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In London and nearby Hertfordshire, Margaret Thirlway has built a career that sits quietly at the heart of conflict and resolution. Her path into mediation was a gradual realization that the work she found most meaningful was not about winning, but about helping people find a way forward. Margaret describes her early years with a…

Liyam Eloul’s work begins with a question that refuses to settle. How do people continue to live, relate, and rebuild after conflict reshapes the way they see the world, themselves and each other? It is a question that has guided her across disciplines and borders, shaping a career that sits at the intersection of psychology…

Kirsten Mercer lives and works in Toronto, Ontario, where her professional life unfolds at the intersection of law, mediation, politics, and human rights. Called to the bar in Ontario in 2007, she built a career shaped less by titles than by a steady pull toward understanding how decisions are made and how conflict can be…

Anne Sawyer learned early that conflict was not something distant or abstract. Growing up in California in a family of lawyers, she was surrounded by disagreement, negotiation, and strong perspectives. As a child, she did not yet have the tools to make sense of those dynamics, but she felt their presence deeply. “Curiosity and fear…

Clay Francell’s story begins in Odessa, Texas, USA in the heart of oil country where the pace of life is steady and the sense of community runs deep. He grew up there, attending local schools from elementary through high school, never imagining that one day he would return to those same hallways as a teacher….

In Cochabamba, Bolivia, where the rhythms of daily life are shaped by both tradition and change, Paola Saldivias Mendez is learning to sit with complexity. Recently returned home after completing her Master’s in Global Studies at UNC Chapel Hill as a Rotary Peace Fellow, she carries with her not just academic knowledge, but a deepened…

Caroline Walsh’s earliest memories of the world are shaped by movement, water, and difference. Born in South Africa at the end of apartheid, she enters life in a place defined by division and transition, even if she does not yet have the language to describe it. Later, in Cyprus, that awareness begins to take form….

Andrea Bassin joins the conversation from Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the desert landscape feels both grounding and expansive, much like the work she has devoted her life to. A mediator, restorative justice facilitator, and trauma-informed psychotherapist, she has spent decades exploring how people can move through harm and conflict toward something more human, more…

Dr. Ernest Thiessen has spent more than three decades working at the intersection of engineering, decision science, and peacebuilding. As President of Smartsettle Resolutions and iCan Systems Inc., he has dedicated his career to developing negotiation systems that help people resolve complex conflicts and discover solutions that benefit everyone involved. In this interview, he reflects…

Elizabeth’s journey into peacebuilding has been shaped less by a single defining moment and more by a gradual awareness of how people experience conflict, power, and justice in their everyday lives. Now based in Washington, DC, Elizabeth is a graduate of Howard University School of Law, where she completed her legal education during the height…