Board Members

Kathya Dawe
President
Kathya is an attorney with masters in Anthropology (Brazil) and in Law (US), and was a Fulbright Humphrey Fellow in International Human Rights at the University of Minnesota Law School. She teaches International Human Rights at St. Thomas Law School. Kathya worked in Brazil for a State Government Foundation providing legal assistance to inmates in a maximum security prison. At the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in The Hague, she worked for the Trial Chamber in the Ratko Mladić case, who was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity. During her Fulbright program, Kathya had a professional affiliation at MTN where she created and hosted shows about the US prison system and global human rights. Kathya has been honored with such awards as the Sullivan Ballou Award for heartfelt commitment to Human Rights, a Paul Harris Fellow and a Paul Harris Safire from Rotary International. Kathya has served as a board director for organizations in Brazil and in the US, most recently co-founding the Brazilian Lawyers Association. Kathya loves to play the piano, dance the Argentine tango, watch movies and travel.

Maddy Wegner

Vice-President

Maddy Wegner is an educator and communications specialist who enjoys building teams, developing new approaches to and resources on education issues, and engaging others — especially young people — in these processes. She has served as the National Youth Leadership Council’s (NYLC’s) Director of Content and Engagement, developing resources for service-learning practitioners that bring research to practice and integrating human and child rights frameworks. She has also served as NYLC’s Director of Communications, overseeing strategic communications including policy, marketing, research, and curriculum development. While the roots of her teaching trace back to teaching middle and high school English Language Arts, her interests in peace-building and conflict resolution have led her to more informal education settings. Through work with a number of nonprofits she has helped inspire young people to action through the lives and work of Nobel Peace Prize laureates by co-developing a series of iBooks entitled Being the Change as well as another series rooted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. A member of the Executive Committee for Minneapolis’ Child Friendly Cities designation and that of Human Rights Educators, USA, she is a recipient of the Stellar Service-learning Award and an “Outstanding Contributions to Service-Learning” award from the Minnesota Department of Education. She received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, her teacher training through the University of California, Berkeley’s Bay Area Writing Project and an M.S.J. from Northwestern University.  

Nancy Dunlavy
Secretary
Nancy worked as a reference librarian for over 25 years, first at the University of Minnesota and then at Honeywell’s Systems and Research Center. She has been a member of Soka Gakkai International, a socially engaged Buddhist community, for over 50 years. She has initiated community events at numerous venues in the Twin Cities metro area in relation to the Earth Charter, a Culture of Peace and other causes. Now retired, she most recently served as Director of The Workable World Trust.

Kristi Rudelius-Palmer

Treasurer
Kristi is a Human Rights Education Consultant and currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Leadership for Intercultural and International Education at the University of Minnesota.  She is a founder of Human Rights Educators USA and the University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education. From 1989-2016, Kristi co-directed the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center, including teaching as Adjunct Associate Professor of Law and directing the International Humphrey Fellowship Program. She also served as publishing editor for the Human Rights Education Series of the Human Rights Resource Center (1997-2016). Kristi received the first Edward O’Brien Award for Human Rights Education from Human Rights Educators USA in 2015 and was awarded the University of Minnesota Outstanding Community Service Award in 2003.

Fadia Thabet

Vice-Treasurer
Fadia Thabet is a conflict analysis expert and peacebuilding initiatives designer. She is particularly interested in Countering Violent Extremism programs (CVE) in the MENA region focusing on al Qaeda and ISIS movement prevention. She has provided consultancy services to international organizations (Danish Refugee Council, UNICEF, American Refugee Committee, Center for Victims of Torture, and Youthrive). She was a 2017 US State Department International Women of Courage Award Recipient. In 2018, Fadia was recognized for her work in peacebuilding by Nobel Peace Prize Forum where she shared the stage as a panelist with The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, Nobel Peace Prize Winner 2015. She was the keynote speaker for the Women Refugee Commission and Nobel Women’s Initiative and has appeared CNN and CBS news. Previously, she was responsible for designing and implementing preventing violent extremism programs in Yemen for six years and best practices in gender-based violence focused in the MENA region. Fadia has a master’s degree in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation. She is a 2015-2016 Fulbright Alumna. Her specialties include program implementation and design, training and facilitation, conflict mapping and assessment, monitoring & evaluation, and leading humanitarian missions and peace initiatives design.

