Home > News & Events > Member Spotlights

Member Spotlights

MBBI calls its members Peace Builders. Our members contribute their time utilizing their skills and experiences to participate in Working and Regional Groups, and Capacity-Building & Advocacy Initiatives. We hope that through our Spotlights, our members, individually and collectively, will inspire you as much as they inspire us to continue the important work.

To read more about our other current members, log into your profile for the member directory.

A growing number of international requests reach MBBI for partnerships, services, and projects. Help us build our capacity to say “yes” to these requests; consider joining us as a Peace Builder. For more information on how to become involved and for internship and volunteer opportunities, please visit our Join Us page or contact us at info@mediatorsbeyondborders.org.

Our Peace Builders

From Courtroom to Common Ground. Member Spotlight: Margaret Thirlway

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…
Read More →

Trauma and Recovery: The Human Work of Peace. Member Spotlight: Liyam Eloul

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…
Read More →

The Work of Being Human: Law, Listening, and Peace. Member Spotlight: Kirsten Mercer

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…
Read More →

Dialogue, Trust, and the Work of Peacebuilding. Member Spotlight: Anne Sawyer

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.…
Read More →

Full Circle: Listening, Learning, and Leading Through Mediation. Member Spotlight: Clay Francell

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…
Read More →

Living the Next: Presence, Peace, and Possibility. Member Spotlight: Paola Saldivias Mendez

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…
Read More →

Environmental Peacebuilding and the Power of Belonging. Member Spotlight: Caroline Walsh

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…
Read More →

Holding Space for Change: Conflict, Trauma, and Human Connection. Member Spotlight: Andrea Bassin

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…
Read More →

From Engineering to Peacebuilding. Member Spotlight: Dr. Ernest Thiessen

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…
Read More →

From Law to Listening. Member Spotlight: Elizabeth Lajayi

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…
Read More →