Adam García Amado

Dr. Adam García Amador is from Bayard, New Mexico. He is a graduate of Cobre High School. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education and his Master degrees in Educational Leadership and Human Performance and Sport from New Mexico Highlands University, in Las Vegas, New Mexico. He attended Howard University as a research intern and is a contributor to the Texas Tech University Principal Fellows Program. He received his doctorate in Educational Leadership and Administration with an emphasis on Higher Education from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. His work appears in the Journal of Equity & Excellence in Education as well as the Journal of Research on Leadership Education. He has been an educator for almost 20 years with experience in working in and with the culturally rich and diverse communities of New Mexico. Dr. Amador is currently the principal at R.V. Traylor Elementary in Lordsburg, New Mexico.

Elke Duerr

Elke Duerr is a filmmaker, author, visual and oral story teller, fiber artist, photographer, workshop presenter, teacher and the founder of the nonprofit Web of Life Foundation, W.O.L.F. Elke is the recipient of numerous grants and film awards. She loves to debunk myths and preconceived notions about our animals and natural world and revolutionize the way we see and experience nature.

T. Marie King

T. Marie King is an activist for the new millennium mixing art, empowerment and social justice. King travels leading seminars and speaking on understanding bias, healing and reconciliation, and community engagement. King has spoken to over 100 groups and organizations touching youth, college students and adults. King holds a B.A. in Urban and Global Economic Development from Beulah Heights University and Masters in Leadership and a Masters of Divinity from Luther Rice University.

Chris Klug

Chris Klug is a grief counselor in private practice in Iowa City, IA, and a mindfulness instructor.

His interest in, and study and practice of nonviolence began in 1983 when he traveled to India as a participant in a program on Gandhi and nonviolence co-led by Carl Kline. In the Fall of 1983, Carl invited him to be part of the leadership of the program, and from 1985 through 1999, he returned to India 11 times, co-leading groups and sometimes staying for as long as 4 months, facilitating programs on nonviolence and conflict resolution. In 1990, he joined Carl in Brookings, SD where together they founded and co- directed Nonviolent Alternatives, and in 1995, he became the Director of the Richmond Peace Education Center in Richmond, VA. In Brookings and in Richmond, in addition to the trips to India, much of the work was focused on training teachers and helping them implement curricula on creative conflict resolution, peer mediation, violence prevention and bias awareness.

While in Iowa, Chris has served on the Board of Directors for Peace Iowa, a local peace education and action center, and at their invitation offered these workshops: Gandhi, Nonviolence and US, 2008; Toward the Uplift of All: Building an Alternative Society Rooted in Gandhian Nonviolence, 2012; and Balancing the Outer and Inner Work of Peacemaking, 2016.

Since 1998, Chris and his wife Bev have lived on eight acres about 30 minutes from Iowa City.. The acreage contains a small sand prairie remnant which they have tried to preserve and restore, and is the home to ornate box turtles, among many others.

Michael Joseph

Michael Joseph has worked for peace, justice and human rights in the country of Colombia for the past twelve years. He most recently coordinated the Cafepaz Peace Studies Center based at the Baptist University and Seminary of Cali. Michael also worked closely with the Prophetic Call human rights documentation project that has documented the impact of Colombia’s internal armed conflict on Protestant churches, for 12 years. An ordained Baptist minister, Michael is a mission co-worker to Colombia with Global Ministries of
the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ. Michael has taught theology at both the Baptist University and Seminary in Cali and the Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Bogotá, Colombia. In May of 2004 Michael obtained a Master of Arts in Theology, with a focus in Ethics from Union Theological Seminary, in New York City. Michael was awarded the 2004 Anne M. Bennett and John C. Bennett Fellowship “for promise of excellence in a ministry of social service and advocacy for justice in the public arena.” In July of 2004 Michael was ordained by Metro Baptist Church in New York City. Michael obtained a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond, VA in May 2019.

M.P. Mathai

Mathai is a Professor at Gujarat Vidyapith, the university founded by Gandhi in Ahmedabad, India. He is former Dean of Gandhi Research Foundation and former Professor and Director at the School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies, M.G. University, Kerala, India. He is author of Gandhi’s Worldview and an editor of Gandhi Marg. Mathai is a well-known speaker in the East and the West, and he recently spoke at the signing of a peace pledge between some 400 members of rival gangs in Monterrey, Mexico.

