Our Team
The MHCR family comprises not only its student-employees and Carter School faculty but everyone dedicated to “breaking the barriers that separate people…to overcome differences and heal wounds of the past.” Below, you can learn more about and connect with our current staff and alumni.
LEADERSHIP & ADMINISTRATION
Antti pentikainen, director
Alongside leading MHCR, Antti is working as a visiting scholar at the US Institute for Peace. Before his work at MHCR, Antti established the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers with the U.N. (2015-2019) while also serving as the special envoy for Finland’s Prime Minister on the Refugee Crisis (2015-2019) as well as advisor to the U.N. Assistant Secretary-General on Prevention of Genocide (2017).
For over a decade, Antti led the efforts of Finn Church Aid (2004-2015) as its executive director, and assumed multiple leadership positions including Special Advisor for President Ahtisaari, director at Crisis Management Initiative (2000-2004) and Religions for Peace (2010-2011). Antti holds experience in peace processes and reconciliation in Somalia, South Sudan and Libya. His efforts now focus on developing support mechanisms to connect insider reconcilers with state level political processes.
DEBORAH SACHARE, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
Deborah Sachare is the Associate Director for the Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation and Ph.D. student at George Mason University's Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. In her role as Associate Director of MHCR, Deborah will support the Director in overseeing MHCR's research, practice, administrative, financial, and communication initiatives. Deborah earned her master's degree in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Columbia University and bachelor's degree in Environmental Policy from Barnard College. Prior to joining MHCR, she taught in the Master's Program in Negotiation & Conflict Resolution at Columbia University, participated in research through the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution, and facilitated a Conflict Management and Mitigation grant through JDC-Israel from USAID West Bank/Gaza and the U.S. Embassy in Israel.
IMPACT, DEVELOPMENT, & ADMINISTRATION
Merisa Mattix, Development MANAGER
Merisa is a graduate student at the Carter School earning her M.S. in the accelerated master’s program concentrating in Dynamics of Violence. Merisa is specifically interested in anti-human trafficking work as well as genocide prevention and post-genocide reconciliation work, which led her to MHCR. In her position, Merisa assists both the Director and Associate Director in program coordination and development, supporting fundraising efforts, and reporting on MHCR initiatives. She is excited to be part of this amazing team supporting important insider-reconciliation work, bringing scholars and practitioners together, and collaborating with related organizations.
RESEARCH (TRANSFORMATION & RECONCILIATION)
& PRACTICE PROGRAMS
Hannah adamson,
LAB MANAGER
Hannah is a graduate student in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. She holds a BA in the same subject with a minor in Conservation Studies. She is interested in partnering peacebuilding and reconciliation with environmental justice and sustainability. At MHCR, Hannah leads the Transformation and Reconciliation Lab focusing on reconciliation research projects. Additionally, she supports MHCR’s programs including insider reconciler assistance, transitional justice initiatives, and racial healing. She is excited to be connecting research and practice, engaging with peacebuilders, and contributing to a meaningful impact while pursuing her studies.
Nicholas Sherwood, Insider reconciler research lead
Former Associate Director
(2020-2023)
Nicholas (Nick) Sherwood took his B.A. (psychology and political science) from Christopher Newport University and his M.A. (anthropology of peace and human rights) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is a Ph.D. candidate in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution.
FELLOWSHIPS
ROWDA OLAD,Insider Reconciler Fellow
Rowda Olad is a psychotherapist and founder of Maandeeq Mental Health Without Borders. Rowda leads psych-educational trainings for government institutions and regional leaders in Somalia and has designed and implemented Psychological Rehabilitation Programs for high risk inmates and defectors. She has also been working with key actors throughout Somalia in elevating the mental health and psychological rehabilitations within the context of state building, political stability, social healing. Rowda has recently started a fellowship with MHCR.
Tecla Namachanja Wanjala, Insider reconciler fellow
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Betty Bigombe, Insider Reconciler Fellow
FORMER RESEARCH MEMBERS
Oakley hill, Research officer
Oakley Hill is currently pursuing a masters degree in conflict analysis and resolution with a concentration in media, narrative, and public discourse at George Mason University. He has obtained a bachelors degree in moral philosophy and peace studies from Utah Valley University, and has extensive experience in analytical research and teaching. His current research interests include understanding insider-reconciliation practice, conflict early warning, and conflicts within the Mormon community. At the Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation Oakley hopes to assist in the creation of a reconciliation research lab that can weld a connection between the academy and insider-reconciliation work and thereby contribute to both research and practice.
Beltina (Belle) Gjeloshi, Research officer
Beltina is a Ph.D. candidate at the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. As a Research Officer at the Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation, she leads the analysis for the flagship study on insider reconcilers. Outside of MHCR, her research work consists of the socio-psychological dynamics of migrant integration strategies, theories of change in reconciliation, post-war justice conceptions, and activating curiosity as a conflict de-escalator. Beltina combines +12 years of international experience in administration, proposal management, communication, and event management. She holds an MA in global development and peace and a BA in international political economy and diplomacy from the University of Bridgeport. Her research languages are English, Italian, Spanish, Albanian, and Macedonian.
