Innovations in Student Leadership
Conference
By: Courtney Hess (MA/IPCR ’11)/ Spring 2011
ON FEBRUARY 26TH, the Society for Peace and Conflict Resolution hosted the 2011 Innovations in Student
Leadership Conference at the School of International Service. In its fifth year, the conference focused on the
timely topic of the role of the media in conflict resolution. With recent events in North Africa, it served as a
terrific forum to discuss how media is being used to mobilize and communicate information during critical
moments.
The conference brought together students, academics, and practitioners in the field of peace and conflict
resolution to discuss how different forms of media, from new and social media to traditional media forms, are
being used as tools for building peace and resolving conflict.
The Innovations in Student Leadership Conference is a
PANELS AND PANELISTS
collaborative event organized by student leaders from several
others schools in the Washington, D.C. area including George
“Platforms for Peace: Innovations in
Mason, Georgetown, George Washington, and Johns Hopkins
News/Social Media”
Universities.
Emily Jacobi, Co-Founder & Director,
This year’s
Digital Democracy
events were also
Jared Ford, Program Manager of the ICT
co-sponsored by
team, National Democratic Institute
partners at
Sean McDonald, U.S. Representative,
American
Frontline SMS
University
“Media as an Advocacy Tool”
including the
Kimberly Abbott, Communications Director
Society for Ethics,
for North America, International Crisis
Peace and Global
Group
Affairs, the IPCR
Price Floyd, Vice President for Digital
Program, and the
Media Strategy, BAE Systems
SIS Graduate
Ronite Avni, Founder and Executive
Keynote Speaker John Marks speaks
Director, Just Vision
Student Council.
at the ISL Conference on Feb. 26th
Tyler Peterson, Site Manager
The conference
(photo by Courtney Hess).
PeaceMedia.usip.org, USIP
featured keynote
speaker, John Marks, President and Founder of Search for
“Media as a Peacebuilding Tool”
Common Ground (SFCG), a Washington, D.C. based NGO
Alicia Simoni, Editor and Community
doing innovative peacebuilding work through media. Marks
Manager, Peace X Peace
Stephen
McInerney, Executive Director,
presented some of SFCG’s previous and ongoing projects
Project
on Middle East Democracy
including The Team, a TV and radio soap opera shown in
Alexis
Toriello,
Research Assistant, Salam
sixteen countries that discusses contentious issues like
Shabab
Project,
USIP
bridging ethnic and religious divides, and The Shape of the
Future, a documentary that was simulcast on Israeli,
“On the Front Lines: Reporting from
Conflict Zones”
Palestinian, and Arab satellite television.
Clothilde Le Coz, Washington Director,
The event was also a great opportunity for students studying
Reporters Without Borders
peace and conflict resolution to collaborate and network with
James
Cullum, Freelance Reporter, currently
one another during the conference at the closing happy hour
covering Western Sahara
at Guapos.Panels and Panel
John Tanza, Co-host of Sudan in Focus,
Voice of America
Tom Hundley, Senior Editor, Pulitzer Center
on Crisis Reporting