Reem is the Executive Director for the Rotarian Action Group for Peace based in Portland, Oregon. She is a Positive Peace Activator and a Global Peace Index Ambassador for the Institute for Economics and Peace. Reem started as a Rotaractor in Ramallah Palestine then earned a Rotary Peace Fellowship at UNC Chapel Hill – Duke Peace Center where she earned her master’s degree in City and Regional Planning in addition to a certificate in International Peace and Conflict Resolution. She is now a Rotarian at the Portland Rotary Club.
Reem serves on the boards of several international organizations including: the Rotary Club of Portland, one of the largest Rotary Clubs in the world; Hands of Peace, an organization that empowers youth to lead the solutions for peace between Israelis and Palestinians; and Peace Village, an organization that creates access to peace education for children worldwide.
Reem has demonstrated leadership through several international projects and events. In 2018, she served on the organizing committee of the Environmental Sustainability and Peace Conference, one of Rotary International’s six Presidential Peace Conferences and addressed by the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. She led the growth of the RAGFP Peacebuilder Club program from 22 clubs in the Pacific Northwest to over 210 clubs in over 25 nations in less than two years. Reem is currently co-organizing the Geneva Peace Project Incubator, a gathering that aims to produce 20 international sustainable peace projects in 10 focus areas. Reem co-designed the Middle East Peace Education Trip 2020 to establish an experience for an international audience to create a fair understanding of the challenges and opportunities for peace in Israel and Palestine. Reem has distinguished experience as a public speaker and has presented and promoted positive peace. As an Executive Director and Peace Fellow, Reem has led several Peace Tours in the United States, Europe, and Palestine where she spoke to several international audiences on topics addressing the social, political, economic, and cultural factors to peacebuilding.
During the first 3 months of the coronavirus pandemic, she pioneered a webinar series that inspired the wider Rotary community to initiate their online presence. She is the creator and host of the weekly Together for Peace webinar series which was designed to elevate social peace issues, create strategies for sustainable actions, and rebuilt trust in a world in isolation. In this series, Reem interviewed world-class leaders, including social entrepreneurs, inspiring Rotarians, organizational leaders, academics, peace activists, and Nobel Peace Prize nominees.
Reem is a prominent advocate for Human Rights, social entrepreneurship, technological innovation, creative arts, and economic development. Her interests are focused around bridging technology, positive peace, and Human Rights to build sustainable and effective solutions for peace around the world. She recently supported a data-driven study of COVID-19 policies and their impact on vulnerable populations as a machine-learning contributor. She conceptualized and developed the Activate Positive Peace workbook that illustrates the Eight Pillars of Positive Peace through real-life peace projects. This workbook was presented at the 2019 Rotary Convention in Hamburg, Geneva Peace Week 2019 at the United Nations, and posted to the Positive Peace Academy by Institute for Economics and Peace, the leading thinktank on measuring peace in the world. Currently, Reem is leading a Peace Project that builds a social-entrepreneurship hub for Palestinian youth to build innovative technological solutions to peace obstacles in their community.
Early in her career, Reem organized an international dance festival of traditional and contemporary dance to build mutual understanding and also worked to support community-based organizations and NGOs in the Palestinian Territories. Reem worked for the United Nations Crisis Prevention Unit in Fiji where she engaged in projects focused on economic development and peace. Throughout her career, Reem has worked closely with youth, artists, religious leaders, government representatives, entrepreneurs, activists, and organizational leaders to promote peace at the international and grassroots level.
Reem is an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She was an ambassador of the OneVoice Movement where she lead a tour and spoke at prestigious institutions including, Harvard, Brown, and Columbia Universities, to support peaceful resolution in the Middle East.
Reem is inspired by Martin Luther King Junior: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” She realizes that people fear what they do not understand. Her mission is to elevate the voices of the oppressed and dismantle stereotypes by cultivating mutual understanding, promoting positive peace, and protecting Human Rights for all.

