Rich Dutra-St. John, MA MFT, is co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Challenge Day. A former high school teacher and championship wrestling coach, Rich has worked with teens and families since 1978. As a licensed family therapist and drug intervention specialist, he was recruited to open and direct two different adolescent treatment facilities in Northern California, most notably the Thunder Road Adolescent Recovery Center in Oakland where he served as the founding clinical director.

A gifted facilitator and counselor, Rich is viewed as an expert in working with youth and families. With a shared vision that every child could someday live in a world where they feel safe, loved, and celebrated, Rich and his wife Yvonne combined their collective passion and experience to co-found the Challenge Day Program in 1987. Their work has positively affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of youth and adults in 34 different states, 6 Canadian Provinces, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Japan. Rich now serves as a Challenge Day trainer/facilitator, Board Chairman and head of the Development Department.

 

Riane Eisler is an eminent social scientist, attorney, and social activist best known as author of the international bestseller The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future, now in 23 languages, including most European languages and Chinese, Russian, Korean, Hebrew, Japanese, and Arabic.

Her newest book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics has been hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as "a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking," by Gloria Steinem as "revolutionary," by Peter Senge as "desperately needed," and by Jane Goodall as "a call for action."

 

Dr. Eisler is co-founder of the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (www.saiv.net) and president of the Center for Partnership Studies (www.partnershipway.org). She keynotes conferences worldwide, and is a consultant to business and government on applications of the partnership model introduced in her work. She has been a powerful advocate for the human rights of women and children, has received many honors, and is included in the award-winning book Great Peacemakers, as one of 20 leaders for world peace, along with Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King.

Dr. Eisler can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Her website is www.rianeeisler.com. You can read a more extensive biography of Dr. Eisler here.


Rita Marie Johnson is director of the Rasur Foundation, which she founded in 1997 to implement peace education in Costa Rica.

Rita Marie is also the author of a Ministry for Peace initiative that was embraced by Costa Rica's current president, Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The Ministry for Peace bill has no opposition and is coming to vote soon before the Legislative Assembly. Rita Marie was authorized by the Vice President of Costa Rica to represent Costa Rica at the Summit of the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments for Peace that took place in Japan in September 2007. Upon her request, the Costa Rican government has now agreed to host the 2009 Summit of the Global Alliance.

 

Rita Marie served the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica from 1999-2002. In 2002, she discovered a powerful synergy between two methods, HeartMath for "feeling peace" and Nonviolent Communication for "speaking peace," This combination evolved into the practice of BePeace and inspired her to found the Academy for Peace of Costa Rica. By 2005, the Academy won the Changemakers Innovation Award: Building a More Ethical Society, chosen from 79 projects in 32 countries. Now this Academy is working with the Ministry of Education to train peace teachers, called "Rasurs," who will implement BePeace in every high school in Costa Rica. The Academy will also work closely with the new Ministry for Peace.

 

For further information, visit www.academyforpeacecr.org or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . You can read a more extensive biography of Rita Marie here.

Azim Khamisa was born in Kenya, Africa and had early training in mathematics, economics and international finance. A successful international investment banker with over 35 years experience, he has conducted business ventures in Africa, Middle East, Europe, Asia and the Americas. A man always on the go, taking action towards societal transformation, he is presently the Chairman, CEO and Founder of the Tariq Khamisa Foundation (TKF) and Founder and National Director of the Constant And Never Ending Improvement (CANEI) program.

Committing his life to halting the continuing cycle of violence among the youth, Azim became a social activist after his 20-year-old son Tariq was senselessly murdered while delivering pizzas in January 1995 by Tony Hicks, a 14-year-old gang member. Out of unspeakable grief and despair, Khamisa was inspired to transform his loss through the miraculous power of forgiveness. Believing that there were "victims at both ends of the gun," Azim forgave Tony and founded the Tariq Khamisa Foundation to stop kids from killing kids and to plant seeds of hope in their future. A month after establishing the foundation, Azim invited Ples Felix, Tony's grandfather and guardian, to join him. Together, since November 1995, the two have brought their story and message through TKF's Violence Impact Forums to half a million elementary and middle school children live and over 20 million via video programs, guiding the youth to choose a peacemaker's life of non-violence and forgiveness.

Azim is also the founder of the CANEI restorative program, which he developed under the auspices of the National Youth Advocate Program (www.nyap.org). Currently CANEI operates in Columbus, OH, Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL and San Diego, CA.

With various inspirational products available on his website, he is an award-winning author of the book: Azim's Bardo: From Murder To Forgiveness--A Father's Journey. He followed up this book in November 2007 with From Forgiveness to Fulfillment, showing the continued evolution in an unfolding story that is his path, his passion and his life. A third in the trilogy will be From Fulfillment to Peace. And due out in early 2009 by Random House will be Bounce Back; Secrets of the Bulletproof Spirit, coauthored by Jillian Quinn.


Bob Koehler is a long-time Chicago-based journalist, editor, teacher, public speaker, poet and fiction writer. He works as an editor at Tribune Media Services and is also nationally syndicated by Tribune. He has won awards for his writing at the local, state and national levels, and continues to generate intense reaction among readers, having been thanked profusely, called a hero of democracy, had his life threatened and being wished an inoperable brain tumor.

