-sponsored by Foundation for Global Community and Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. In September 1993 and October 1994 Dr. Saunders facilitated the Armenia/Azerbaijan Initiative seminars in California. The spring of 1995 Dr. Saunders traveled to Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue working with the dialogue participants and to help evaluate progress to date.

Dr. Harold Saunders
Kettering Foundation
444 N. Capitol Street, NW (Suite 434)
Washington, DC 20001-1512
Voice: 202-393-4478 Fax: 202-393-7644
E-mail: kfdc@ohionet.org

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Samantha Schoenfeld, Associate Facilitator and Conflict Resolution Trainer, is a professional facilitator and mediator. She is a principal in "Working InConcert", a professional facilitation organization which assists government, military, and private business clients, by introducing them to collaborative problem solving processes. As a volunteer with the Foundation for Global Community, she has served on the Middle East Task Force which brought Israelis and Palestinians to California for the 1991 conference, "Building a Common Future," which resulted in a signed document, Framework for a Public Peace Process. Currently Schoenfeld is a member of the Coordination Team, the Walk Through Time Team, and the Armenia/Azerbaijan Intiative Team. In her capacity in the latter, Schoenfeld first traveled to South Caucasia in 1994 for a fact-finding mission along with three colleagues In 1996, Schoenfeld spent six months in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh engaged in team building activities that would foster greater engagement in the ongoing process and assist in the creation of ongoing projects. She was also part of the facilitation team that went to Tbilisi Georgia in September 1996, with ten participants from the region. Together the participants and the facilitators create the framework for work plans for six joint projects. In 1998, Schoenfeld returned to the region for a month at the behest of the United States Information Agency to facilitate the fourth dialogue again in Tbilisi, Georgia. The thirteen participants gathered to further the dialogue and the work on their joint projects.

Samantha Schoenfeld
100-39 West El Camino Real
Mountain View, CA 94040
Voice: 650-965-4150 Fax: 650-965-1625
E-mail: sschoenfeld@globalcommunity.org

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Lionel "Len" Traubman, DDS, Communications Specialist, helped found the Beyond War Foundation (now Global Community) in 1982, and was responsible for its relationships with 57 San Francisco consulates. Self-taught in Russian, he was an editor for the historic Soviet-American joint publication, Breakthrough: Emerging New Thinking. During the Cold War, Len utilized short wave "ham" radio to build bridges of cooperation with hundreds of Soviet citizens, who, in turn had his articles published in Soviet newspapers. He later created a 20-page dialogue guide, Russian Phrases For Amateur Radio, used by citizens worldwide to bridge to the Soviet people. In 1991 he was part of the Beyond War Middle East Task Force that brought Israelis and Palestinians to California for their conference, "Building A Common Future," resulting in a signed document, Framework For A Public Peace Process. He is an expert in communications processes and maintains our e-mail link with Yerevan and Baku. Len has a private practice of pediatric dentistry in San Francisco.

Len Traubman, DDS
1448 Cedarwood Drive
San Mateo, CA 94403
Voice: 650-574-8303 Fax: 650-573-1217
E-mail: LTRAUBMAN@igc.apc.org

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Libby Traubman, Executive Director, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She has served her community for 25 years as a full-time volunteer, for which she was inducted into the San Mateo County Women's Hall of Fame in 1994. As a leader in the formation of Beyond War (now Global Community), she helped organize the 1991 conference for Israelis and Palestinians which resulted in a historic signed document, Framework For A Public Peace Process. Mrs. Traubman was co-founder of the three-year ongoing living room dialogue series which brings together American Jews and Palestinians for greater mutual understanding and improving the local political environment for change. As Executive Director, she helped organize the two California based Armenia/Azerbaijan Initiative seminars. In 1994 she traveled to the Caucasus on a fact-finding trip. Mrs. Traubman received her MSW in 1965.

