Al Fuertes, PhD is a professor at George Mason University (GMU), specializing in community-based psychosocial trauma healing as a vital aspect of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and transformation. A seasoned teacher, field practitioner, and consultant, he works with diverse groups, including government, military, religious, and community leaders, as well as NGOs, educators, refugees, and displaced individuals and communities. His expertise spans facilitation, dialogue, global education, conflict transformation, anti-human trafficking, and displacement issues.

Al Fuertes has taught at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI), the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI), and the Northeast Asia Regional Peacebuilding Institute (NARPI). His current research focuses on reconciliation pedagogies in Rwanda, refugee repatriation in Burma, human trafficking prosecution in the Philippines, and post-conflict peacebuilding in Sri Lanka. He is also a recipient of numerous accolades.

Al Fuertes has been honored with the 2023 George Mason University Life Partnership Award, the 2020 Centreville Immigration Forum in Virginia, the 2019 Global Peacebuilder Award by the Daniel Fissell Music Foundation, the 2019 Outstanding Sillimanian Award for his work in peacebuilding and conflict transformation, the 2015 Spirit of Martin Luther King Award, the 2014 Oscar Mentoring Excellence Award, the 2008 GMU Teaching Excellence Award, and the 2001 AT&T Asia-Pacific Leadership Award.

His academic profile is available at https://integrative.gmu.edu/people/afuertes

Jonathan “Jon” E. Rudy is a global educator on the topics of human security, peacebuilding, conflict transformation, and nonviolence. With more than 35 years of work in 30 countries in Asia and Africa, Jon’s recent training energies have gone toward human security and civil society. He is a 21-year veteran facilitator at the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute and teaches regularly at the University of Hargeisa, Somaliland.

Jon served as Peacemaker-in-Residence at Elizabethtown College’s Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking from 2012-2019. He was a Senior Fellow for Human Security at the Alliance for Peacebuilding and a Senior Fellow at the Social Enterprise Service Group as a subject-matter expert in peacebuilding.

Jon is a Fulbright Specialist, having supported the peace studies program at the Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts in Pune, India, and is on the roster of UNDP ExpRes preapproved consultants in conflict resolution and peacebuilding. He is a core member of the Global Partners for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) Improving Practices Working Group. Jon is a 2001 graduate of Eastern Mennonite Seminary and University in the USA with a MA in Religion and a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation. He earned a Teaching for Higher Education Certificate from Temple University and has a BA in International Development, an AA in Industrial Arts, and a Minor in Communications from Bethel College in the USA.

Since COVID-19, Jon has facilitated Zoom-based peace education and human security-related training. Before the global shutdown, he facilitated workshops at the Initiatives of Change, and Caux Forum on Just Governance for Human Security in Switzerland.

Maria Ida “Deng” Giguiento is a dedicated grassroots peacebuilder from the Philippines with nearly 30 years of experience in conflict transformation. Currently pursuing a master’s degree at Cotabato State University, she has worked extensively in Mindanao and Timor-Leste, focusing on post-conflict peacebuilding and training diverse stakeholders in peacebuilding concepts.

A facilitator with the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute from 2000 to 2024, Deng received the 2015 Tanenbaum Peacemaker in Action Award and the 2018 Peace Weaver Award for her contributions to interreligious dialogue and peace efforts in Mindanao. Her past roles include Peacebuilding Training Coordinator for CRS-Philippines and Director of the Peace Education Center at Notre Dame University in Cotabato City.

Jeremy Simons, PhD is a senior research fellow at the Te Ngāpara Centre for Restorative Practice (Victoria University of Wellington) with experience as a facilitator, educator, and community-oriented researcher. From 2003-2008 he helped develop school-based restorative justice programming across Denver’s Public Schools, and then worked in peacebuilding and transitional justice in Mindanao until 2017.

He moved to New Zealand (where he still lives with his family) and completed a PhD in peace and conflict studies with a specific focus on Lumad Justice in 2021. As a ‘Third-Culture Kid,’ he continues to be curious about how culture interacts with restorative justice, peacebuilding, and community development.

Gail Ilagan, PhD is a clinical psychologist and a former chair of the Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) Department of Psychology (2011-2014 and 2018-2023). She completed the Peace Education Course under UNESCO Peace Education laureate Dr. Toh Swee-Hin in 2003. In 2023, she received the PFPA Outstanding Professional of the Year Award for Psychology and the UPAA Outstanding Professional of the Year Award for Social Sciences and Human Ecology.

She was conferred the Gawad Paglilingkod medal by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines in 2016. Gail works to strengthen mental health support for Mindanao communities directly affected by human-initiated and natural hazard-induced disasters or communities affected by conflict and disasters.

Michael Frank “Mike” Alar has over 20 years of peace-related work across Asia. He served as Project Manager for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, providing mediation support to Mindanao Peace Process stakeholders. He also worked for the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, designing and facilitating peace and conflict training.

