2018 ETO Presenter and Facilitator Bios
8th Conference on
Engaging The Other:
The Power of Compassion
April 13-15, 2018 ~ Madison, Wisconsin
Sponsored by:
Common Bond Institute,
Edgewood College
International Humanistic Psychology Association
Supported by:
Michigan State University
Endorsed by:
An international list of over 100 cooperating organizations and universities
Official Partner and Event of:
Charter For Compassion and Parliament of World’s Religions
We wish to thank those who contribute to being part of our Round Table dialogues and offering their facilitation skills during this year’s conference.
(In Order of Appearance in the Program)
Friday, April 13
ETO CONFERENCE OPENING
4:00 – 4:30 pm
Greeting, Mission, Overview of Conference Mission:
Steve Olweean
is Founding Director of Common Bond Institute, Co-founder & President of International Humanistic Psychology Assoc. (IHPA), and past-Pres. of Assoc. for Humanistic Psychology. Co-developer & Co-coordinator of Social Health Care (SHC) Program for Syrian Refugee Families & Children, where he is a core training & treatment faculty. Organizer of 50+ international conferences on conflict transformation and social healing, and developer of the Catastrophic Trauma Recovery (CTR) model for treating large scale communal trauma. He is a psychologist and therapist specializing in trauma and abuse recovery, and healing negative belief systems.
Email: SOlweean@aol.com Web: www.cbiworld.org www.cbiworld.org/speakers/
______________________________________
SESSION – A ROUND TABLE
4:30 – 6:00 pm
Amanda Katheryn Roman,
is Director of Learning Initiatives for Conscious Capitalism, Inc. where she designs and facilitates transformational collaborative learning experiences to support business leaders globally in integrating and implementing conscious business principles. She has been curious about the way people and systems work from a very young age. Her insatiable desire to travel the world and experience different communities first-hand has developed a knack for uncovering opportunity, common ground, and the untapped potential of individuals to create positive change. She is a Founding Partner of Living Room Conversations, CEO of Living Out Loud: An Experiential Coaching and Training firm, and Board President of Policy Jury Group.
Email: amanda@consciouscapitalism.org Web: www.consciouscapitalism.org/about/credo
John Steiner,
is a networker, tranpsartisan activist and creative consultant. He is Co-founder and board member of Bridge Alliance, and board member of Mediators Foundation and Bridge USA. His work on Reuniting America brought together conservative, moderate, liberal and progressive leaders of national organizations to engage in constructive dialogues, and to prove leaders with highly divergent views could, and were eager to work together to find common ground solutions.
Email: steiner_king@earthlink.net Web: www.bridgealliance.us mediatorsfoundation.org
Joan Blades,
is a mediator, progressive political activst, contributing writer for The Huffington Pos, Co-founder of MoveOn.org, and Co-founder and board president of Mom’s Rising, and organization dedicated to building a more familyf-riendly America. She is also Co-founder of LivingRoomConversations.org, an open source effort to rebuild respectful civil discourse across ideological, cultural and party lines while embracing our core-shared values.
Email: joan.blades@gmail.com Web: www.livingroomconversations.org/ www.momsrising.org/ www.front.moveon.org/
Pearce Godwin,
is Founder & CEO of Listen First Project and the Listen First Coalition of 50+ partner organizations. He leads the Listen First movement to mend the frayed fabric of America by bridging divides one conversation at a time. He is now focused on leading a culture-changing Listen First movement with major events, local engagements, and the first National Week of Conversation, as well as Listen First in Charlottesville occuring April 20-22 in Charlottesville, VA. (see information on this event under Like-Purposed Events)
Email: pearce@listenfirstproject.org Web: www.listenfirstproject.org/
Barbara Simonetti
is President of Meetings That Matter, and past board chair of National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, a network of innovators who bring people together across divides to tackle today’s toughest challenges.
Email: bsimonetti@comcast.net Web: www.intentionalendowments.org/barbara_simonetti_bio
Moderator:
Steve Olweean (see Conference opening)
~ Saturday, April 14 ~
SESSION – D ROUND TABLE
9:30 – 11:00 am
Eric Upchurch,
is Chief Visionary at Opportunity Inc., a lead organizer for Young Gifted & Black Coalition, founder of The Council Of Communities, Economic Empowerment WI, Madison Alliance for Black Economic Empowerment, Practically Mindful, and has served as Interim Exec. Dir. for Madison’s Black Chamber of Commerce, Dir. of Development & Marketing for YWCA Madison, and 9 years as CEO of ESUCEO Inc. Among other roles he is a community activist, educator, mindfulness & meditation teacher, & one of the most influential Black leaders in Wisconsin.
Manu Meel,
is CEO of BridgeUSA, and co-founder and Executive Vice President of External Affairs for BridgeUSA at Berkeley. BridgeUSA is a nation-wide university student activist organization that fosters spaces where a diverse range of ideas can positively engage one another. He is a contributor to Huffington Post. (see information on BridgeUSA Summit under Like-Purposed Events)
Email: manumeel@berkeley.edu Web: www.bridgeusa.org
Dorian Tellis,
is a circle keeper and a senior at The Alliance School in Milwaukee. In addition to doing circle work in the local community, she has facilitated workshops with her peers about Restorative Practices and facilitated circles about a variety of issues at conferences at Harvard and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law for young people and adults from around the country.