Libby Traubman
1448 Cedarwood Drive
San Mateo, CA 94403
Voice: 650-574-8303 Fax: 650-573-1217
E-mail: LTRAUBMAN@igc.apc.org

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Dr. Vladimir M. Verbitski, Technical Advisor, is a physician specializing in medical publishing and biomedical ethics in Moscow, Russia. He is fluent in English. In 1993 he completed a fellowship in biomedical ethics at the Cleveland Institute, and was a Fellow in Medical Journalism with the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in Chicago, IL. Dr. Verbitski served as a key consultant to the Moscow Regional Delegation of the IFRC, assisted the Federation in the provision of medical humanitarian assistance, and conducted a public health assessment in Uzbekistan. He presently works for the World Health Organizations's European Regional Bureau in Copenhagen, Denmark on projects related to international public health information and communication. He has been the key Russian facilitator for a number of educational and humanitarian organizations, and his bilingual computer and telecommunications skills have ensured the success of many international projects. Dr. Verbitski was the Russian language bilingual documentarian and translator for the first Armenia/Azerbaijan Initiative conference.

Dr. Vladimir Verbitski
Moscow physician on temporary assignment with:
World Health Organization
Copenhagen, Denmark
E-mail: vve@who.dk

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Armenia

Aghasi Aivazian Editor-In-Chief, Aitiun newspaper
Writer and Filmmaker
Abgar Apinian Journalist, Republic of Armenia newspaper
University lecturer
Ms. Anahit Beyandour Literature translator; Political activist
Ms. Hasmik Choutilian Translator; Communications Expert
Assistant Director, Armenia Telephone Co.
Emil Gabrielian Vice President, Academy of Sciences;
Former Minister of Health
Ms. Marina Gazarian Biochemist with Institute of Molecular Biology
Tatavik Hambartsoumian Professor in Russian Studies at Yerevan State University
Konstantin Khoudaverdian Historian
Chief Editor, Armenian Encyclopedia
Vladimir Kogan Physician; Director, Institute of Hygiene and
Occupational Diseases
Tegran Sargsyan President Associated Banks of Armenia
Gulnara Shahinian International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Suren Karaptian Professor of Economics, Institute of Economic Research

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Azerbaijan

Ali Abasov Director Institute of Philosophy and Law
Ms. Arzu Abdullayeva Vice-president, Social Democratic Party
Chairperson, Helsinki Citizens' Assembly
Akram Aylisli Writer; Director, Yazichi Publishing House
Ms. Leila Alieva Political Science Specialist,
Institute of Strategic Studies, Baku
Zardusht Alizadeh Editor-in-Chief, Istiglal newspaper;
Co-founder, Social Democratic Party
Rakhman Badalov Philosopher
Department Head, Institute of Philosophy
Member, Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences
Fuad Hacizade Director Institute of Ecology
Togrul Jouvarly Cinematographer
Sadeget Kerimova Journalist
Gulshan Pashayeva Associate Professor of Philological Sciences at Baku State University
Director Center for Conflict Resolution

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Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh

Armeda Badalova Professor Karabakh State University
Psychologist Center for Psycho-social Rehabilitation of Children
Ludmilla Hovanisian Director of School #8
Irina Gregorian Educator and Associate Director of the
Helsinki Citizen's Assembly of Nagorno Karabakh
Hasmik Mikaelian Head Maternity Committee of Nagorno Karabakh
Karen Oganjanian Engineer; Coordinator, Karabakh
Helsinki Citizens' Assembly
Member of Nagorno-Karabakh Parliament
Karine Oganian Journalist, Respublika of Nagorno-Karabakh
Svetlana Janigian Head of Youth Karabakh Helsinki Citizens'Assembly

Azerbaijanis Formerly from Nagorno-Karabakh

Kerim Kerimli Editor-in-Chief, Shekhid Newspaper
Refugee from Susha
Tamilla Kyazimova Deputy Director, Department of Education, Susha District; Refugee
Hagani Husanov Refugee Activist
Tamilla Kerimnova Publisher of Children Journals, Refugee

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