Senior Fellows
The CPDD Senior Fellows are distinguished scholars and practitioners whose work contributes to the mission of CPDD. Their professional affiliations are external to the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security & Global Governance and either within or outside of the University of Massachusetts Boston. CPDD Center Fellows are advanced PhD students in the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security & Global Governance who are working in areas of CPDD focus.
Marie Breen-Smyth (DPhil, University of Ulster) is a distinguished scholar of political violence, conflict and international relations. She has had a long career as both a scholar and a practitioner working on the conflicts in Northern Ireland, the Middle East, and Southern and West Africa. She was active in peace-building in the Northern Irish peace process, established the Institute for Conflict Research in Northern Ireland, and led the first comprehensive research into the effects of the Troubles. Her research covers a diverse array of areas including human security, victim politics and the impact of armed conflict, the role of children in conflict in the United States and Northern Ireland, transitional justice, and post-conflict reconstruction. She is a founder editor of the journal Critical Studies on Terrorism, and author of many books and articles. She has also made two films with Northern Visions about the impact of political violence: And Then There Was Silence (2000, 62 min)) and Injured (2011, 59 min).
Lt. General (Ret.) Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau, Minister of the Interior, Federal Republic of Nigeria
Lt. General (Ret.) Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau (PhD, University of Keele) is Minister of the Interior for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He started cadet training at the Nigerian Defense Academy (NDA) in December,1974 and was commissioned into the Nigerian Army Infantry in June,1977. He held several staff, instructional, and command appointments, including Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Nigeria's highest army position. He held this position for four years until his retirement from the military in September 2010.
Cecilia U. Idika-Kalu (PhD, University of Massachusetts Lowell) is a Lecturer in Human Security and International Development at the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security and Global Governance. Her research focuses on development, security and human rights in comparative global contexts. She studies the dimensions of women's agency in violent extremism in Africa and is published in the Development Review.
As a scholar and practitioner, she has engaged in research and policy consultations with the United Nations Development Program in Africa (UNDP), the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston as a Civic Action Policy Fellow and the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF). Prior to working at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Cecilia worked as a management consultant offering capacity building in Africa. She is a SHRM-SCP professional with her focus on leadership and governance.
Jay Jinseop Jang, Director, Korean Penninsula Project
Jay Jinseop Jang (PhD, UMass Boston) has held leadership positions in the nonprofit, government, and business sectors for the past 30 years. He is the Managing Director and Founder of Education Divide Reform, a nonprofit organization committed to helping communities and societies bridge gaps in educational opportunities caused by economic inequality and barriers of language and culture. Since 2014, he has designed and implemented academic programs to help underperforming immigrant students in Greater Boston's public high schools so as to enhance their social integration and prospects for equal opportunity in the U.S. Dr. Jang's research interests include international security and peace, national security, and human security. As a scholar-practitioner, he aims to apply his research to the development of a new human-centric policy framework for the national security of strong states. To this end, in 2016, he piloted “Power of Hope: Global Entrepreneurship Education for North Korean Refugee Students,” a human-centric national security project oriented towards inter-Korean peace. He is currently working to develop educational and research projects related to global citizenship education and human-centric security in East Asia. These projects include “My Village & Global Dream,” a program for the educational development of rural communities, and programs for students from Japan, China, and Korea that promote intercultural compatibility, human development, and international peace. Dr. Jang is a founding member of the U.S. TaeKwonDo Education Foundation, a member of the Boston-based Korean American Citizenship League's Board of Directors, and chairman of the Korean American Business Association in Greater Boston.