MHCR AFFILIATES
Mike sweigart, research affiliate
Michael (Mike) Sweigart earned his B.A. (International Affairs) from George Washington University and a M.P.A. from GMU’s Schar School of Policy and Government. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Conflict Analysis & Resolution from GMU’s Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. Alongside his doctoral studies, Mike manages the Reconciling Conflicts & Intergroup Divisions (RCID) Lab, a research and practice lab focused on redressing identity based conflicts and social divisions. Drawing inspiration from his 12+ years of experience as a practitioner in the democracy, human rights & governance development field, Mike’s research focuses on how to resolve tensions between global and domestic norms that often delegitimize movements for the rights of stigmatized minority groups, and particularly sexual and gender minorities.
Colette Rausch, Research professor
Colette has over 20 years of peacebuilding in nearly two dozen violent conflict-affected countries. Her current focus is exploring how trauma affects reconciliation, blending her peacebuilding experiences, training in the neurobiology of trauma, and passion for supporting those on the frontlines of building peace. She was previously with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), where she held multiple leadership roles, including founding its Neuroscience and Peacebuilding Initiative and leading the development of new approaches, research, and tools—including Justice and Security Dialogue, a pioneering initiative to build trust between local communities and police. Prior to USIP, Colette held senior human rights and rule of law positions with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Mission in Kosovo. She served the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as legal advisor in Bosnia and Hungary, and as program manager for Central and East Europe. And she served as a federal prosecutor and public defender.
Eduardo gonzalez, Research Affiliate
Eduardo Gonzalez is Peruvian sociologist with twenty years of experience supporting truth and reconciliation processes around the world. After organizing public victim hearings at his country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he served at the International Center for Transitional Justice , where he supported truth commissions in all continents, including notable cases like Greensboro, in the US, East Timor, Tunisia, Canada and many others. As an independent expert he has supported reparations and truth processes in Sri Lanka, Mali, Colombia and Finland. He has written and taught in transitional justice. His next publication concerns unofficial truth commissions. He is affiliated to the Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation and serves as an advisor at several transitional justice bodies, including the Chega National Center in east Timor and the Site of Memory in Peru.
Chip Hauss, Senior Research Affiliate
Charles “Chip” Hauss has been exploring ways of producing large scale social and political change through nonviolent and cooperative means for five decades. In all of this work, he has tried to be a political bridge builder who brings “strange political bedfellows” together to help solve problems that can only be effectively addressed if they work together.
He is currently Senior Fellow for Innovation and an emeritus member of the Board of Directors at the Alliance for Peacebuilding. In that role, his job is to identify ideas, tools, and techniques in other fields that could and should be adapted and adopted by peacebuilders. He is also a Visiting Scholar at George Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.
Hauss is a veteran author. His most recent book in peace studies is From Conflict Resolution to Peacebuilding, a textbook designed to engage introductory students. He is currently working on Connecting the Dots, a book on how Americans are responding to the multiple crises facing the country in 2020.
Dr. fanie Du Toit,D. Phil., Research Affiliate
Du Toit is currently overseeing a process to build community capacity for insider mediation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State as a step towards reintegration following the 2017 violence which caused 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. Previously (2016-2018) he was Chief Technical Advisor for UNDP Iraq, facilitating inter-sectarian dialogue in communities fragmented during and after ISIS rule. During the preceding 16 years, he was programme manager and then executive director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) in South Africa, focusing on issues related to post-TRC reconciliation and transitional justice, and worked with colleagues from other African states on similar processes. His latest book, Political Transitions that work—Reconciliation as Interdependence, by Oxford University Press in collaboration with Notre Dame University, appeared in July 2018. As Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, he completed a D.Phil in the Philosophy of Religion in 1995, and in 2005 he received a further Masters’ degree in Justice and Transformation from the University of Cape Town (UCT). In 2007 he received UNESCO’s International Prize for Peace Education on behalf of the IJR. He is also an Honorary Associate Professor at UCT’s Department of Political Studies and a member of the Advisory Board of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution.
MHCR ALUMNI
Christopher Siebentritt, Research Assistant
(2023)
Amanda Peña, shinnyo fellow
(2022-2023)
Greta roberson, research Officer
(2020-2022)
Angelina Mendes, Research fellow
(2020-2022)
Cam Cassar
Communications Officer (2020-2022)
Current Role: Project Consultant at Think Peace Learning and Support Hub
Monica Ghani
Finance and Administrative Officer (2020-2022)
Jonathan Jimenez
IREX Fellow (2022)
Jena Kitchen
Research Officer (2021)
Current Role: Program Officer, Think Peace Learning and Support Hub
Kelsey Vaughn
Research Assistant (2021)
Current Role: Masters Student of Human Security, Aarhus University
Annalisa Jackson
Associate Director (2019-2021)
Current Role: Founder/Coach, Collective Flourishing LLC
Monica Curca
Research Affiliate (2020-2021)
Current Role: Founder and Director, Activate Labs
Amelia Johnston
Research Assistant (2020)
Current Role: Project Assistant, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict at George Mason University
Elicia Yoffee
Project Manager (2019-2020)
Current Role: Operations Analyst, SaveSolar Corporation
Natalia Kanos
Research Assistant (2020)
Current Role: Master of Public Administration Candidate, Columbia University
Toni farris
Research Fellow (2020-2021)
Current Role: PhD Candidate, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict; Self-employed Consulant;