Gail Hughes
Gail has been on the Leadership Team of the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (MAP) for the last four years, and is active in the Minnesota Peace Project. She is very active in Citizens for Global Solutions at the national level, serving as a member of the Board, as coordinator of the World Federation Book Club, and as co-lead of the World Federalist Institute (WFI). Gail is a part-time faculty member in Post-Secondary and Adult Education at Capella University, and has previously taught Global Studies, Sociology, and Interdisciplinary Social Science at St. Cloud State University. In earlier years, she was a program evaluator for the Minnesota Community Colleges. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho and as an Independent Volunteer in Botswana.

Beth Blick
Beth has been an advocate within ADAPT, a national grassroots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom. Disability rights is a passion for Beth, since she has experienced firsthand many difficulties in housing, health care, employment and other aspects of daily life.

N. John Borgen
Now retired after 40 years of service as a union organizer with the state teacher union (Education Minnesota, formerly known as the Minneapolis Education Association). Way back when, John was a music teacher in Wisconsin for four years.

Larry Johnson
Larry is a storyteller, an educator, and a peace activist. He spent much of his career working with young people on communication-related programs, mostly at Minneapolis Children’s Hospital and in the Minneapolis Public School system. He currently works part-time for Plymouth Congregational Church, is a volunteer with the Veteran Resilience Project, and has been an organizer for World Storytelling Day since its beginning in 2003.  A conscientious objector, he was an unarmed medic in the Vietnam war era, serving in Germany.  In recent years, he was for five years President of the local Veterans for Peace chapter in the Twin Cities.  His recent book, “SIXTY-ONE”, consists of 61 short essays calling for less war, more walking, and no arguing on veteran care.  

Jim Nelson
Jim earned a degree in Economics from the University of Minnesota and a Certificate in International Management from Minnesota State University, Mankato. He worked over 40 years in three Twin City industrial Aerospace companies. In parallel to his corporate career Jim worked in small scale farms and gardens focusing on native plants and insect pollinators. He attended the first UN conference on the environment in 1972. He was recognized with the Honeywell Corporate Community Service Award in 1996 for community education about the UN. The UN Association of MN honored Jim with the Harold Stassen Award in 2016 for 50 years of service. The Johansen Foundation (Denmark) presented a lifetime achievement award for Global Sustainability in 2017.

Dr. Bharat Parekh
A native of India, he earned his PhD in Physics from the University of Rochester. He was professor of Physics at ND State University and a research scientist for the ND State Water Institute, Fargo, ND. As a consultant for US and Indian companies and NGOs his work has involved technology transfer and trade in environment and agro-food sectors. His current passion is to fight the scourge of malnutrition in Mumbai and other parts of India. He has long been an active board member of several organizations in the Twin Cities:  Citizens for Global Solutions; St. Paul/Minneapolis Committee on Foreign Relations; United Nations Association and Toddler Food Partners. He set up the Minnesota Millennium Initiative to champion the achievement of the UN MDGs. His new venture is the Sarvodaya Project.

Ligia Ferraz

Ligia Ferraz was accepted as the second-ranked candidate out of hundreds of applicants to study Law at the State University of Londrina, considered one of the best universities in Brazil and Latin America. In October 2017, at the age of just 24, before even completing her studies in Law, she passed the Brazilian Bar Exam and obtained her license to practice law in Brazil. Ligia worked as a criminal defense attorney in Brazil for almost 5 years, especially on behalf of vulnerable defendants, and has performed criminal defenses in higher courts, including the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), the second most important court in Brazil, second only to the Federal Supreme Court (STF). Ligia was appointed by the Brazilian Bar Association to work as a volunteer public criminal attorney in the state of Paraná, Brazil, in the defense of prisoners, defendants, and all kinds of detainees who are in vulnerable situations or cannot afford legal representation. As a passionate advocate for Criminal Law, Human Rights, and International Law, Ligia joined the team of volunteer activists at Amnesty International Brazil in the city of Londrina, Paraná, in May 2021. There, she has actively participated in human rights movements, especially those advocating for political rights, women's rights, and the rights of other minorities. Currently, Ligia works remotely from Brazil as an Immigration Paralegal for a US-based law office on various types of immigration cases, especially family-based and humanitarian ones.

Maryam Yusefzadeh

Maryam, a musician, came to the US in 1975 to further her education. She has subsequently been an educator on Iran, Persian history, politics and culture, drawing often on her musical background. She actively promotes peaceful resolution of Middle Eastern political problems, is an advocate for natural health practices and various environmental causes and has been a member of the United Nations Association.