Empowering learning for just and peaceful societies

Empowering Learning for Just and Peaceful Societies

We employ a distributed leadership model that prioritises decision-making for people and partners working directly in conflict contexts. In addition to our own staff in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, we collaborate on consultancy projects with leading peacebuilding experts globally.

Global Staff

Stephen Gray

Global Director

Josefine Roos

Director of Learning

Milton Arteaga

Colombia Program Manager

Mauricio Guevara

Action Research Facilitator

Juan Esteban Uribe

Action Research Facilitator

Leidy Guaca

Action Research Facilitator

Yaneth Perez

Action Research Facilitator

Collaborators

We partner on consultancy with peace and development professionals with rich expertise, networks, and experience in a range of methodologies, thematic domains, and geographic contexts. Please consult their profiles to review their expertise.

Lina Penagos

Illicit Economies, Borderlands, Research | Europe, LatAm

Borja Paladina Adell

Peace Processes, Peacebuilding, Evaluation | Europe, Colombia

Ángela Baez-Silva

Peacebuilding, Facilitation, Research, Evaluation, Governance | Colombia

Frederike Luise Engeland Minegishi

Complexity MEAL | Global

Dr. Khin Mar Mar

Gender, Peacebuilding, Research | Burma

Francis Zau Tu

Human Rights, Peacebuilding, Natural Resources | Burma

Courtnae Dunn

Courtnae Dunn

Peace Leadership Specialist and Process Facilitator | Global

Board of Trustees

Danny Burns

May Sabe Phyu

Cedric de Coning

Carolina Gonzalez

Erik Kikuchi 

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Spain  |  Thailand  |  Colombia  | United Kingdom

support@adaptpeacebuilding.org

Adapt Peacebuilding is a registered U.K. Charity and certified equivalent to U.S. non-profits. Donations are tax deductible.

Stephen Gray

Global Director

Stephen specialises in innovating peace and social justice work. His expertise include peace process design and accompaniment, adaptive programming and MEAL, participatory methodologies, power theory, decolonialisation and local leadership, trauma-sensitivity and mindful dialog, qualitative peace research methods, and non-profit management. Stephen has twenty years experience in international peace and development for a range of governments, United Nations agencies, non profit organisations, and academic institutions. Stephen holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University and is a Doctoral Researcher at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Stephen is from New Zealand. 

Josefine Ross

Director of Learning

Josefine has spent much of the past decade working in countries affected by conflict. Recent engagements include developing the UN Staff College trainings’ on Conflict Sensitive Programming, as well as leading content creation and facilitating the UN Foundation initiative ‘Peace on Purpose’s” champion program, that provides mindfulness and wellbeing workshops to UN Staff worldwide. In her work as a facilitator and trainer she draws upon experience as a New York Peace Institute mediator, program manager of peacebuilding initiatives for the United Nations in Colombia, and from supporting conflict analysis and training in Myanmar, as deputy country director of CDA Collaborative Learning Projects. She has previously worked for the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) in New York, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Colombia. She is a certified yoga teacher that believes in a holistic approach to peacebuilding. Josefine holds a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University (SIPA) in New York, and an MA (Hons) from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Milton Arteaga

Colombia Program Manager

Milton holds a Professional in Business Administration and Finance from the University of South Florida and a Masters of Business Administration at Boston University. He also has a Masters in Cultural Biology at the Matríztica School of Santiago de Chile with Dr. Humberto Maturana and Ximena Dávila Yañez. His research has focussed on understanding how human beings come out of suffering and how the experience of broadening understanding occurs in educational spaces. Milton is a Professor of the Project Formulation and Evaluation, Leadership and Relational Negotiation chairs in the Finance and Foreign Trade undergraduate course at the Sergio Arboleda University. He was associate dean of the Finance and Foreign Trade program and director of the Strategic Center for Negotiation and Relations for Latin America. He was also academic director of the Manuel Mejía Foundation. As a consultant, he has been involved in projects related to education, leadership, strategy, financial management, negotiation and cultural transformation for public and private entities such as the Government of Cundinamarca, the Search Unit for Disappeared Persons, ETB, Terpel, Colegio Gimeno Moderno, the Ministry of Sport, Mayor’s Office of Bogota, SENA among others.

