Karuna Center’s approach to peacebuilding aims to assist communities and societies create a sustainable peace. Karuna Center works in every stage of a conflict – analyzing and addressing the root causes of tension, leading interventions to prevent further violent escalation, and encouraging reconciliation.

International Advisory Board

Elise Boulding, Ph.D., is a respected Quaker peace activist in the United States, engaged with the issues of her day since World War II. She has dedicated herself to conflict transformation studies and peacebuilding, founding the Peace Studies program at Dartmouth College and serving as past President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the International Peace Research Institute.  She is the author of many books on peace studies including Cultures of Peace: The Hidden Side of History and Building a Global Civic Culture.

Professor Kevin P. Clements is a world-renowned scholar and Foundation Director of The Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies in Australia. As Secretary General of International Alert, he worked with European governments on conflict prevention and resolution, and supervised field programs in the Great Lakes region of Africa, West Africa, the Caucasus, Asia and Latin America. He has been an advisor to the New Zealand, Australian and British governments on policies of nuclear disarmament, defense, and security.  He is the author of many books and articles including, Back from the Brink: The Creation of a Nuclear Free New Zealand; Building International Community and Peace and Security in the Asia Pacific Region: Post Cold War Problems and Prospects.  
Email: k.clements@uq.edu.au

Richard Deats served the US Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) in many capacities, including Executive Secretary and Fellowship editor, from 1972 until his retirement.  He worked with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Tunisia, liberation groups in Burma and indigenous movements in Ecuador.  Richard led nonviolence trainings in many countries, such as South Africa, Bangladesh, the Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Haiti, Kenya, Lithuania, Russia, Colombia, Palestine and Israel.  Nationalism and Christianity in the Philippines is one of his important books.    

Hildegard Goss Mayr of Austria is one of the world's premier nonviolence activists.  She is the honorary president of International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR).  She has devoted her life to resisting social injustice and promoting nonviolent alternatives to violence. Hildegard and her late husband Jean Goss conducted nonviolence trainings that contributed to the peaceable overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines.  Among her books, How Enemies Become Friend was published in German, Italian and French. 

Joanna Macy, Ph.D., is a pioneer eco-philosopher in the United States.  A scholar on Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology, she is also a social activist for peace, justice and sustainability.  Over the past twenty years, she has led workshops for personal and social change with her unique psychological and spiritual methodology in North America, Europe Asia and Australia.  Her major publications include Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World and World as Lover, World as Self.

Gregory Prince Jr. is a prominent educator in the United States.  He was President of Hampshire College from 1989 to 2005.  At Hampshire, he promoted courses on conflict resolution and historical analysis.  As President, he provided moral leadership and developed the college’s core values for social justice by focusing on the higher educational institution’s responsibility for society.  He established the Hampshire College Cultural Village to draw on academic and cultural resources for community development.  He was also Vice-chair of the Council on Racial and Ethnic Justice of the American Bar Association.  He is currently writing a book for Continuum Press tentatively titled “Challenging Authority: The Lost Purpose of Liberal Education”.

Sulak Sivaraksa, is a leading social critic in Thailand.  He is the founder of The Sanithirakoses-Nagapateepa Foundation (SNF), which is a platform of five organizations for sustainable social change, including the International Network of Engaged Buddhists.  He has committed himself to social justice and peace with ecological vision and spirituality.  His Socially Engaged Buddhism is internationally recognized among his many publications.

Christopher Titmuss, a former Buddhist monk in Thailand and India, teaches Awakening and Insight Meditation around the world.  He is the founder and director of the Dharma Facilitators Programme and the Living Dharma programme, an online mentor programme for Dharma practitioners. He gives
retreats, participates in pilgrimages (yatras) and leads Dharma gatherings.  A senior Dharma teacher in the West, he is the author of numerous books including Light on Enlightenment, An Awakened Life and Transforming Our Terror. A campaigner for peace and other global issues, Christopher is the co-founder of Gaia House, an international retreat centre in Devon, England. He lives in Totnes, Devon, England.

Chris Wood is an activist for social justice from the US who currently resides in Scotland. A former participant in the CONTACT program, which is taught by Karuna Center staff and associates, she has continued to serve her community through teaching and training.  Chris has visited the heights and depths of peacebuilding beginning with herself and working within her family.