Jill Sternberg

Jill Sternberg "works internationally as a consultant in diversity, gender, and nonviolent conflict transformation training, specializing in training for nonviolent action in situations of war or protracted violence. She has facilitated training across North America, throughout Europe, in Eastern Africa and Asia, with an occasional assignment in Latin America. She has been designing and facilitating workshops for 15 years.

"Jill has extensive experience in organizing educational and training programs at the local, national and international levels. In Westchester County, New York, she coordinated “Embracing Diversity and Ending Racism,” a dialogue initiative that brought hundreds of people together to discuss race relations. From August 2001 until April 2004, she lived in East Timor, working with Nobel Peace Laureate Jose Ramos-Horta to develop the Peace and Democracy Foundation, a peace center focused on conflict transformation. Upon her return to the U.S., she worked with the Westchester Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute for Nonviolence developing a local peace center in Westchester County in New York. In 2006, she represented the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom at the United Nations in New York.

"Jill’s background is well-rounded, both academically and experientially, blending theory and practice with insights gained from working and studying with people across the globe. She has an MA in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame (‘90). As coordinator of the Nonviolence Education and Training Program of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (‘92-‘95), Jill designed and collaborated on training programs in conflict resolution and nonviolent action around the world. For 10 years she was a lead facilitator and designer of an international workshop for grassroots activists from war zones, bringing them together with people intending to undertake fieldwork. She is a member of the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute’s board of directors, coordinating their Nonviolence Training Fund.

"Jill’s involvement in nonviolent intervention in war situations comes from a desire to demonstrate that there are concrete positive ways we can address the causes of war that also support the local actors working for peace. She was involved in the formation of the Balkan Peace Team, a coalition peace team effort in the Balkans (including Kosovo). Jill participated in the Friends Peace Team Project Africa Great Lakes Initiative delegation to East Africa in January 1999, investigating Quaker peacemaking potential there and support that Quakers outside the area can lend. And she was a United Nations accredited observer for the August 30, 1999 vote for independence in East Timor. She is currently working with the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network as coordinator of their Solidarity Observer Mission for East Timor (SOMET) for that country's first national elections since independence."