Staff - Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies

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CPCS Staff

Emma Leslie
Director
emmacambodia@who-needs-spam.gmail.com

As an Australian citizen, Emma has worked on peace, conflict transformation and development throughout the Asia Pacific region since 1993. In 1997 she moved to Cambodia and in the same year helped to found the regional network of Action Asia. Since then she has held the post of Secretariat to the Action Asia network as well as being the course director of the Applied Conflict Transformations Studies MA program. Emma has extensive advisory experience and works as a consultant, practitioner and trainer on conflict transformation and peacebuilding issues in Asia. She has conducted a number of conflict analysis trainings in Eastern Europe, Africa and throughout Asia, holds a Masters degree in International Development and was one of the thousand peace women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Lerio "Baht" Latumbo
Action Asia Secretariat Support
latumbobaht@gmail.com

Baht is a widely experienced trainer/facilitator and consultant in the field of nonviolence, conflict transformation, and peacebuilding. He has served as a course tutor with Responding to Conflict, UK, leads workshops throughout Asia, and was the Deputy Director of AKKAPKA Foundation for more than 5 years -- a social change organization espousing active nonviolence in the Philippines. He served as the Steering Committee Chair of ACTION-Global until October 2007. From 1997 to present, Baht has been a faculty member of CONTACT, a summer institute at the School for International Training in Vermont, USA; he is also an Associate Member of Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, Amherst, Massachussetts.

Soth Plai Ngarm
Research Programme Coordinator/Senior Researcher
plaingarm@who-needs-spam.gmail.com

As a Cambodian peace activist and researcher, Soth Plai Ngarm has worked throughout South East Asia with particular focus on post-conflict issues, nationalism and ethnic identity. He is the co-author of the manual Peace Research Methodology, a member of the Applied Conflict Transformation Studies MA program and is the Cambodian National Coordinator of the South East Asian Conflict Studies Network (SEACSN). Ngarm was also a founding member and director of The Alliance for Conflict Transformation (ACT), a Cambodian NGO working towards combating violence and addressing root causes of conflict. Ngarm holds a Masters degree in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford, UK.

Monica Alfred
ACTS Course Coordinator
m_i_alfred@who-needs-spam.yahoo.com

Monica Alfred is specialised trainer, coach and consultant in peace and conflict transformation studies and psychosocial support programmes. She is one of the first Rotary World Peace Scholars from Sri Lanka; she holds a Masters in Philosophy from the University of Bradford, United Kingdom, where she wrote her thesis on: Community Level Conflict Transformation for Sustainable Peace a Barefoot University for Peace Education in Sri Lanka. She holds a Master of Arts from the same University having written her thesis on Peace and Psychosocial Education for Children Effected by Armed Conflict.

In general she combines education and training in conflict transformation, peace and psychosocial support with her work in teaching, writing and training with her focus on building a peaceful society.

Over the last fifteen years she has been involved in peacebuilding, conflict transformation and psychosocial work in Sri Lanka from local to national levels. She has experience of taking short term consultancy and trainings within Asian region. She is an international trainer for community peace keepers for Non violent peace force.

Tania Miletic
ACTS Faculty
taniamiletic@who-needs-spam.yahoo.com

Tania Miletic, a peace practitioner and researcher from Australia, is a senior consultant and researcher with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies in Cambodia. In particular she designed the Centre signature course on peace research and co-authored the book Peace Research Methodology. Her own research interest is mainly on issues of inter-ethnic peacebuilding and nationalism. Tania began working in Cambodia in 2003, as a Technical Advisor with the Alliance for Conflict Transformation on inter-ethnic and inter-faith peacebuilding programs. Since 2006 she has also served as an advisor and faculty member on the Applied Conflict Transformation Studies (ACTS) Masters course. Tania has a background in psychology and worked for several years on community-based peacebuilding and transcultural mental health initiatives locally and across the Asia Pacific region. Tania holds a Postgrad Dip in Psychology from the University of Melbourne; an MA in Public Administration (Int. Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution) from ICU, Tokyo and is a PhD candidate with the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Queensland.

Kathryn Poethig
ACTS Faculty
kpoethig@who-needs-spam.csumb.edu

Dr. Poethig has lived and worked in Southeast Asia for over twenty years. She is currently Associate Professor of Global Studies at California State University, Monterey Bay. Her area expertise includes global gender issues, particularly feminism and militarism, religious social ethics, and religion, violence, and peacemaking. Dr. Poethig supervised education for Southeast Asian refugees in the US and Asia for 15 years. Her work focuses on progressive religious citizenship in Southeast Asia, particularly in areas of complex conflict and peacemaking. She has written on the Dhammayietra, the annual peace walk in Cambodia as transnational example of engaged Buddhism. More recently, she has focused on Filipino feminist theologians' frameworks for 'just peace' for both Communist and Muslim insurgencies in light of the US war on terrorism.

Dr. Poethig holds a Ph.D. in Religion and Society from the Graduate Theological Union; a Master of Divinity from the Union Theological Seminary; and a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago.

Chona Echavez
ACTS Faculty
echavez.chona@who-needs-spam.gmail.com

Chona R. Echavez has a Ph.D in Demography at the Australian National University and MS in Development Communication from the University of the Philippines, Los Banos. She is a Senior Research Associate of the Research Institute for Mindanao Culture (RIMCU) and an Associate Professor of the Development Communication and Socio-Anthropology Departments of Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro City. She served as a Board of Director of the Philippine Population Association (PPA) and currently Board of Director of Women's Forum 10. Together with communities and institutions, she facilitates in designing, managing and implementing M & E and Impact Evaluation studies. She conducted a number of studies in conflict affected areas. She served as team leader in assessing the capacities and needs for conflict transformation among peace front liners in the conflict-affected areas, the impact of armed conflict among women and youth, and in the moving out of poverty studies in conflict and non-conflict affected areas in the Philippines. Together with the people in communities and organizations, she designs gender and culture sensitive research and evaluation tools for conflict-affected communities, household and individuals. She served as consultant/ToT/Module Specialist in the Media Training for Peace and Reconciliation in Solomon Islands and facilitates workshops for participants of East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Island Countries. At present, she is an Asia Fellow and is a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Chhit Maria
Finance Manager
maria.cpcsfm@gmail.com

Maria has just joined the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS) as the Finance Manager. Prior to this she was with PACT Cambodia as Grant and Finance Officer for almost 3 years, and involved with Local, Administrative and Reform for commune councils and Sangkat. For 10 years she also worked with Partners for Development in Cambodia on different roles. She is currently pursuing her Masters degree in Audit at the Vanda Institution, Cambodia.

Oum Sotheavy
Admin Assistant
sotheavy3000@yahoo.com

Sotheavy worked at ACT from 2003 - 2007. She is currently the librarian, receptionist and administrative assistant to CPCS. She recently finished her Diploma in English at Pannasastra University of Cambodia and is studying for her Bachelors degree in Social Sciences and International Relations at Pannasastra University.

Chang Chan Maline

Receptionist/ Administration Assistant

chanmalin.cheng@gmail.com

Chang Chan Maline graduated from the Royal University of Phnom Penh in 2010 with a BA in Sociology and High Association of Business Administration as Finance and Banking. For one year after graduation, Maline volunteered at Youth For Peace as a Project Assistant in the Publications team. She continues her studies at Western University with a BA in Art of English on the weekends.

Chea Sopheap
Receptionist

Sopheap has been with CPCS since May of 2008. During her time here she has taken on many roles: cleaner, receptionist, assistant librarian and keeper of the CPCS staffhouse. She is currently studying english at the Atlanta Center in Phnom Penh.