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Many Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni and IEP Ambassadors serve as leaders in governments, NGOs, the military, education, law enforcement, and international organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank.

Introducing Five New Rotary Peace Fellowship Board Members

Since the program began in 2002, the Rotary Peace Centres have trained more than 1,400 fellows who now work in more than 115 countries. Many serve as leaders in governments, NGOs, the military, education, law enforcement, and international organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank.

The Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association (RPFAA) is the representative body of Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni and maintains the Rotary Peace Fellow Alumni community of practice.

IRPFAA selected a new board in 2020. All four new appointees, and the remaining member of the interim board (Wes Hedin), are IEP Ambassadors.

This highlights the close ties IEP’s Positive Peace framework has within Rotary’s network.

Here we feature the five new Rotary Peace Fellowship board members and IEP Ambassadors:

María Julia Moreyra – Lawyer from Argentina

María Julia Moreyra is an Argentinian lawyer and Magister in International Relations (FLACSO- Argentina) and a 2016 Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni.

Her area of expertise and knowledge is the fight against gender violence and particularly human trafficking, where she is academically qualified and has field experience.

Currently, she works for the Ministry of Women, Gender Policies and Sexual Diversity of Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. In addition, she is Regional Coordinator for Latin American and the Caribbean of Peace Women Across the Globe (PWAG).

PWAG is a Swiss international organization which was created as a nomination of 1,000 women from 150 countries to the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

At present, Ms. Moreyra is working with Rotary Club of Montevideo utilising her expertise in human trafficking. Together with a Uruguayan Peace Fellow, she trains high school teachers in order to prevent the crime of human trafficking. Schools are her focus since adolescents are the most likely people to become victims of this crime.

She is also Positive Peace Activator, chosen by Rotary International and the Institute of Economics and Peace. Likewise, IEP chose her to be an Ambassador (2020, 1st cohort).

María Julia Moreyra: My experience with the IEP has deepened my knowledge on peace. IEP’s concepts are extremely important in order to improve my peacebuiliding and development work in my community taking into account that without peace is impossible to achieve levels of cooperation, inclusiveness and social equity. Positive Peace and its eight Pillars are valuable contributions to the world peace.

Wale Adeboye – Researcher and Founder in West Africa

Wale Adeboye is the West Africa focal person in the Africa Working Group of the Global Action against Mass Atrocities (GAMAAC).

Prior to GAAMAC assignment and engagements, Adeboye founded the West Africa Responsibility to Protect Coalition, a multidisciplinary research and policy think-tank. In 2019, he was a Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.

In 2016, IEP selected Wale in their inaugural IEP Ambassador cohort and he has remained an ambassador to date.

Similarly, in 2018, he became a member of the Digital Fellows Network at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Canada.

Global Action Against Mass Atrocities (GAMAAC)

As the West Africa Focal Person of the Global Action Against Mass Atrocities (GAMAAC), he was involved in the design and production of GAAMAC ‘Best Practices Manual for the Establishment and Management of National Mechanisms For Atrocities Prevention.’

He is also passionate about tackling English language literacy deficit in public primary schools. Wale thus serves as the Project Coordinator to the Universal Learning Solutions in the implementation of Jolly Phonics teaching methods across Nigeria.

His research on ‘War Across States’ with late Jim Hentz of Virginia Military Institute was instrumental to redirecting US policy in relation to Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram.

Wale Adeboye: The experience of being trained in the first and second cohorts of the IEP Ambassador program helped reinforce my peacebuilding skills and acted as an impetus for me to truly understand peacebuilding applications. Further exposure to the Positive Peace framework strengthened my confidence. I now have deeper understanding of my role as a peacebuilder and Positive Peace champion. Overall, the IEP platform has boosted my social and professional equity, such that, I am able to think of new ideas and locate peacebuilders and Rotarians in every corner of the world with something to learn and make me excel in my career endeavor.

Bautista Logioco – Consultant for the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund

Bautista Logioco is a practitioner specialized in dialogue, conflict transformation and peacebuilding.

With over 18 years of experience at national and international level in programs and projects for conflict prevention, peacebuilding and social integration in Latin America, Africa and Asia, Mr. Logioco has worked for the UN, the OAS and different governmental and academic entities.

Currently, he is a consultant for local governments, international organizations and development banks and a postgraduate professor.

He also serves as an independent consultant for, among others, the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Women and various government entities.

Furthermore, he is a Senior Advisor on Dialogue Processes for the Formulation of Public Policy to the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

From 2012 to 2017, Mr. Logioco served as Program Officer at the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), where he provided strategic advice on the development, implementation and evaluation of United Nation peacebuilding strategies and projects in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Bautista Logioco: IEP’s Positive Peace framework and the Global Peace Index are key references whenever I undertake a conflict analysis or a gender analysis for sustaining peace in a specific country. In that context, the GPI is key when it comes to identifying potential trends that, if not timely and properly addressed, could lead to a worsened situation. As such, they are an integral part of my work on conflict analysis as a basis for conflict prevention and peacebuilding programming.

Ana L. Gálvez – Program Manager in Australia

Ana L. Gálvez has over 9 years of combined experience in advocacy, leadership, program management, partnership, and fundraising roles in non-governmental organisations as well as international organizations.

Ana brings to the newly elected Board, and the RPFAA as a whole, her international academic background in Political Science (BA, ANU) and Peace and Conflict Studies (MA, ICU Rotary Peace Fellowship).

She also brings her enthusiasm for human rights, with focus on refugee protection and resettlement, migration, and international development; as well as innovation, accountability, and team work.

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC)

Ana currently serves as the Empowerment Pathways Program Manager at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) in Melbourne, Australia.

There she works in partnership with people seeking asylum to identify their strengths and skills, and support them with their goals along with community based partners, local government engagement, and other stakeholders.

In listening deeply to their members’ hopes, dreams and aspirations, her team empowers them in their journey towards realising their full potential in Australia.

In the past, she was the Rotarian Engagement Coordinator for Interplast, where she was in charge of facilitating strong relationships between Interplast and Rotary across Australia and New Zealand by assisting the CEO with fundraising initiatives and strategic guidance on how to strengthen donors’ relations and partnership.

Ana L. Gálvez: In 2017 Ana joined IEP as a Peace Ambassador, and advocated within the Rotary District in her home region for the establishment of a Peace Index for Argentina, a project that was well received by local clubs, universities, and the civil society.

Wesley Hedden – Founder of Sarus, a US and Cambodia Nonprofit

Wesley Hedden is the founder and Executive Director of Sarus, a US and Cambodia registered nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire and empower the next generation of peace leaders in Asia.

Sarus runs peace leadership incubator programs and peacebuilding exchange programs for university students and young professionals in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. In 2019, IEP partnered with Sarus to deliver Positive Peace workshops in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Wesley has conducted participatory peace research for Rotary International and the East-West Center. He has facilitated strategic planning processes for Sarus and OIC -Cambodia.

Wesley lived in Southeast Asia for 14 years and worked for a wide range of educational and development institutions in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Impressively, Wesley designed and implemented over 20 international education programs in more than 10 countries. He speaks Vietnamese, Khmer, Burmese, and Spanish.