Board - Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies

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CPCS Board Members

Dekha Ibrahim Abdi
Chair of the Board of Directors

Dehka Ibrahim Abdi is a peace practitioner based in Mombasa, Kenya, working as a consultant to government and civil society organisations. She has engaged in peace work and conflict resolution throughout the world. She is a founding member of the Wajir Peace and Development Committee, the Coalition for Peace in Africa, and ACTION (Action for Conflict Transformation). Dekha also works as Training and Learning Coordinator of Responding to Conflict (RTC), Board Member of Co-Existence International, Member of the International Advisory Board of the University of Ulster, and Board Member of the Berghof Center in Germany.

Dekha has also taught in Somalia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Canada, Cambodia, Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria, Netherlands, Zimbabwe, and the UK. In 2007 she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award by the Swedish parliament.

Neb Sinthay
Deputy Chair of the Board of Directors

For the past 15 years, Neb Sinthay has worked with various Cambodian NGOs in civil society development, peace and conflict resolution, capacity building, and youth development. His primary focus has been on advocacy strategy planning, project development and management, project monitoring and evaluation, and NGO governance and leadership.

Sinthay is a former member of the Steering Committee of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors for the Cambodian based Alliance for Conflict Transformation (ACT).

Sinthay has an MA from the European Peace University in Austria, a certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution, and has participated in multiple trainings on peace and conflict resolution. His research and publications have included: The Reintegration of Khmer Rouge into Cambodia Society (2008); Evaluation Team of the Supervision Mission of the World Bank on the demobilization project of the Royal Government of Cambodia (2002); the Feasibility Study on Cambodian Disarmament Program (1998); the Possibility and Needs for International Volunteers to work with Cambodian NGOs (1998); and Cambodian NGOs working with Refugee and Displaced people (1997).

Soth Plai Ngarm

Soth Plai Ngarm is a Cambodian peace activist and researcher who holds a Masters degree in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford, UK. Having worked throughout South East Asia on post-conflict issues, nationalism, and ethnic identity, Ngarm has accrued vast experience in the field as a peacebuilder, facilitator, and researcher.

Ngarm is the co-author of Introduction to Peace Studies & Research Methods (ACT, 1996), a member of the Applied Conflict Transformation Studies (ACTS) MA programme, and is the Cambodian National Coordinator of the South East Asian Conflict Studies Network (SEACSN). He is also a founding member and former director of the Cambodian based NGO Alliance for Conflict Transformation (ACT).

Simon Fisher

Simon Fisher is a facilitator, trainer, activist and writer. He has first-hand experience of conflict, development and change in many countries, working with local and international agencies, governments and at the UN.

In 1991 he co-founded and became the first director of Responding to Conflict, UK. Since then his priority has been to help develop and sustain active networks of peace workers at global and regional levels, as well as to support specific initiatives for resistance and transformation. He is now working in Zimbabwe. Among his publications are: Working with Conflict: Skills and Strategies for Action (RTC/Zed Books, 2000), (co-author), and Spirited Living: Waging Conflict, Building Peace (Quaker Books, 2004).

He is a former Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, and is currently an Associate of CENDEP, the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice at Oxford Brookes University. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues.

Yayah Khisbiyah

Yayah Khisbiyah is a faculty at Psychology Department, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia. She founded the Center for Cultural Studies and Social Change in 2000 and was its Director until 2005. She is currently the Chair of Board of Directors of the Center. She has been a consultant and trainer for various UN organizations and NGOs on psychosocial issues of children's wellbeing, gender equality, and community peacebuilding in conflict-torn areas. Ms. Khisbiyah has a Bachelor degree in Psychology from Gadjah Mada University, and a Master's degree in Community/Social Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, USA (1997), supported by the Fulbright Scholarship. She participated in diploma and certificate programs in Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies at the European Peace University, Austria (1994), and Uppsala University, Sweden (1998 and 2005). She is also a fellow of the UK-based Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD), and participated in the Fulbright Summer Institute in 2003. Currently she is finishing a Ph.D. degree in Psychology at the University of Melbourne, Australia, supported by the Australian Development Scholarship. Among others, she is actively involved with International Committee for the Psychological Study of Peace based in the USA.

Ms. Khisbiyah has published books and articles internationally, presented papers in various international conferences, as well as taught in the USA, South East Asia, and Australia. Her interests centre in two areas within Social Psychology: intergroup relations, and psychology of peace. She engages in action research aimed to help facilitate positive social transformation, especially as regards to the roles of religion in peacebuilding, and co-existence education in divided plural societies.