 

A reader once called Bob "blatantly relevant" and he uses that phrase as his byword every week. Bob writes about politics from outside the unspoken assumptions of mainstream journalism. He sees his column as a wedge of outrage into that mainstream, a means of interrupting the conversation that accepts as given war, poverty, social inequity and environmental degradation, and takes the state of our democracy for granted. On his website, commonwonders.com, Bob describes the column as "part political brawl, part secular prayer."

 

Bob has appeared in hundreds of newspapers, large and small, and is regularly posted on many widely read Internet sites. A widower and single father with a daughter who is a recent college grad, Bob is currently working on a book about our long, slow shift from a culture of violence and the dawning of the paradigm of peace. He is active in the men's movement and an enthusiastic participant in the evolution of human consciousness.

Dorothy J Maver, Ph.D., is an educator and peacebuilder whose keynote is inspiring cooperation on behalf of the common good. She is President & CEO of Peace Partnership International and her work in education, politics and grassroots community organizing is focused on applied peacebuilding and the global call for ministries and departments of peace. Dot served as Executive Director of The Peace Alliance and Campaign for a US Department of Peace and was the National Campaign Manager for Kucinich for President 2004.

 

She is a co-founder of the Vermont Peace Academy, and a founding board member of the Center for Cooperative Principles. An innovative educator with a teaching background in Health, Physical Education, Psychology and Philosophy at both the high school and university levels, she is on faculty with Polaris College, Denmark, was part of the 2008 lecture series at the Graduate Institute, CT, USA and taught at Norwich University, VT USA. Dot is active in community coalition building with her youth/adult partnership model based on shared responsibility and shared leadership. In the world of fast-pitch softball Dr. Dot is known for her revolutionary fast-pitch hitting technique, The Maver Method: Secrets of Hitting Success; she is co-author of the book Conscious Education: The Bridge to Freedom; and is a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at conferences worldwide.

Ocean Robbins is founder and director of YES! — "Helping Visionary Young Leaders Build a Better World," which he founded in 1990, at age 16. Ocean has spoken in person to more than 200,000 people and facilitated many dozens of gatherings for young leaders from 60+ nations. Ocean is author of "Choices for Our Future: A Generation Rising for Life on Earth," and has served as a board member for Friends of the Earth, Creating Our Future, the Turning Tide Coalition, EarthSave International, and OmniCenter. In 2002, he was selected by Utne Reader as one of 30 "Young Visionaries" under age 30, and by Audubon and Time as being among the heroes of the new millennium. He is a 2008 recipient of the Freedom’s Flame Award, and of the national Jefferson Award for Outstanding Community Service by an Individual 35 Years Or Younger. He and his beloved wife Michele are the parents of River and Bodhi Robbins, identical twin boys born in 2001. You can read a more extensive biography of Ocean here.

Lisa Schirch is a professor of peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. A former Fulbright Fellow in East and West Africa, Schirch has worked in over 20 countries with communities and government leaders. She is the program director of the 3D Security Initiative, which promotes civil society perspectives on conflict prevention and peacebuilding in US security policymaking. With colleagues in the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU, Schirch consults with a network of strategic partner organizations involved in peacebuilding activities throughout the U.S., Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Schirch has written five books and numerous articles on conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Her current research interests include civil-military dialogue and the intersection of security and climate change, sustainable development, the media, and conflict prevention. She is a frequent public speaker and has TV and radio experience discussing U.S. foreign policy. She holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Waterloo, Canada, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University.

 

Yvonne St. John-Dutra is co-founder and CEO of Challenge Day. Working for over 24 years with teens and adults in a variety of settings, Yvonne has been instrumental in designing and implementing over 17 different nationally recognized prevention and intervention programs for teenagers.

Yvonne's earliest experiences varied from classroom presentations and school assemblies, to media programs on gender roles and eating disorders. She later focused her attention on working with at- risk youth, addiction and social oppression issues.

A gifted speaker, program designer, trainer, and educator, Yvonne has received many honors and won numerous awards for her work with teens and families. In 2003, Yvonne was selected to receive the Contra Costa County Woman of The Year Award.

As parents of four daughters, Yvonne and her husband Rich co-founded the awarding winning Challenge Day Program in 1987. In addition to leading Challenge Day Programs, Challenger Trainings, Mentorship Programs, Next Step to Being The Change and Living The Change workshops, Yvonne is the Chief Executive Officer and the Director of Challenge Day’s Training Department.

 

Swami Beyondananda--Steve Bhaerman is an author and humorist who has spent the past 20 years disguised as Swami Beyondananda, the "Cosmic Comic." Swami's comedy has been called "irreverently uplifting" and "comedy disguised as wisdom" as well as "wisdom disguised as comedy." As the Swami, Steve is the author of four books: Driving Your Own Karma, When You See a Sacred Cow Milk It for All It's Worth, Duck Soup for the Soul and his latest, Swami for Precedent: A 7-Step Plan to Heal the Body Politic and Cure Electile Dysfunction. On the serious side, Sounds True has released a 5-CD set featuring Steve and cellular biologist Bruce Lipton called Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and How to Get There From Here. Their book with the same title will be out in 2009. Steve also writes a spiritual/political blog called "Notes From the Trail," and has launched a new website Heartland Security. Swami and Steve can be found online at www.wakeuplaughing.com.