Mauricio Guevara

Mauricio is a peace advisor in the municipality of El Tambo Cauca, social and community leader, president of the social organization Casa de la Juventud Corporation, and student
of political science at the University of Cauca, with a diploma in dialogue, innovation and leadership from The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy.
As a peace advisor and member of the Casa de la Juventud Corporation, he has participated in different social, community, communicative and cultural initiatives that promote coexistence, dialogue, culture, and respect for human rights, promoting new leadership in youth and encouraging the active participation of community and rural actors in the territory. Maurico is co-researcher and facilitator of the SAR (Systemic Action Research) methodology for Adapt Peacebuilding’s Co-Inspira Colombia Program.

Viviana Cuchillo

Colombia Relation Leader

Viviana is an indigenous Colombian woman of nasa origin, Salvador’s mother, a competitive CrossFit fan, a retired plutocratic law attorney and a Master’s student in interdisciplinary studies on development at the University of Cauca. Her experience has been diverse. She has worked with indigenous reservations in the department of Cauca, Colombia, delegated as secretary of the municipal government in Santander de Quilichao, advisor to the Police in youth participation processes, manager of dialogue with the Fundación Ideas para la Paz, advisor to the USAID land program, founder of Magenta NGO and advisor to a private company for social investment RSE. Currently, she is part of the team for CO-INSPIRA project. Her role is to accompany the communities in empowering the path of peace and construction through dialogue and horizontal relationships.

Juan Esteban Uribe

Juan Esteban Uribe Garcia is from the municipality of El Tambo in the department of Cauca. His work has been influenced and motivated by music, theater, dance, literature, art. He is a graphic designer, graduated from the Public University of the department of Cauca (Universidad del Cauca), and focused on creative approaches to participatory action with rural communities. He is also pursuing graduate qualifications in Agrobiotechnology.
With the Corporación Casa de la Juventud and Adapt Peacebuilding Juan has been establishing cultural spaces such as the Ritmos de Paz (2017/2018/ 2020) and El Festival de la Cordillera (2022) where peace and human rights issues are presented and discussed in the territories. Juan is and advisor to the Territorial Council for Peace, Coexistence and Reconciliation and works in the Colombia Co-Inspira program as a facilitator of systemic action research groups.

Leidy Guaca

Leidy is a political scientist graduate from the Universidad del Cauca, and a member of the research group Grupo de Estudios Sociales Comparativos (GESC) of the Universidad del Cauca. She is currently pursuing graduate studies in Government and Territories at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar in Ecuador. Sanjuaneña, a full-time mother, peasant woman and Territorial Peace Advisor for the municipality of Bolivar (Cauca). She is part of the Co Inspira Team as a facilitator at the Cauca level and a volunteer in the alternative and popular communication media El Cuarto
Mosquetero.

Yaneth Perez

Yaneth Perez is a social leader and has been a human rights defender for 17 years. She is part of the bureau of participation of victims at municipal and departmental level of Cauca, and is also a delegate of the Territorial Council of Peace and Reconciliation, the
Advisory Council of Women, and the Federation of Victims of Cauca. She is a student of the School of Public Administration and the mother of a beautiful daughter. She has previously accompanied social work processes with victims of the conflict and also works to recover the social fabric of Cauca through art, culture, and training for peacebuilding.
She is part of the Adapt Peacebuilding Colombia Family, and her is as a facilitator accompanying systemic action research circles.

Lina Penagos

Illicit Economies, Borderlands, Research | Europe, LatAm

Lina Penagos is a political scientist specializing in the Underground Economy, Adaptive peacebuilding, migrations, and security outlooks. She has conducted fieldwork in Colombia, Venezuela, Turkey, and Greece. Lina holds a Ph.D. in political science from Gustave Eiffel University (France), a BA in International Relations and Political Sciences from Nueva Granada Military University (Colombia), and a master’s degree in economics from Santo Tomás University (Colombia). She has lectured at universities in Colombia and France and was a research collaborator for JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development.  She is currently affiliated with the French research unit ‘LIPHA’ (Université Paris-Est Créteil)

Borja Paladina Adell

Peace Processes, Peacebuilding, Evaluation | Europe, Colombia

Borja is a highly experienced peacebuilding and conflict resolution professional specializing in designing, directing, and evaluating programs in conflict-affected areas, particularly in Latin America. With expertise in inclusive peace process design, local-level peacebuilding, and reconciliation. Borja has served as an advisor and consultant to various decision-makers, including the United Nations, philanthropic organizations, and Universities. Known for fostering dialogue and collaboration among stakeholders, Borja has worked extensively in conflict settings. Additionally, Borja is a senior advisor, program manager, and capacity development expert at local, national, and international levels. As a multilingual European Union citizen born in Spain. Borja is fluent in English, Spanish, Catalan, and Norwegian.

