Vamık D. Volkan is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, the Senior Erik Erikson Scholar at the Erikson Institute of Education and Research of the Austen Riggs Center, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and an Emeritus Training and Supervising Analyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, Washington, DC. He was the Medical Director of Blue Ridge Hospital and the Director of the Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction, the University of Virginia. BIOGRAPHY

Leila Fawaz is Founding Director of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies and Issam M. Fares Professor of Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Tufts University. She holds a joint appointment as Professor of Diplomacy at The Fletcher School and Professor of History at Tufts University. Previously, she was Chair of the History Department and Dean of Humanities and Arts in the College of Liberal Arts and Jackson College. BIOGRAPHY

Beginning in the 1980’s Dr. Eileen Borris had been on the frontlines of forgiveness from the personal to the political. As a political psychologist Dr. Borris helps to rebuild war torn countries such as Liberia, Nigeria, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Israel and the Occupied Territories. Her work focuses on reconciling centuries old conflicts and finding ways to forgive. She understands the deep down psychological issues surrounding conflicts and the healing of conflicts. BIOGRAPHY

John A. Fayyad is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of Balamand, Faculty of Medicine and Medical Sciences and the Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology at St. George Hospital University Medical Center. He is also a researcher and a member of IDRAAC (Institute for Development Research, Advocacy and Applied Care), an NGO specialized in Mental Health. Dr. Fayyad is active in regional and international Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and has interest in the epidemiology of psychiartric disorders, the effects of war and trauma on children, pathways to resilience, and community interventions. BIOGRAPHY

Rev. Dirk Ficca, an ordained Presbyterian minister, serves as Executive Director of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions (CPWR). Dirk worked closely with the religious and spiritual communities of the Chicago metropolitan area to plan and organize the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. Given the enthusiasm generated by the 1993 Parliament, Dirk continued to lead the Council’s efforts to build a vibrant interreligious movement in Chicago and around the world. Parliaments, the world’s largest and most inclusive interfaith gatherings, have since been held in Cape Town, Barcelona and Melbourne, with the next one planned for Brussels in 2014. In 2010, Dirk was honored with an Interfaith Visionary Award by the Temple of Understanding.

Prof. Antoine Messarra is professor of Constitutional Law, Comparative Political Systems and Sociology with expertise in information and journalism. Profeesor Messarra lectures at the Lebanese University and the University of Saint Joseph where he coordinates the Masters Programme in Islamic-Christian Relations. Amongst other engagements, he was the winner of President Elias Hraoui’s ‘Le Pacte Libanais’ Prize (2007), a founding member and programme coordinator at the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace (1987-2009) and the President and programme coordinator of the Lebanese Association of Political Sciences (2002-2009). A strong defender of democracy and freedom, Prof Messarra devotes his work to developing genuine respect for the other in the complex Lebanese society. BIOGRAPHY

Eugene Rogan is a Fellow of the Middle East Centre at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford.  He took his B.A. in economics from Columbia, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Middle Eastern history from Harvard. He taught at Boston College and Sarah Lawrence College before taking up his post in Oxford in 1991, where he teaches the modern history of the Middle East. He is author of many books, including ‘The Arabs: A History’ (New York: Basic Books, and London: Penguin Books, 2009), which is being translated in nine languages and was named one of the best books of 2009 by The Economist, The Financial Times, and The Atlantic Monthly. BIOGRAPHY

Reina Sarkis is a psychoanalyst and researcher. She live between Paris and Beirut. Reina is currently doing her doctorate with a focus on ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commissions’. Reina is a professor at University of Saint Joseph, where she gives seminars on Memory and survivors testimony. She is also a Research Associate at IFPO and at Collège de France. In her work, Reina is interested in exploring the repetitive pattern in conflicts and wars. She also works with trauma and torture “victims”/survivors. Reina is on the editing committee of ‘Transeuropeennes’, and have co-written three books and several articles on her research topic.