Michelle Arévalo-Carpenter was born and raised in Quito, Ecuador. She studied Human Rights, Political Science and Philosophy at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, Canada. While at St. Thomas, Michelle founded the university's Human Rights Society and led campaigns related to children in armed conflict and multiculturalism.  Michelle then completed her graduate studies at University of Oxford's Masters' of Studies Programme in International Human Rights Law. Michelle has worked defending human rights at the grassroots level as well as before the UN Human Rights Council. When she returned to her home country, Michelle was a refugee claims adjudicator for the Ecuadorian government and later became the founding director of the Ecuadorian offices of Asylum Access, a refugee legal aid NGO. Michelle is currently in her first year at the Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley. She plans to spend the summer supporting the land rights struggle against development-induced displacement in India, Cambodia and Thailand.

Daniel Cooney, New Zealand

For the past 10 years, Dan has been jumping around Asia and beyond - and for most of it doing something he loved: journalism. He worked for Associated Press and it took him from the jungles of Borneo in Indonesia reporting on headhunting tribesmen, north to the crazily fortified frontier between the two Koreas, and then west all the way to Baghdad. His last job was as Associate Press's correspondent in Kabul, responsible for the agency's coverage of the war in Afghanistan. Dan left the Associate Press after being offered the chance to contribute a little to Afghanistan’s nation-building effort by helping the government counter the propaganda of the Taliban (which turned out to be a lot tougher than expected). Then at the start of 2007, Dan and his wife decided to move to safer pastures and he took a job with the Asian Development Bank in Manila, raising public awareness across Asia about climate change. Dan was born in New Zealand, and grew up there, Kenya and Australia. He has a BA in Communications from Australia’s Murdoch University. As a Rotary World Peace Fellow at Berkeley, Dan is pursuing a Masters in Public Policy. His ambition after graduating is to return to Asia to work on communication campaign, engaging with governments and development organizations to promote environmental, social and other issues of importance to the region’s future.

Elias Edise Courson, Nigeria
 

Elias Courson is a lecturer with the Department of Philosophy, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. He is also an executive committee member of OUR NIGER DELTA (OND), a non-profit, non-governmental organization in Nigeria’s oil rich Niger Delta. The organization is involved in research, conflict management, resolution, mediation, peace building and facilitation of development. As a teacher and researcher, Elias is deep in research, documentation and mediation in the oil induced crisis of Nigeria’s Niger Delta. He has been trained in conflict mediation/mitigation by the United Nations University for Peace on “Non-Violent Transformation of Conflict” and also by the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) on conflict resolution skills. Elias earned his Bachelor of Arts (1997) and Master of Arts (2005) degrees in Philosophy from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, respectively. Elias Courson is currently a Rotary World Peace fellow at the University of California, Berkeley pursuing a Master degree in Geography.

Alejandra Rueda, Colombia
 

Alejandra Rueda was born in Colombia. She is an economist with postgraduate degrees in financial and marketing management and work experience in the financial and agriculture sectors. During the past 8 years, she has been working on developing livelihood opportunities for farmers and peasants who are living in rural areas where social conflict is a constant. She focused her efforts in mainly two social projects. Her first project ensured productive progress and sustainable livelihood to farmers affected by the internal war and helping them to become landowners and oil palm producers through an economic and environmental model. This project supported by the government and private sector had a positive impact on more than 1200 people and now similar schemes are implemented all around the country. Alejandra's second project was related to the National Sustainable Sustainable Biofuel Program in Colombia where she had an active role on the development and implementation of biofuel blends as a key for agricultural expansion and economic growth. This project could provide opportunities to internally displaced people to come back to the countryside by working on the land to achieve a sustainable livelihood. At Berkeley, Alejandra is pursuing a Master in Energy and Resources focused on rural development in a post social conflict stage in Colombia.

Yawo Tekpa, Togo
 

Yawo Tekpa is a Human Rights, Social Justice and Peace activist from Togo, West Africa. He was a Law student when he fled his country in 2001 in order to escape political persecution. As a leader of a student movement against the repressive and corrupt regime in his country, Yawo was expelled from the University, arrested, and tortured. Yawo arrived in the U.S. in 2001 where he was granted political asylum. He pursued his education while contributing his experience to many organizations in the U.S. among which Amnesty International USA and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, San Francisco. He earned a B.A in Peace and Conflict Resolution from the University of California, Berkeley in 2007. Yawo currently serves as the Area Coordinator for Northern California for Amnesty International and as a pro-bono interpreter for asylum cases with Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. He is completing his L.L.M (Masters in Law) this May 2009 from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. His areas of concentration are International Criminal Law and International Human Rights Law, and his career goal is to serve as a judge or prosecutor at one of the world's International Courts or Tribunals. He will also complete his M.A in International and Area Studies with concentration in Conflict Resolution at the University of California, Berkeley in May 2010.

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