Ángela Baez-Silva

Peacebuilding, Facilitation, Research, Evaluation, Governance | Colombia

Ángela works in Colombia, from systems and complexity approaches, based upon Cultural-Biology, focused on gender, local development and territorial peace. She facilitates dialogues, qualitative research, MEL, and transformative social/organizational processes, always under collaborative- horizontal relationships.  Her curiosity is now on imaging new architectures/governances for peace.

Frederike Luise Engeland Minegishi

Complexity MEAL | Global

Ms Frederike Engeland Minegishi is a strategic planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning consultant. Frederike has almost 10 years of experience in fundraising, strategic planning, development and implementing adaptive MEL systems with a focus on learning, including building capacity on adaptive MEL thinking and approaches, as well as planning, managing and conducting project and programme level evaluations and strategy reviews, including outcome harvests. For the past 5 years, her focus has been on advising and supporting both international and national development actors working on peacebuilding, human rights, social inclusion, gender equality and democratic governance in Southeast Asia, in particular in Myanmar – where she has set up a small consulting business with Myanmar colleagues – but also Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.  A comprehensive list of Frederike’s clients can be found on her CV and includes foreign ministries as well as multi-donor funds, EU- and UN- funded project initiatives, INGOs, and local CSOs. Over the past few months and the experience of Covid-19 and the coup, Frederike has tried and tested ways to ensure evaluators are able to continue their work in an ethical, conflict sensitive, do no harm manner. Frederike has basic knowledge of conversational Burmese and has worked with different levels of stakeholders in Shan, Kachin, Karen and Chin states in particular.

Dr. Khin Mar Mar

Gender, Peacebuilding, Research | Burma

Dr. Mar is an award-winning Burmese anthropologist and a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, where she serves as Interim Director and Convener of International Gender Studies. She has been honored with the ‘Excellence in Gender Research’ award. With over 25 years of experience, Dr. Mar is an expert in anthropological research methods, documentary making, and socio-political organizing in Southeast Asia. Her work has focused on peace, development, gender, forced migration, and trafficking issues since the 1990s.

Dr. Mar has served as a senior adviser to various UN agencies, including the Myanmar Peace Support Initiative, the Joint Peace Fund, DFID, AusAID, the Myanmar Ministry of Women, Youth and Children Affairs, the Women’s MP Networks, Civil Disobedience Movement, and Australian Myanmar Institute (Australia). She has also contributed to various Regional Child Protection programs. Additionally, she is a trustee of several organizations, including E-Tekkatho, which provides educational resources for displaced and isolated people.

As a producer, Dr. Mar has played a pivotal role in the award-winning documentary film “Dreams of Dutiful Daughters,” which highlights conflict, displacement, and gender-based and structural violence at the Thai-Burma borderlands.

Francis Zau Tu

Human Rights, Peacebuilding, Natural Resources | Burma

Francis is a Chiang Mai University research fellow in the Myanmar Scholars Program. For 15 years Francis led civil society peacebuilding and human rights initiatives within Myanmar. He is a former adviser to various national political actors and international organisations, including the EU, US, and various UN agencies. He is a former director of Humanity Institute and former fellow of the Belfast-based Social Change Initiative. In collaboration with Adapt Peacebuilding he provides training and supports the implementation of participatory action research projects in remote and conflict-affected geographies. 

Courtnae Dunn

Peace Leadership Specialist and Process Facilitator | Global

Courtnae Dunn is a Peace Leadership Specialist and Process Facilitator. Her work supports individuals, organizations and government institutions on the frontlines of peacebuilding. Her practice is focused on intersection of conflict transformation and leadership development  and is informed by over 15 years of experience living and working in conflict and ‘post’-conflict settings (Northern Ireland, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Palestine and Belarus) with a focus on supporting women peace leaders and cultivating trauma and resiliency informed communities of practice. 

