Elizabeth Barlow received an MA in Middle Eastern history from the University of Michigan and later served as a staff member at the University’s Middle East Center for nearly 20 years. She was also a founding member of Friends of Sabeel-North America and has led a number of groups to different countries in the Middle East, including Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Mark Braverman, based in Bethesda, MD, is a clinical psychologist and organizational consultant, specializing in psychological trauma and crisis intervention. He also translates modern Hebrew protest poetry, and writes and speaks extensively on his own experiences as an American Jew. Mark is the grandson of a fifth-generation Palestinian Jew, lived in Israel and has deep family roots in the region. He is a member of the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Dr. Hassan Fouda is an independent science consultant, former Assistant Director of
Pfizer, Inc. and former board member of Tandem Labs. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Right to Return Coalition and served as the Connecticut chair. Hassan is also active in several educational and interfaith peace advocacy groups including We Refuse to be Enemies (Jews, Muslims and Christians in Coalition for Peace).
John Hickox, based in Oregon, is an ordained United Church of Christ minister and believes that while a picture is worth a thousand words, a personal experience is worth a million words. With this in mind, he became the founding director of Americans Committed to Justice and Truth, a 501(c)3 corporation which makes it possible for Americans to make tax-deductible educational study tours to Israel/Palestine.
Jennifer Loewenstein is the associate director for the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a freelance journalist and author of numerous essays and articles on the Israel-Palestine conflict. She has lived in Beirut, Lebanon; Jerusalem, Israel; and Gaza City, Gaza and has traveled extensively in the region. In 2003, Jennifer founded the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project in Madison, WI.
David Neuneubel is founder of Americans for a Just Peace in the Middle East. He has a financial consulting and wealth management practice in Santa Barbara, CA. He is known for his documentaries about the Israeli Occupation – “Beyond the Mirage: The Face of the Occupation” and “IMAGINE,” featuring Auschwitz survivor Hajo Meyer.
Wafa Shami was born and raised in Palestine. She worked with the United Nations Works and Relief Agency for Palestine refugees in Jerusalem for eight years, and then moved to the US to pursue a Masters in International Studies. Wafa is currently heading the Middle East Peace Education Program of the American Friends Service Committee in the Los Angeles area.
Gay Young, a member of the Sociology faculty and Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at American University, Washington, DC, was Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute of Women’s Studies, Bir Zeit University, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and taught in the Gender, Law and Development Program. She received a Fulbright Research Grant, hosted by Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and carried out field research on gender and peace.
Tom Stern, Chair of the Board, is an education attorney in Durham, NC. In 2002, he traveled to the West Bank as part of a National Lawyers Guild delegation to investigate Israel’s unprecedented six-week shut down of the West Bank and the aftermath of the fighting in Jenin. Tom has returned twice since then to participate in the ICAHD Summer Camp, rebuilding a Palestinian home and as part of the Constructing Peace Campaign.
Mary Lou Leiser Smith, Vice Chair of the Board, was a founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA. She is the Coordinating Director of the Coalition for Peace with Justice, an interfaith/intercultural organization based in the Triangle of North Carolina. Mary Lou also serves on the Board of the US Friends of Hope Flowers School, a Palestinian school promoting peace education in Bethlehem, and is the Southeast representative for Friends of Sabeel-North America.
Jack Holtzman is Treasurer of the Board and lives in Durham, North Carolina. He is a staff attorney at the North Carolina Justice Center, and has practiced civil rights law in NC since 1985. Jack visited Israel and the Occupied Territories in 1989, and is a founding member of Jews for a Just Peace, NC.
Elyse Crystall, originally from Brooklyn, NY, is a long time social justice activist and human rights advocate. She is a member of Jews for a Just Peace – NC and teaches in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the summer of 2006, Elyse visited the West Bank to rebuild a demolished Palestinian home.