Paris Thompson,
is a circle keeper and a senior at The Alliance School in Milwaukee. In addition to doing circle work in the local community, she has facilitated workshops with her peers about Restorative Practices and facilitated circles about a variety of issues at conferences at Harvard and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law for young people and adults from around the country.
Lydia Hester,
is a student a Madison East High School and among the organizers of Save Our Students, which coordinated the March 14 high school walkout.
Myron Eshowsky
is Co-developer and Co-coordinator of the Social Health Care (SHC) Program for Syrian Refugee Families and Children and is on its core training and treatment faculty. For over 40 years, he has pioneered the integration of indigenous healing models to address issues of modern life, worked with gangs and youth at risk, prisons, community mental health, various communities in conflict, AIDS orphans/child soldiers in Africa
Email: myron@myroneshowsky.com Web: www.myroneshowsky.com
Moderator:
Amanda Katheryn Roman (see Round Table 1)
______________________________________
SESSION – F ROUND TABLE
1:00 – 2:30 pm
Bonnie Carroll,
is a a military veteran, a former staffer in the Reagan and Bush White Houses, and 2015 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is Founding President of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), the leading national Military Service Organization providing compassionate care, casework assistance, and 24/7/365 emotional support for all those impacted by the death of a military loved one.
Email: bonnie@taps.org Web: www.taps.org
Farha Abbasi,
is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Michigan State University, developer and organizer of the Annual Muslim Mental Health Conference and the Psycho-social Interfaith Clergy Training, and is Managing Editor of the Journal of Muslim Mental Health. She emigrated from Pakistan and settled in the United States in the year 2000 and has since been committed to creating awareness about cultural competency.
Email: Farha.Abbasi@hc.msu.edu Web: www.psychiatry.msu.edu/index.html
Jacob Hess,
is Director of Village Square, Salt Lake City, Co-Founder of Alloflife.org, and co-author of You’re Not as Crazy as I Thought (But You’re Still Wrong): Conversations between a Devoted Conservative and a Die-Hard Liberal, featured on NPR’s This American Life. While at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign he helped develop and co-facilitate a liberal-conservative dialogue course for undergraduates, the first of its kind in the nation.
Email: jzhess@gmail.com Web: www.utah.villagesquare.us/ www.alloflife.org/
Yesenia Villalpando-Torres
is an Edgewood College alumna where she was the Peer Leader/Teaching Assistant for the freshman seminar Rethinking the Border: US Immigration for three consecutive years. She helped establish the Leadership Institute of Borderland Research & Education (LIBRE) at Edgewood, permitting undocumented students opportunities to visit the borderland while conducting research and advocacy work. Since the termination of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), she has worked with United We Dream (the largest immigrant youth-led network in the nation), and is also working with Briarpatch Youth Services providing case management to young adults experiencing homelessness.
Fabiola Hamdan
is the Dane County Immigrant Affairs Coordinator
Moderator:
Steve Olweean (see Conference Opening)
Facilitators
Amanda Katheryn Roman, (see Round Table 1)
Heather Sattler has been an educator in Milwaukee Public Schools for 20+ years. She teaches Restorative Practices at The Alliance School and facilitates workshops & trainings, with her students, for young people & adults from the local, national, & international communities. She also facilitates trainings for organizations & schools, including Black Health Coalition, Sojourner Family Peace Center, Safe and Sound, and Highland Community School. She received an MA in Mass Communication from the Univ. Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a BA in English, 2ndry Education and Theatre Arts and a certificate in Adult Education and Organization Development from Alverno College. Email: hedora2002@yahoo.com
Sharon Lerman,
is an organizational development practitioner, trainer, facilitator, business consultant, and coach for over 20 years. Restorative Practices is integral to her work. She works with both for-profit and non-profit organizations to create environments that build relationships and connect people to their potential. She is certified as a Life Coach and is a Licensed Professional Counselor.
Email: lerman.sharon@gmail.com
Wade Fransson,
is a publisher, speaker, thinker, writer, who leverages his diverse background and experience in religion, education, and business to form bridges between diverse communities, opinions, ideologies, and languages. Wade currently negotiates large technology contracts for Kohls department stores, while running a publishing company and raising two young children, with his wife Angela.
Email: wfransson@gmail.com Web: www.soopllc.com/ www.wadefransson.com/
Dorian Tellis, (see Round Table 2)
Paris Thompson, (see Round Table 2)
Joyce Allen,
is a junior at The Alliance School. In addition to facilitating circles in school and the local community, she has facilitated a workshop and a circle with her peers at The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee for young people and adults from around the city.
Sebastian Lewis
is a junior at The Alliance School. In addition to facilitating circles in school and the local community, she has facilitated a workshop and a circle with her peers at The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee for young people and adults from around the city.