As I type, people are over at Portland State University exploring the historical struggle for peace and justice. One of those people is our own CEO, Thomas Bruner.

Thomas is attending the luncheon reception today, and adding the local Red Cross perspective to the Introduction to International Humanitarian Law (IHL) workshop being given by Joanne Dufour, a Red Cross master trainer and teacher at Heritage University in Seattle.

Other confirmed speakers at the “Building Cultures of Peace” event include:

• Sami Rasouli, founder and director of Muslim Peacemaker Teams. Sami is coming from Iraq.
• Two Hibakusha (survivors of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), coming from Japan.
• Betty Reardon, one of the great figures of Peace Education, emeritus from Teachers College, Columbia University.
• Kathy Kelly, founder of Voice for Creative Nonviolence.
• Mary King, UN Peace professor, author of several important books on nonviolence, and former civil rights worker with the Studnt Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
• Catherine Thomasson, M.D., president of the US Physicians for Social Responsibility.
• Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild.
• Stella Ting-Toomey, a world expert on intercultural conflict resolution.
• Stephen Zunes, University of San Francisco Politics professor and co-editor of two books on nonviolence.
• Jo Ann Bowman, director of Oregon Action, specializing in political empowerment of the most disenfranchised.
• “Bumpy” Pu’uhonua Kanahele, indigenous Hawaiian sovereignty leader sworn to Gandhian methods.

We’ll be looking forward to Thomas’ report on the experience!