education
M.A., Social Justice, Loyola University Chicago, Institute of Pastoral Studies 2010
THESIS: Waging Silent Wars Against the Poor: The U.N.-Imposed Sanction Regime on Iraq
B.A., Social Welfare and Justice, Marquette University 2008
employment: Teaching
2011 to Present
Summer 2017, 2018
Spring 2014
Adjunct Professor, DePaul University Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies Program
Taught the following courses (from 2013, 6 course sections per year, plus summer):
PAX 200: Perspectives on Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies (AQ 2011; AQ 2012; Summer 2013; AQ 2013; Summer 2014; AQ 2014; SQ 2015; Summer 2015; AQ 2015; WQ 2016; Summer 2016; AQ 2016; Summer 2017; AQ 2017; WQ 2018; Summer 2018)
PAX 220: Social Engagement for Peace and Justice (WQ 2012; SQ 2012; AQ 2012; WQ 2013; SQ 2013; AQ 2013; WQ 2014; SQ 2014; AQ 2014; WQ 2015; AQ 2015; WQ 2016; AQ 2016; WQ 2017; AQ 2017; WQ 2018; AQ 2018)
PAX 250: Nonviolent Living Project (2 credit hours per quarter) (AQ 2012; AQ 2013; AQ 2014)
PAX 290: PAX 225 Transnational Grassroots Social Movements: Resisting the War on Terror (SQ 2014; SQ 2015; SQ 2016; SQ 2017; SQ 2018)
PAX 212: Identity, Privilege, and Social Change (AQ 2015;AQ 2016; SQ 2017; SQ 2018)
PAX/CPL 240: Voices of War and Peace: Art, Literature, and Film (WQ 2018; AQ 2018)
· Created unique syllabi for all courses in the major/minor’s core.
· Accompanied students in critical thinking and deeper learning around nonviolent direct action, social justice, privilege and oppression, and people-powered social movements. Used popular education and critical pedagogy to design exercises that connect students with their personal experience and transformative historical events.
· Coordinated students’ Activist Engagement Projects. Led reflection and integrative analysis of service learning. Analyzed and offered feedback on students’ writing and speaking skills.
· Created a democratic classroom environment and built strong relationships of mutuality with students and faculty.
Adjunct Professor, College Connect Summer Enrichment Program, DePaul University
• Taught “Social Justice and Social Change: Youth-led Social Movements” to a cohort of high school students from Chicago. Focused on the politics of abolition, the police torture committed under Jon Burge, and Chicago’s Reparations Ordinance for Police Torture Survivors. Visited activist and community organizations, including the Chicago Torture Justice Center. Assisted students in developing their speaking and writing skills to prepare for college.
Adjunct Professor, Loyola University Chicago Master’s of Social Justice and Community Development Program
• Taught IPS 422: Nonviolence and Peacemaking
• Created syllabus for adult learners on a pastoral path of social justice. Rooted course in the theoretical frameworks of social change. Studied a variety of social movements as case studies of active, creative, people-powered change.
employment: FACILITATION
2018 to Present
2016 to 2018
2012 to Present
Consultant, Steans Center for Community-Based Service Learning, DePaul University
• Faculty Workshop “Teaching in Chicago: Negotiating Identity in the Classroom” – October 10/11, December 10, January 24
Consultant, 8th Day Center for Justice
• Facilitated quarterly board meetings and occasional staff retreat days. Outlined self-reflection, visioning, strategic planning, project development and decision-making on a consensus-based model. Promoted buy-in among board and staff. Guided the dissolution process of the organization.
Workshop Facilitator and Trainer, Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service, War Resisters League
• Facilitated dozens of day-long workshops in nonviolence and nonviolent direct action trainings, including:
“Trifecta Resista” (Kansas City, MO, 2012); “Wild Goose Festival Nonviolence Training” (Asheville, NC, 2013); “Living Nonviolently in a Violent World” for the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Terre Haute, IN, 2013); School of the America’s Watch Protest (Ft. Benning, GA, 2014); “We Come Seeking Justice” for John Carroll University students and staff (Cleveland, OH, 2015); “Activism 101” for DePaul University students and staff (Chicago, IL, 2016); “Nonviolent Direct Action 101” for Actor’s Equity (Chicago, IL, 2017); “Tools for Nonviolent Action” for the First Unitarian Church of Champaign-Urbana (2018); “Activism 101” for the DePaul Sociology Club (Chicago, 2018); “Nonviolent Direct Action Training”, SOAW Border Encuentro (Nogales, 2018)
Activism & advocacy
2009 to Present
2009 to 2011
2009 to 2012
Organizer, Witness Against Torture
• Responsible for facilitation, action-planning, and press work, as well as planning and execution of annual ten-day Fast for Justice in January. Organized and participated in fast and January week of action for nine years. Wrote articles about actions and post-9/11 policies of indefinite detention and torture. Traveled to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in 2015 to raise awareness about the prison. Participated in the Al Jazeera Plus viral video, “Thanksgiving in Guantánamo”, URL: www.witnessagainsttorture.com/video/thanksgiving-at-guantanamo/.
Co-Coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Chicago, IL
• Participated in two peace delegations to Afghanistan. Met with Afghan families to understand the effects of U.S. foreign military policy on residents of Bamiyan Province and Kabul. Wrote articles to raise awareness about the continued occupation. Spoke to parishes, classrooms, and groups. Participated in a dozen radio interviews.
Co-founder, White Rose Catholic Worker, Chicago, IL
• Established and ran fully-functioning house of hospitality. Provided free housing for two people at a time. Hosted high school and college student immersion trips focused on social justice, hospitality to those in need, environmental sustainability, organic farming, and activism. Built a robust community of people in the Catholic Worker tradition.
board memberships
War Resisters League, National Committee 2016 to Present
Chicago Torture Justice Center, Steering Committee 2015 to 2016
awards
Excellence in Teaching Award, DePaul University 2018
Mary Elsbernd, OSF Social Justice Award, 8th Day Center for Justice 2011 Recipients of the award show “exceptional passion for the journey of justice and peace, are grounded in a sense of relationship marked by mutuality, nonviolence, and cooperation, and are rooted in a sense of imagination for creative systemic change.”
articles
Selected
“How torture and state violence made its way from Chicago to Guantánamo,” Waging Nonviolence. December, 2015. URL: wagingnonviolence.org/feature/torture-state-violence-made-way-chicago-guantanamo/
“Making Friends in High Places,” The Humanist. Co-Authors Kathy Kelly and David Smith-Ferri. April 2011.
speaking events
Selected
“From Ferguson to Guantánamo: Institutionalized Brutality and Torture,” moderated panel hosted by Amnesty International, Center for Constitutional Rights, and Witness Against Torture, Washington, D.C., January, 2015.
“Gender, Liberation and Democracy: Case Study in Afghanistan,” The Women’s Center at DePaul. October 14, 2013.
“Afghanistan: Peacemaking and Resistance in the Context of Constant War,” Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies program at DePaul University. May 16, 2013.
“Not About Bombs,” a panel hosted by the National Veteran’s Art Museum in Chicago. March 9, 2013.