Email: jjang@edrworld.org
Yves-Renee Jennings, Conflict Resolution Professional
Dr. Yves-Renée Jennings holds a Ph.D. from the George Mason University School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR). She is a conflict resolution professional and scholar-practitioner with deep understanding of societal and structural issues that often contribute to social conflicts. She is interested in human development and empowerment within the context of transformation of social and structural barriers that hinder groups from fully realizing their potential. Dr. Jennings can conceptualize, design, implement, and evaluate collaborative process and social transformation projects and programs focusing on conflict resolution and peace-building, as well as leadership, group and community empowerment and development within a multi-cultural context. Dr. Jennings taught at the Department of Rights and International Studies at University of Azuay in Cuenca, Ecuador, at FLASCO (Facultad Latinamericana de Ciencias Sociales Sede Ecuador--Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences Headquarters Ecuador) in Quito, at the School of International Service at the International Peace and Conflict Resolution Program at American University in Washington DC. She also taught at S-CAR at the George Mason University.
In 2009, Dr. Jennings co-founded Partners for Sustainable Peace (PSP), a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization that she co-founded in Virginia and served as Chief Executive Officer until 2014. In the past, she held a wide range of conflict resolution and peacebuilding positions, and conducted mediation training and facilitation sessions for Northern Virginia Mediation Services, the U.S. Institute of Peace Haiti program, the Fairfax Country Public Schools system, the George Mason University International Student Office, and the Arlington City. Dr. Jennings has also traveled to Liberia, Dominican Republic, and Haiti for various professional activities and research related to conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and social transformation. She worked for the World Bank for over twenty years and held positions in personnel management, administration, budget and resource management, risk management, internal controls, and internal auditing collaborating with World Bank offices in Washington DC and around the world. For instance, she worked with the World Bank offices in Argentina, Peru, Honduras, Venezuela and many African countries, such as Chad, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Rwanda, Senegal, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Togo. She worked in the private sector in Haiti, for over ten years, where she served as office manager overseeing many staff.
Darren Kew (PhD, Tufts University) is dean of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego. He studies the relationship between conflict resolution methods and democratic development in Africa (especially Nigeria), focusing in particular on the role of civil society groups. His other research interests include civil society, conflict prevention, and transnational civil society development; international security and crisis intervention in Africa; culture, religion, and conflict resolution; international negotiation; and nation-building. He has worked with the Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Preventive Action to provide analysis and blueprints for preventing conflicts in numerous areas around the world, including Nigeria, Central Africa, and Kosovo. He has also been a consultant on democracy and peace initiatives to the United Nations, USAID, the US State Department, and to a number of NGOs, including the Carter Center. Darren is author of numerous works on Nigerian politics and conflict resolution, including the forthcoming book, Democracy, Conflict Resolution, and Civil Society in Nigeria (Syracuse University Press).
Samantha Lakin (PhD, Clark University) is a research specialist focused on issues of transitional justice, genocide and atrocity prevention, and human security in post-conflict and post-atrocity settings. She is currently a Curriculum Analyst with the Office of Policy, Planning, and Resources for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs the U.S. State Department. Dr. Lakin was a Lecturer of Conflict Resolution in the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance at UMass Boston.
Dr. Lakin’s dissertation, “Kwibuka: Divergent Memories and Quests for Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda” was awarded Honorable Mention for the Lynne Reiner Publisher’s Award for Best Dissertation by the Human Rights Section of the International Studies Association (ISA). Lakin’s research has been supported by Fellowships at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Fulbright Scholarships in Rwanda (2017-2018) and in Switzerland (2011-2012), and grants from the African Studies Association, among others. She was a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRDP), a premiere think tank in Kigali, Rwanda, and a Transitional Justice Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies (NIOD) in Amsterdam.
Dr. Lakin has led research and policy teams in Rwanda, DRC, Ghana, Uganda, and in the Middle East, with organizations including the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard’s Kennedy School, the Kigali Genocide Memorial, Search for Common Ground, Inclusive Security, Refugee Law Project, and the American University of Iraq, Sulimani. Dr. Lakin was also a Senior Consultant in National Security with Guidehouse Federal, supporting U.S. government clients. Professor Lakin frequently publishes articles and op-eds on global social justice issues. She serves on the Board of Trustees of Survivors Fund, a UK-based NGO that supports genocide survivors living in Rwanda and has taught courses for incarcerated students through the Emerson Prison Initiative.
