2020 Peace Conference Virtual
The 14th Annual Peace Conference:
Global Equity in a Post-Covid World
May 12, 2020 3:00 – 5:30 pm
Given the vast inequalities that the Covid-19 pandemic has revealedat both the national and global levelin regards to health care, economic justice, and environmental sustainability, this conference will address the post-pandemic steps necessary to ensure a more equitable future for the worlds citizens.
Questions? Contact: Fran Farazffarazdaghi@gwc.cccd.edu
Conference Program
Fran Faraz, Golden West College Program Coordinator, Opening Remarks
Kelsey Bryan Zwick, Poet, Poetry of the Disabled Body
Douglas Haynes, Ph.D., Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of California, Irvine, The Imperative of Inclusive Excellence in the Age of COVID-19
Kris De Pedro, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership in the College of Educational Studies at Chapman University. Racial Equity and Social Justice During COVID-19
Audrey Lin, Educator, Karunavirus: Can Compassion Go Viral?
Nimo Patel, Compassion Song of a Superhero
Brian Peterson, Artist, Founder of Faces of Santa Ana, Creativity and Compassion, 2020 GWC Peace Studies Award Recipient
Richard Matthew, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Research and International Programs; Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy; and Director of the Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation at UC Irvine, “Climate Change, Poverty and Compassion”
John & Ann Brantingham, Artist, Poet and Educator, California Ecology Poetry & Art
Armin Iknadossian, Poet and Educator
Dr. Paul Kareem Tayyar, Professor of English, Golden West College, Conference Conclusion
Fran Faraz, Community Response and Closing
Nimo Patel, Graduation Song
2020 Peace Conference Speakers
ANN BRANTINGHAM is a nature artist who focuses on local and endangered flora and fauna, especially those threatened by current environmental policies. Along with her husband, she volunteers at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park where she teaches art. She is also a co-director of the California Imagism Gallery in Ontario. Her work explores leaves and other natural elements in graphite and on a small scale in order to experience the physicality of a branch or single leaf. Her hope is that through experiencing the environment around them, people will see that we have more similarities than differences and that through nature, we can find our peace. You can see her work at annbrantingham.com.
JOHN BRANTINGHAM was the first poet laureate of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and a director of the California Imagism Gallery. He is a professor of English at Mt. San Antonio College where he coordinates the creative writing program and runs the creative writing conference, Culturama. With his wife Ann, he has built a creative writing and arts community in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. His work has appeared in hundreds of magazines including Writers Almanac, The Journal, Tears in the Fence, and Confrontation. He has been nominated for ten Pushcart Prizes and won a spot in The Best Small Fictions 2016. He is the co-creator of the San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival and the Valley Poets Reading series which has featured poets and writers from around the world and seeks to create a vibrant literary community for the residents of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys. John Brantinghams literary work and teaching is dedicated to the idea that a healthy environment is possible only if we have sustainable living conditions for everyone. He believes that we need justice and equity now, and that all of these things are key to a world that we can all share.
KELSEY BRYAN ZWICK is a Spanish/English speaking poet from Long Beach, California. Disabled with scoliosis from a young age, her poems often focus on trauma, shedding light on what has been an isolating experience, with the belief that this kind of advocacy can help change the hearts and minds needed to create a more equitable and sustainable future. She is the author of Watermarked (Sadie Girl Press) and founder of the micro-press BindYourOwnBooks. Kelsey is a Pushcart Prize and The Best of the Net nominee, and has had poems accepted by Spillway, Writing in a Womans Voice, Trailer Park Quarterly, Rise Up Review, Right Hand Pointing, and The New Verse News. She is Moon Tide Press Poet of the Month for May 2020 and is writing towards her new title, Here Go the Knives, find her at www.kelseybryanzwick.wixsite.com/poetry and on Instagram @theexquisitepoet.
DR. KRIS DE PEDRO is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership in the Attallah College of Educational Studies at Chapman University. For the last 15 years, his research has focused on educational equity, LGBTQIA+ students, and military families. In the classroom, he has worked with leadership students to engage in social justice and racial equity in local communities and organizations.
DR. DOUGLAS M. HAYNES – is the inaugural Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at UCI. In January, he launched the Inclusive Excellence Action Plan 2025. Organized around the pillars of Community, Thriving and Excellence, this action plan and associated goals are designed to equip all members of the campus community to build and sustain the nation’s leading inclusive excellence university. In support of the plan, the Office of Inclusive Excellence mounts the Inclusive Excellence Certificate Program and the Confronting Extremism Program. A Professor of Modern European History, Dr. Haynes specializes in the discovery of diseases, the development of biomedical specialities, and the transformation of the modern medical profession. Among his principal publications include Imperial Medicine (2001) and Fit to Practice (2017).
ARMIN IKNADOSSIANs family sought political asylum in California in the late 1970s to escape the civil war in Beirut, Lebanon. Her debut poetry collection, All That Wasted Fruit (Main Street Rag Press) is a meditation on the sacred feminine. Armine lives in Long Beach, California and teaches for The Poetry Salon.
AUDREY LIN is an educator and pilgrim of life. After graduating from UC Berkeley, her unconventional journey has been witness to a variety of settings — from teaching kids to serving at a Buddhist monastery, embarking on a walking pilgrimage in Silicon Valley, volunteering at the Gandhi Ashram in India, designing virtual fellowships for generosity entrepreneurs (who ask, “what’s love’s business plan?”), innovating for “compassion quotient” alongside intellectual quotient, and nurturing small acts of kindness in daily life. Visit Awakin.org for more information.
DR. RICHARD A. MATTHEW is Associate Dean for Research and International Programs; Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy; and Director of the Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation at UC Irvine. He is also a Senior Fellow at IISD in Geneva; a member of the United Nations Expert Group on Environment, Conflict and Peacebuilding; a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy and co-chair of its Task Force on Conservation, Migration and Conflict; and the Vice-President of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association. He has served on several UN peacebuilding missions. http://blumcenter.uci.edu/
BRIAN PETERSON is the Founder of Faces of Santa Ana, an artist from Miami, Florida. Faces of Santa Ana is a passion project where Brian sets out to befriend and paint portraits of the homeless community in Santa Ana, CA. He then sells the artwork and uses proceeds to help in rehabilitating the newfound friends. The mission of Faces of Santa Ana is to locally help those in need in cities around the world while also inspiring and activating creatives and supporters of the movement. Brian believes that the creativity weve been given is meant for the outward pouring of love. Brian is the recipient of the 2020 Peace Award. Facesofsantaana.com
NIMO PATEL – SUPERHERO | A COVID 19 SONG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le2HSDpD-Aw
Graduation