Steve Killelea is an accomplished entrepreneur in high technology business development and at the forefront of philanthropic activities focused on sustainable development and peace. After successfully building two international software companies, Steve decided to dedicate most of his time and fortune to sustainable development and peace.
Steve founded Integrated Research LTD. (IR), an Australian publicly-listed company with a heritage of providing performance management and payments software for business-critical computing and Unified Communications environments. Through Steve’s direction as CEO and now as Chairman, IR has built an impressive, world-class customer base to make it one of Australia’s leading software companies. Steve was recognized as AIIA Australian Exporter of the Year in 1998 and 2003, amongst numerous other business awards.
Steve has always had a strong passion for sustainable development, and in 2000 established The Charitable Foundation (TCF), which specializes in working with the poorest communities of the world. TCF is one of the largest private overseas aid organizations in Australia. It aims to provide life-changing interventions reaching as many people as possible with special emphasis on targeting the poorest of the poor. TCF is active in East and Central Africa and parts of Asia and has substantially impacted the lives of over 2.3 million people.
In 2007 Steve founded the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), an international think tank dedicated to building a greater understanding of the interconnection between business, peace and economics with particular emphasis on the economic benefits of peace. IEP’s ground-breaking research includes the Global Peace Index, the world’s leading measure of peacefulness. Steve’s founding of IEP was recognized as one of the 50 most impactful philanthropic gifts in Australia’s history.
Steve currently serves on a number of influential Company Boards, Advisory Boards and President Councils. In 2010, he was honored as Member of the Order of Australia for his service to the global peace movement and the provision of humanitarian aid to the developing world. In 2013 Steve was nominated one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People in Armed Violence Reduction” by the UK group Action on Armed Violence. He has been twice nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Josh has over 15 years’ experience in the fields of public health, education, and community development. He has a master’s in public health and has served on the faculty at UIC School of Public Health. In 2017 he received the Silver Circle Award for excellence in teaching at the University of Illinois.

Josh has worked for many years in the field of youth development as Chief Program Officer at Mikva Challenge. For the past 2 years he has been living in Mumbai, India, where he was Program Director of a ground-breaking Primary Education Program at 321 Education Foundation. The teacher centered approach impacted over 1050000 primary students across 3 cities, resulting in a 50% increase in student learning outcomes, 3 times the national average.


Josh currently serves as the Chief Impact Officer at the Praxis Institute. He continues to use his experience across geographies and initiatives to achieve well-being & equity utilizing data driven approaches tied together and global best practices.

Program Advisor at Conducive Space for Peace, an International organization based in Danemark that works on collaborative partnerships as a connecter in facilitating systemic transformation of the global peacebuilding system, Christian Cito Cirhigiri is a Congolese peace journalist, activist and researcher with 10 years’ experience supporting youth participation in peacebuilding processes in eastern Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Colombia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Integrated Community Development from Daystar University in Kenya and a master’s degree in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame in the US, and is currently a PhD Research fellow at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of Ghent University in Belgium.

Prof Omid Wali is a professor of English at the Nangarhar University in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Prof Wali is intimately aware of the dangers of violence and how curtailed knowledge can adversely affect the growth of a people and a nation.

• Ph.D. Candidate (ELT) Aligarh Muslim University
• Fulbright Alumni, University of Georgia, USA
• Rotary Peace Alumni, Chulalongkorn University
• Regional Coordinator AUSEP Alumni
• M.A. English (ELT Specialization)
• M.A. Policy and Public Administration
• P.G. Dip. Academic English Writing

Mr. Prelis has over twenty years’ experience working with youth movements and youth focused organizations in conflict and transition environments in over 35 countries throughout the world. In 2010 he co-founded and has been co-chairing the first UN-CSO-Donor working group (Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security) that helped successfully advocate for the historic UN Security Council Resolution 2250 (in 2015) Res 2419 (in 2018) and Resolution 2535 (July 2020).

Mr. Prelis is also the director of children & youth programs at Search for Common Ground (SFCG), an international conflict transformation organization. Prior to joining SFCG, Mr. Prelis was the founding director of the Peacebuilding & Development Institute at American University in Washington, DC. Over eleven years at the university resulted in him co-developing over 100 training curricula exploring the nexus of peace building with development.

Mr. Prelis received the distinguished Luxembourg Peace Prize for his Outstanding Achievements in Peace Support. Mr. Prelis obtained his Master’s Degree in International Peace & Conflict Resolution with a Concentration in International Law from American University in Washington, DC.

Dylan Mathews has been CEO of Peace Direct since January 2015. He was previously director, international programmes at Y Care International and has worked for Oxfam, Landmine Action and the Oxford Research Group.

Experienced Chief Executive Officer with a strong track record of working in the non-profit sector. Skilled in Nonprofit Organisation Management and Strategy, Team Building, People Development, and International Relations. Strong business development professional with a MBA focused in Management from The Open University.

Marc Finaud started his career at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Military Cooperation Division in 1977. From 1977 until 1978, he served as Vice-Consul at the French Consulate-General in Leningrad (USSR). From 1979 until 1982, he worked at the Directorate for Europe (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE)) in Paris. From 1982 until 1983 he served as Chief of Staff of the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before being appointed First Secretary at the French Embassy in Warsaw. From 1989 until 1993 he was Second Counsellor at the French Delegation to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva (dealing with nuclear and outer space issues as well as conventional and biological weapons) and a member of the French Delegation to the First Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.