Some of her current work includes facilitating a leadership and mentoring program for women mediators in Europe, Afghanistan and Ukraine through the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), supporting the Swedish government’s strategy in the Western Balkans as a leadership and gender specialist and supporting local peacebuilding initiatives in Sweden using the Dialogue for Peaceful Change (DPC) Methodology to address rising community violence.

Courtnae is a dual American and Swedish citizen, and is based in Stockholm with her family. She holds a Master’s Degree in Gender and Development from the London School of Economics, where her research focused on applying a systemic conflict transformation approach to international policies on Women, Peace and Security. She is a qualified leadership coach, yoga teacher and provisional teacher in the Community Resiliency Model with the Trauma Resource Institute. Since 2007, she has been working as a trainer and coach with DPC, and she has delivered DPC trainings to a range of different groups in a variety of cultural settings.

Area expertise: Peace Leadership, Gender Peace and Security, Dialogue and Mediation 

Methods: Reflective Practice, Process Facilitation, Learn Experience Design, Leadership Coaching

 

Danny Burns

Danny Burns is a Professorial Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. His work focuses on participatory learning for social change with a strong emphasis on systems thinking and complexity. Between 2002 and 2010 he was Professor of Social & Organisational Learning at the University of the West of England (UWE). At UWE, he co-directed the SOLAR action research centre. Prior to this he was a lecturer, then senior lecturer, at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol. There he was Programme Director of the M.Sc. in Management Development and Social Responsibility. Previously, Danny worked as the Director of the Tenant Participation Advisory Service for Scotland and prior to that as Director of the Decentralisation Research and Information Centre. Over the past eight years he has directed or co-directed more than twenty participatory research projects.

May Sabe Phyu

May is a vastly experienced advocate for women’s full realization of their human rights. She is currently serving as Director of the Gender Equality Network in Myanmar, where she has helped build various civil society platforms to advance the rights of women. She is the Co-Founder of the Kachin Peace Network, and the Kachin Women’s Peace Network. In 2015, she was the recipient of the International Women of Courage Award. In 2017, she was honoured for her role in advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda in Myanmar through the Global Trailblazer Award. In 2019 she received the N-Peace award. May holds a Masters in Gender and Development Studies from Thailand’s Asian Institute of Technologyand is also an alumnus of the Mason Fellowship from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Cedric de Coning

Cedric de Coning is a Research Professor in the Research group on peace, conflict and development at NUPI. He co-directs the NUPI Center on United Nations and Global Governance, and the Climate, Peace and Security Risk project. He coordinates the Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network (EPON) and contributes to the Training for Peace programme, the UN Peace Operations project (UNPO) and several others. He is also a senior advisor for ACCORD. He tweets at @CedricdeConing. Cedric has 30 years of experience in research, policy advise, training and education in the areas of conflict resolution, peacekeeping, peacebuilding and peace and conflict studies. Cedric has a Ph.D. in Applied Ethics from the Department of Philosophy of the University of Stellenbosch, and a M.A. (cum laude) in Conflict Management and Peace Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Carolina Gonzalez

Carolina is the Director of Evaluar Consultores, a Colombian for profit organisation focusing on monitoring and evaluation of social impact projects in Colombia. She has led the processes of evaluation, systematization, and monitoring and verification of results of more than 40 initiatives carried out by grassroots organizations and foundations of a family and business nature. She coordinates the process of monitoring and verifying the results of a regional project that is carried out in 8 Latin American countries in which more than 20 community organizations and several foundations from the business sector are linked. Since 2016 she has been the general director of Evaluar Consultores. Carolina holds a Bachelors in Business Administration from the Externado University of Colombia, with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the San Pablo CEU University of Spain.

Erik Kikuchi

Erik Kikuchi helps CEOs and their leadership teams succeed. As a three-time bootstrapped entrepreneur with two successful exits, a Vistage/TEC Canda Master Chair, CEO Coach, and Keynote Speaker and Workshop facilitator – through to turning around two international companies, Erik brings over twenty-five years of bootstrapping to exits, leadership turnaround, and family business experience to his clients. Erik Kikuchi’s clients have won awards such as Canada’s Fastest Growing Companies, Top 40 under 40, Canada’s Top 100 Employers, and EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year award. Erik has also founder several non-profit organisations, is the author of the book “Worth: Purpose beyond Amnition,” and has spent several years volunteering in South America.