Pamela Morgan

Pamela Morgan has worked with Carl Kline since 1990 as part of Lisle Foundation, Nonviolent Alternatives, and now Satyagraha Institute, attending and then co-leading 3 Lakota programs. She has studied with the eco-Buddhist systems thinker Joanna Macy and subsequently led several workshops using her exercises. Pamela and her community are currently fighting to prevent both a diversion on the Gila river and F16 training over the Gila forest and wilderness. She worked as a massage therapist for over 30 years and is starting a new career as a mental health therapist, specializing in body-oriented trauma therapy.

Yazmín Novelo

Yazmín Novelo is a Mayan singer from Peto, Yucatan. She began her artistic career at the age of 14, singing at festivals in and around her town, such as in Tzucacab, Xoy, Dziuche Quintana Roo, and Chumayel. After finishing high school, she set music aside to focus on college, getting a degree in Social Communication from the Faculty of Anthropological Sciences at the Autonomous University of Yucatan. She then went on to study a master’s degree in Sociolinguistics at the Universidad Mayor de San Simón in Cochabamba Bolivia. During this time, she developed new ways of seeing and working with music to relate it to processes of linguistic and cultural resistance. She began to compose music in Mayan and perform at local venues. Her current music is completely in Yucatec Maya and is part of various local resistance movements, that are in the defense of territory, healthy land, local production, such as maize farming, and local wisdom. Yazmín has also now returned to her alma mater, the Autonomous University of Yucatan, as a professor of Mayan Culture and Communication Studies. Together, Yazmín and Michael will be starting a non-profit organization in Peto, Yucatán later this year. Noting a rise in youth violence and suicide, the work will promote a culture of life and nonviolence through revitalizing Mayan language and culture and developing skills in conflict transformation and restorative justice with Mayan youth.

Joe Saenz

Joe Saenz, owner of WolfHorse Outfitters, is of Chihe ́ne (Warm Springs Apache) ancestry and is a member of the Chiricahua Apache Nation. He has extensive guiding experience in horseback and backpacking expeditions throughout the American Rocky Mountains including Canada, Mexico’s Sierra Madre, and Alaska’s Brooks Range. Known as an advocate for Apache cultural history and environmental education, Mr. Saenz continues to promote biodiversity and protection of the greater Gila ecosystem. He is working toward the return of the Red Paint Powwow in September of 2020 to spotlight Grant County as a Native venue.

Ariana Saludares

Trained as a mediator and facilitator at the age of 14, Ariana Saludares has worked since then to improve the lives of those around her. She is a coordinator at the now-famous shelter in Deming, New Mexico which provides practical and emotional support to asylum seekers and other immigrants. Ms. Saludares is the co-founder of Colores United, a non-profit which connects volunteers with people in need. She works with the New Mexico Governor’s Initiative to End Child Hunger and works with the Playsharity at the Deming Children’s Museum.

Edward Valandra

Edward Charles Valandra is Sicangu Titunwan/Oceti Sakowin Oyate who was born and raised in his homeland, the Great Sioux Reservation. He received his BA from Minnesota State University - Mankato, his MA from the University of Colorado-Boulder, and his PhD from State University of New York-Buffalo. Dr. Valandra has been involved in Native affairs, having served one four-year term as a legislator in his nation’s governing body, was his nation’s representative on the Inter-Tribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC) board of directors, and he also served on his nation’s seven-member Constitutional Task Force.

Edward is the founder of the Community for the Advancement of Native Studies (CANS). His organization promotes the application of research and study for all aspects of liberation and sovereignty with respect to Native Country and his research focus is the national revitalization of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate, the disciplinary development of Native Studies, and the development and use of community-based participatory research in Native communities.

Edward is also the Native Studies senior editor for the Living Justice Press, a small non-profit publisher specializing in restorative justice and harms between peoples. He is the author of Not Without Our Consent: Lakota Resistance to Termination, 1950-1959 and he continues to publish on matters promoting Native sovereignty and restorative justice. Dr. Valandra’s current role is the Academic and Professional Development Studies Dean at Saint Francis Indian School.

Laura Ramnarace

Laura Ramnarace, M.A. lives in southwestern New Mexico near the Gila National Forest where she works as a mediator for New Mexico’s Children’s Court and as an educator. Since 1999 she has provided conflict intervention services and training to educators, businesses, non-profit staff and ad-hoc community groups on improving interpersonal, working, and inter-group relationships. She has also provided trainings on nonviolent action for social and political change. Ms. Ramnarace has authored a column on interpersonal relationships for the Silver City Independent, is a contributor to the online magazine Rebelle Society, guest hosts for KURU Radio and is the author of the novel Sung Home, the story of the shattering loss of a doomed way of life and of a second chance for humanity.

Contact: laura@satyagrahainstitute.org