Mike has worked, studied, and volunteered in the peace field in countries that have included Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, and Turkey. In the Philippines, he was a consultant for the United Nations Population Fund on Youth, Peace and Security, and a Project Manager for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue Philippines where he provided capacity-building opportunities and technical support to Mindanao Peace Process stakeholders.

Mike holds an MA in International Peace Studies, an advanced degree in Peace and Development Studies, a diploma in Islamic Studies and Interfaith Relations, and a BA in Political Science, Mike is currently a consultant for the World Bank Philippines, involved in the development and implementation of its conflict sensitivity framework.

Gimaidee “Mai” Moya is a passionate advocate for peace and justice with over 15 years of practical experience. She is an alumna of MPI’s Annual Peacebuilding Training and a graduate mentor of the MPI Grassroots Peacebuilding Mentors Training Program, having further honed her skills in 2017 through a 10-week course in Peace and Conflict Transformation at the Academy for Conflict Transformation in Bonn, Germany.

Ms. Moya’s career has evolved from volunteer to Acting Managing Director at Pailig Development Foundation, Inc., where she led initiatives focused on social cohesion and resilience, particularly in the aftermath of the Marawi Siege and the COVID-19 pandemic. Her expertise extends beyond Mindanao, addressing critical issues such as gender-based violence, interfaith collaboration, and forced displacement.

Before being a Director of Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI), she served as a Freelance Consultant at BePeace Consultancy, where she co-developed innovative non-formal education methods and mentored youth leaders, demonstrating her enduring commitment to justice, peace, and social cohesion both locally and globally.

May Che Capili is a dedicated development communication and advocacy specialist with over a decade of experience in peacebuilding initiatives, public policy, and stakeholder engagement. Her expertise spans from grassroots community training initiatives promoting indigenous peoples' rights to spearheading national social media campaigns for environmental awareness. She has also significantly contributed to policy advocacy, playing a crucial role in the enactment of the Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act and lobbying for national policies.

May Che’s work underscores a commitment to fostering inclusive peace policies and sustainable development and bridging grassroots efforts with national policy frameworks to address socio-political conflicts in the Philippines.

Myla Leguro holds an MA in Peace Studies from the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame in the USA. She has worked for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) since 1991 on peace and development projects in Mindanao. As the Program Manager of the Peace and Reconciliation Program of CRS-Philippines, Myla organized two major peacebuilding initiatives: the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute in 2000 and the Grassroots Peace Learning Course in 2003.

She has worked as an international trainer in Timor-Leste and Nepal and has served as a resource person in various peacebuilding conferences in Colombia, Thailand, and the USA. In 2006, she was the first CRS-Kroc Visiting Fellow. Myla holds the distinction as being one of the 1,000 women collectively nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

Myla has served as Program Director of a CRS global program on Advancing Interreligious Peacebuilding, an initiative that covered four interrelated projects on interreligious dialogue and cooperation in Egypt, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Niger, Nigeria, and the Philippines. She is currently the Technical Adviser II Social Cohesion and Church Engagement for CRS in Cotabato City, Philippines.

Oliver Wiechmann is an international consultant specializing in conflict transformation and participatory processes. With extensive experience across 10+ countries, he has utilized simulation games to address diverse conflict contexts, from fostering youth engagement in Mindanao to national peace negotiations in Cameroon. He currently coordinates a university network on Peace & Conflict Studies in South-East Asia.

At present, Oliver is the Regional Coordinator of the GIZ Civil Peace Service, the “South-East Asian University Partnership for Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation” (SAUP) that supports universities in promoting durable peace through innovation, networking, and research in Peace and Conflict Studies. He is also a founder and Director of DIALOGOS E.V (GERMANY). This organization is an association of trainers and consultants in the sphere of non-formal education with a focus on conflict transformation, civic education, and intercultural dialogue.

Marides "Madett" Virola-Gardiola is an independent facilitator and trainer for peace and well-being. She has worked with communities seeking transformation of individuals and society through empowerment strategies to address poverty, dependency, and conflict. For more than thirty years, the competencies that had been homed in the areas of organizational and human resource development, gender mainstreaming, cultural integrity, and peacebuilding have brought her to work with women's organizations, children's rights groups, peasants, urban settlers and, in recent years, indigenous and Moro groups in the Philippines and some countries in Asia.

Madett is an active member of professional membership networks such as the Human Development Network and sits on the Board of Community Organizers Multiversity. Her current passion is mentoring facilitators and leaders of non-government organizations that are deep into ecology work, alternative education, peacebuilding, and children’s rights where she contributes as part of the Board of Directors or as a process consultant. With an academic background in Philosophy, she believes that change starts with personal empowerment and has been teaching meditation and self-management as a volunteer in the last 30 years.