From 1993 until 1996 he was appointed Head of the Information Department (and alternate spokesman) of the Foreign Ministry in Paris. Following this from 1995 until 1996, he was a lecturer on arms control and disarmament for a post-graduate course at the Marne-la-Vallée University. In 1996 he was appointed Deputy Head of Mission at the French Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he joined the Team of Negotiators of the EU Special Envoy to the Middle East. In January 2001, he was transferred to Sydney, Australia to serve as Consul-General for France.
Marc Finaud has been a Knight of the French National Order of Merit since 1998. Apart from French, he speaks English, Russian and Polish. He has published aphorisms in English about disarmament in the Geneva International Yearbook and articles on the Middle East peace process.

Andrew C. Weber was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical & Biological Defense Programs, whose areas of responsibility are US nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs. Appointed by President Obama, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on 18 May 2009.
Weber graduated from Cornell University and holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) degree from Georgetown University.
He played a key role in the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction which removed weapons grade uranium from Kazakhstan and Georgia, and nuclear capable Mikoyan MiG-29 from Moldova. Weber also oversaw and developed the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and for his work has twice been awarded the Exceptional Civilian Service Medal. He served previously as a United States Foreign Service Officer. From 2002-2008, Weber taught a course on Force and Diplomacy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in Georgetown University.

Darshan Shankar is the managing trustee of FRLHT and founder of TDU. His core contributions lie in the field of educational innovation. He started his career in 1973 at the age of 23, at the University of Bombay, where he designed and implemented a post graduate “experiential” learning program that won a Commonwealth Award in 1976, for being the best program in the Commonwealth for linking University education to community needs.
Darshan worked as a young faculty at the University of Bombay from 1973 to 1980. He then lived and worked for twelve years till 1992 in a tribal district in Maharashtra on projects related to S&T applications for tribal development.
In 1993, he moved to Bangalore, where along with Pitroda, he founded the Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), and later the Trans-Disciplinary University (TDU).
He has won several national and international awards viz. Commonwealth Award (1976), Normal Borlaug Award (1998) for contributions to conservation of wild populations of medicinal plants, Columbia University’s International Award (2003) for Complementary Sam and Alternative Medicine, and in 2011, the Govt. of India conferred on him, the Padma Shri.
He has held several honorary positions like:
Advisor (ISM), Planning Commission, Govt. of India
Member, National Biodiversity Authority, Govt. of India
Member, National Wildlife Board, Govt. of India
Member, Executive Board of Global Initiative for Traditional Systems (GIFTS), Oxford, UK
Member, Academic Council, Rajasthan Ayurvedic University, Jodhpur
Member, Independent Commission on Development and Health in India, New Delhi
Convener, Working Group on Traditional Health Sciences of the National Knowledge Commission, Govt. of India
Member, International Expert Group to advise PM’s Office, Govt. of Malaysia, on development of Herbal Sector
Member, Population Commission, Govt. of India
Member, Research council, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka
Member, International Expert Group set up by IUCN and WWF, Germany and WHO on Standards for Sustainable harvest of Medicinal Plants
Member, Board of Directors, Inter University Doctoral Research Program on Endogenous Knowledge, Netherlands
He has written one book, chapters in several books, and peer reviewed articles in national and international publications.

