The IIPE is coordinated via a global secretariat comprised of two primary team members and a network of volunteers.
Advisory support is provided by the IIPE Founding Director (emeritus) and a Transnational Advisory Group of peace education experts, former IIPE hosts, and longtime community members.
Tony Jenkins, Managing Director
Tony Jenkins PhD has 17+ years of experience directing and designing peacebuilding and international educational programs and projects and leadership in the international development of peace studies and peace education.
Tony is currently a Lecturer in the Program on Justice and Peace Studies at Georgetown University. Since 2001 he has served as the Managing Director of the International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) and since 2007 as the Coordinator of the Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE). Professionally, he has been: Director, Peace Education Initiative at The University of Toledo (2014-16); Vice President for Academic Affairs, National Peace Academy (2009-2014); Education Director, World BEYOND War (2016-2019); and Co-Director, Peace Education Center, Teachers College Columbia University (2001-2010). In 2014-15, Tony served as a member of UNESCO’s Experts Advisory Group on Global Citizenship Education.
Tony has significant experience designing and developing academic programs in peace studies and peace education including the MA Programme in Peace Education at the UN mandated University for Peace; Peace Studies Major and Minor at The University of Toledo; and Graduate Certificate Programs in Peace Education at Teachers College, Columbia University (NYC and Tokyo campuses). In 2019, in recognition of his curricular work with World BEYOND War, Tony received the Educators’ Challenge Award and People’s Choice Award from the Global Challenges Foundation in partnership with the London School of Economics Institute of Global Affairs.
His applied research is focused on examining the impacts and effectiveness of peace education methods and pedagogies in nurturing personal, social and political change and transformation. He is also interested in formal and non-formal educational design and development with special interest in teacher training, alternative approaches to global security, systems design, disarmament, and gender.
Tony has taught graduate and undergraduate peace studies and peace education at: Teachers College Columbia University (New York and Tokyo); Jaume I, Castellon, Spain; University for Peace, Costa Rica; The University of Toledo, Ohio; and Georgetown University, George Mason University, and George Washington University, Washington, DC.
Janet Gerson, Education Director
Janet Gerson (Ed.D. Columbia University), peace researcher and peace educator, is Education Director, International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE). She is the winner of the 2014 Peace and Justice Studies Association Graduate Student Paper Award for her dissertation Public Deliberation on Global Justice: The World Tribunal on Iraq. She was Co-Director of the Peace Education Center, Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City (2001- 2010) where she taught peace education and conflict courses. Specializing in political theory, peace education and conflict processes, she has worked internationally as a conference programming coordinator and consultant, curriculum designer, mediator, presenter, and educator.
Her publications include contributions to In Factis Pax: Journal of Peace Education and Social Justice, The Handbook of Conflict Resolution (Eds., Coleman, Deutsch, & Marcus), GCPE Newsletter, Learning to Abolish War: Teaching toward a Culture of Peace (Reardon & Cabezudo), Theory into Practice, Analysis of Social Issues and Public Policy, and Holistic Education. She is on the Editorial Board of In Factis Pax: Journal of Peace Education and Social Justice.
Betty A. Reardon, Founding Director Emeritus
Dr. Betty A. Reardon has made significant and lifelong contributions to peace education in the United States and abroad. The global peace education movement has been profoundly influenced in substance and methodology by her influential publications, her ability to create and sustain successful institutions and networks, and her personal leadership.
The founder of the Peace Education Center at Columbia University, Dr. Reardon has influenced thousands of teachers and students in the methods of and approaches to peace education. She has taught at universities around the world, and has broad experience both in formal school settings and in non-formal community-based education programs. During her long career, Dr. Reardon has advanced peace and global citizenship education through an integrated focus on human security, sustainable development, human rights, ecology and gender.
Her most significant professional achievement—establishing the International Institute on Peace Education— received special honorary mention from the UNESCO Peace Education Prize. Dr. Reardon is the winner of the 2010 Sean McBride Peace Prize awarded by the International Peace Bureau in Geneva, among other accolades. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013, Dr. Reardon is recognized worldwide as a pioneer in peace education theory and pedagogy.
Micaela Segal de la Garza, IIPE 2019 Organizing Team
Micaela Segal de la Garza is an educator (or edu-learner) and a multilingual jill-of-all-trades whose passions are peace education and communication. With bilingual experience in the classroom and recording studio, Mica is a people-person who studied her Masters in International Peace, Conflict and Development Studies at Universitat Jaume I in Castellón de la Plana, Spain. She has enjoyed 5+ years teaching Spanish and Interventional Reading courses at a public high school in Houston, Texas. There she also served as advisor for the student-run yearbook staff and publication which focused on project-based learning in journalism. Mica continues her own learning while attending the International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE 2013, 2015, and 2017), and while serving as an intern on the planning team for IIPE 2019 and as a curator of quotes and creator meme graphics for the Global Campaign for Peace Education. She received her undergraduate degree, a triple major in Spanish, Communication and International Studies, from Trinity University in San Antonio, where she also began her exploration and love of dance.
