Beth Fisher-Yoshida is a Facilitator, Educator, Mediator and Executive Coach, who partners with clients to develop initiatives that will strengthen their core communication skills. She takes a systemic approach to working on both simple and complex issues with multiple stakeholders pertaining to all phases of the social transformation process, focusing on preparation by developing self-awareness, women and negotiation, storytelling and narrative, and culture. She is President and CEO of Fisher Yoshida International, LLC, and clients have included global organizations in the Fortune 100, private sector, nonprofit and government sectors, military and security forces, communities, school districts and academic institutions. Dr. Fisher-Yoshida is Professor of Professional Practice and Academic Director of the Master of Science in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program, Vice-Chair of Faculty at School of Professional Studies, Co-Chair of the Advanced Consortium for Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity (AC4) and Director of the Youth, Peace and Security Project at the Earth Institute, all at Columbia University. She serves on the Boards of the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution (CMMI), Association for Conflict Resolution of Greater New York (ACRGNY), Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HDHS), and the International Advisory Board of Sunkhronos Institue.
Joan Camilo Lopez is program manager at the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity at Columbia University, adjunct lecturer at Columbia University and the City University of New York, CUNY. His work is situated in the threshold where sociopolitical processes led by youth community leaders meet with the production of spaces of peace in areas where violent conflicts are rampant. He focuses on understanding the ways youth leaders make sense of violent conflicts, and on how they construct practices and technologies to respond peacefully to the dynamics of such conflicts. He is also interested on how the concrete practices and technologies designed by community youth leaders can inform and further develop academic approaches to peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and leadership; and on how the work of youth leaders can benefit from applying some of the practices and theories that are produced in academia. In short, his work lies where theory and praxis melt.