Major Achievements and Awards:
• Shri. Rahul Vishwanath Karad is an enterprising young educationist at the forefront of the 72 institutes strong MAEER's MIT Group of Institutions, Pune with over 55,000 students under its fold. He is also the Executive President of MIT-World Peace University, the newly recognized State Private University of MIT Group of Institutions at its flagship Kothrud campus in Pune. A graduate in engineering and a postgraduate in management from Cardiff U.K, Shri. Rahul, is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School, U.S.A.
• Shri. Rahul is advancing the inherited vision and mission of his visionary academician father Prof. Dr. Vishwanath Karad, Founder MIT Group of Institutions, with a fearless passion and deep-rooted patriotic intent in his heart. He holds a firm conviction in channelizing the power of youth to augment their active participation in our pluralistic democracy. His true nationalistic consciousness keeps finding expressions through numerous activities that he initiates and infuses a renewed sense of pride and patriotism amongst the young budding minds.
• Addressing his burning desire in contribution to Nation Building prompted him to trudge a new path reflecting in the shape of MIT School of Government. With his energized focus and genuine involvement, the School is honing and nurturing the next generation of Indian Political Leaders and his efforts are appreciated, placed and valued in the national context. The school being the first of its kind in Asia has attained success in the process of activity and has risen manifold in stature and prestige by its concentrated efforts of strengthening the fabric of Indian Democratic Leadership.
• He firmly believes, involvement of youth in a wide variety of social, national and international issues will be a key determinant of our success and excellence. To do so, and for the composite development of youth, it is essential that they be well exposed, informed, enlightened, connected and spirited. To achieve this goal, a purposeful platform like “INDIAN STUDENT PARLIAMENT” (BHARATIYA CHHATRA SANSAD) was founded by him. Potentially and objectively, this platform is also a breeding ground for the youth to assume various leadership roles in order to strengthen the very essence of democracy.
• To further this cause of nation building with a sole aim of Inspiring Teachers and Strengthening Generations he has conceptualized National Teachers' Congress (NTC). This is a platform for teachers of Higher Education (under-graduate and post-graduate colleges) from across the nation. Through extensive deliberations and dialogue of 3 days, he aims to ignite the spirit of thousands of teachers every year so that they continue to look beyond the commercial temptations for creating deeper and wider impact on the society through this noble profession. He firmly believes that as we are fast moving towards the Knowledge Era, we are sure that NTC will benefit all the important stakeholders of Education Process including Students, Teachers, Parents, Industry, Law Makers and Society at large.
• He is also the Founder & Convener of National Women’s Parliament (NWP). This is a common platform for women from diverse background like politics, social sector, education, sports, industry, media, cinema, arts & culture, judiciary and young aspiring girl students to stage their experiences ,share knowledge and research in the area of women’s social economic and political empowerment. Its first annual national conclave was hosted by the Government of Andhra Pradesh on February 10, 11 & 12, 2017. Over 18,000 girl students from colleges of Higher Education were connected to women legislatures, parliamentarians, women corporate leaders, and representatives from social sector for a reciprocal and continuing assignation. The platform will stay faithful to its endeavors till significant progress is made in achieving respectable representation of women in national and world political order.

Dr. Avinash Bhondwe is a renowned General Physician. He is IMA-Maharashtra President.
He has over 34 years of experience as a General Physician. He is MBBS- Pune University-1982, B.J.Medical College. Practicing Family Physician since 1984 in Shivajinagar, Pune. Dr Avinash is a panel consultant on many hospitals, Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, Poona Hospital, Sahyadri Hospitals, MMF's Joshi Hospital, Ratna Memorial Hospital, Surya Hospitals, Sanjivan Hospital, MJM Hospital, ACE Hospital. President of General Practitioners' Association Pune(2006-07), President of Rotary Club of Pune Shaniwarwada( 2004-05), Organising Chairman GPCON 2006, Organising Secretary of the First ever Doctors' Sahitya Sammelan(2001).

Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar M.B.B.S., DCH, M.P.H (born 1958) is an Indian epidemiologist. He served as Head Scientist of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at the Indian Council of Medical Research before retiring on 30 June 2020.He is a recipient of the 2020 Padma Shri award, the fourth highest civilian award in India
In the early 1980s, he began researching HIV/AIDS, at a time when the knowledge of the disease was developing. He worked with the National Institute of Virology and National AIDS Research Institute, Pune. He continued to work in the public sector in HIV/AIDS and was active in developing national policies and patient empowerment. After nearly two decades, he became Director-in-charge of the National AIDS Research Institute. In 2018 he was appointed Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases Wing of the Indian Council of Medical Research. He was active in handling the Nipah virus outbreak and the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Manohar Shinde, M.D., Ph.D. Psychiatry, was on the teaching clinical faculty of UCLA & USA schools of Medicine and at the “Institute for contemporary psychoanalysis” (ICP). He has also served as a Medical director in many institutions and has retired from 29 years of private practice in Glendale, Los Angeles. Dr. Shinde is a community leader with an extensive track record of philanthropy and service and has impacted thousands of people. He serves on the board of several non-profit organizations serving the Indian community in North America.

Dr. Patwardhan is a biomedical scientist who is Fellow of National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medical Sciences India. Currently, he is Chairman (Additional Charge), Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi and member, National Board of Examination. He worked as academic head of Manipal Education Group; Director, Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, Bengaluru; Vice Chancellor, Deemed University in Pune, and visiting Professor at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. He has worked on Boards of several Universities and is member of important national committees such as- University Grants Commission, Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, Department of Science & Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences and Indian Council of Medical Research. He has worked on several policy making committees and Taskforces of National Knowledge Commission, Planning Commission, NITI Ayog and Ministry of AYUSH. He has made original contributions in evidence-based Ayurveda especially in Ayurvedic biology, ethnopharmacology, natural product drug development and integrative approaches to improve public health system. He is recipient of many orations and awards including Sir Ram Nath Chopra Oration, Waldemar Haffkine Oration, Dr C. Dwarkanath Oration, Dr P.K. Devi Oration, and V K Joag Best Teacher Award. The WHO, Geneva awarded him a study on the role of traditional medicine in public health