David Matz (JD, Harvard University) is the founder and former director of the UMass Boston Graduate Programs in Conflict Resolution and a principal with The Mediation Group in Brookline, MA. He has been active in the conflict resolution field for over 30 years as a mediator, trainer, and teacher. His work has focused on mediation and negotiation techniques and their relationship to the workings of organizations and courts. In the United States, David has been a leader in the development and use of assessment tools for court and community mediators, judges, and engineers. In Israel, he was central in developing policies and practices for the Israeli Ministry of Justice and Supreme Court in integrating mediation into the judicial system. He has also studied approaches to the peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians, worked extensively with Arab and Jewish groups in the U.S. and abroad, and is currently working with courts and law schools in China and Nigeria.
Malcolm Russell-Einhorn
Malcolm Russell-Einhorn (JD, Harvard Law School) is a comparative law and public administration specialist with over two decades of experience in international development and teaching, including work in legal and regulatory reform, public administration capacity building, administrative justice, open policymaking processes, decentralization, and legislative development. As part of the International Relations MA program at UMass Boston, he has taught Democratic Governance, Decentralization and Development; and Theory and Content of Comparative Public Administration. He has also taught the capstone course for the master's program in Global Comparative Public Administration. As a CPDD senior faculty fellow, he is principal investigator on a 3-year, $943,000 USAID-funded initiative aimed at improving the quality and legality of administrative decision-making and enhancing citizen legal awareness in Rwanda. Malcolm has conducted research and provided technical assistance to a wide variety of governmental and non-governmental agencies overseas. He has published several articles in the international development field, focusing on comparative administrative law and legal frameworks encouraging transparency and accountability in government service delivery.
Center Fellows
Nyingilanyeofori Hannah Brown is the NSF CRISES planning grant program coordinator for the Climate Inequality and Integrative Resilience Center (CLIIR center) at the Sustainable Solutions Lab,University of Massachusetts Boston. With a background in civil engineering, sustainable development, security, community resilience, coexistence, and conflict resolution, she is also a trained mediator and a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme.
Nyingilanyeofori has over twelve years of research and program management experience. Her work includes various projects focusing on sustainable development, peace and security, governance, social equity, climate change, security and inequality, DEI, community building and resilience, intercultural communication, cultural competency and humility, and social responsibility. Hannah has also worked with various development agencies, including the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),and Corporación para el Desarrollo Sostenible del Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina, Colombia (CORALINA).
She has trained senior-level development practitioners and top-level security officers from Gulf of Guinea countries (Angola, Cameroun, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria) and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Global Governance and Human Security program at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, she earned her BTech in Civil Engineering from Rivers State University (Nigeria) and holds two Master's degrees in Sustainable International Development and Coexistence and Conflict from Brandeis University.
Nkasi Wodu
Nkasi Wodu is a Fellow of the Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development and a Doctoral Candidate in Global Governance and Human Security at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is a trained Lawyer, an alumnus of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Accra, a certified mediation trainer and practitioner from the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (Nigeria), and a member of the United National Office of the Special Adviser on Africa’s (OSAA) knowledge Network. He holds two Masters’ degrees in Peace and Conflict Studies and in Global Governance and Human Security.
He has considerable research experience in research and analysis, including socio-political mapping. He has senior-level expertise in international development, program management, research, and planning for over twelve years in Nigeria with International Alert, Chevron Corporation’s Funded Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta, and the Center for Peace, Development, and Democracy.
He is currently managing a project on Supporting Civic Engagement in ten African Countries. The project aims at strengthening civil society’s capacity to engage in advocacy and oversight before, during, and after the upcoming electoral process in 10 African countries: Angola, DRC, Gabon, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe.
He has taught graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, The University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa, and the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He has also held over 50 workshops in negotiation, mediation, and peacebuilding concepts for ten years.
Email: Nkasiobu.Wodu001@umb.edu