Anne Marie has been facilitating group processes to address harm and hurt for many years. As a social worker and community development coordinator she used Circle processes to support people with traumatic brain damage return to their families and communities after long periods of hospitalization. Employed as a workplace counselor, Anne Marie was first on the scene when organizations were shaken by traumatic or violent events, offering psychological first aid and critical incident debriefing to groups and individuals impacted by harm. She has conducted many community and workplace conferences using Circles of Support and Restorative Conferences as powerful processes to repair harm, restore relationships, and settle on meaningful reparation. Anne Marie believes strongly that using a structured conversation supported by a transformative process gives power back to groups and communities so that together they can set things right, allowing true healing to happen and people to move on. Anne Marie has a Masters degree in Conflict Resolution and Mediation.
Arlana Bettelyoun is the Executive Director of Oglala Lakota Children's Justice Center located in Pine Ridge South Dakota. She has a Bachelor of Science in Human Services with an emphasis in social services and counselling and an AA Degree in Tribal Law-Oglala Lakota College. Her previous work experience includes working with abused children as a Juvenile Officer with in the Oglala Sioux Tribal Court System, Case Management and Investigations, South Dakota Department of Child Protection, as well as serving 18 years as Director of Oglala Lakota Children's Justice Center. Arlana has given national presentations regarding preparing Children for Court, Children’s Code, and has been recognized for National awards for Child Advocacy in Indian Country.
Elizabeth (she/her) is a social worker at heart. She has always been interested in the intersection of social work and the law. She attended Columbia University School of Social Work where she graduated with a Masters in Social Work and a Minor in Law. She immediately went to work in the field of conflict resolution and has been practicing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) since 1997. Elizabeth is the Executive Director of Hidden Water, a non-profit she founded in 2014 that helps families heal and resolve conflict around the painful impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse. Elizabeth is also the principal trainer at Planning Change, whose mission it is to educate and empower individuals to affect meaningful change in the conflicts around them. In addition to those endeavors, Elizabeth also works as a mediator, a coach, and a shaman, and speaks regularly at events and conferences.
Jason Craige Harris (he/him/his) is an educator, facilitator, strategist, and restorative justice practitioner who works in a variety of contexts and organizations, moving smoothly among kindergarten classrooms, community spaces, professional workshops, and governing board meetings. Jason serves as the Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Friends Seminary, where he is a member of both the Senior Administrative Committee and the leadership team of the School's Center for Peace, Equity, and Justice, which brings together diversity and inclusion, civic engagement, and global education. As a member of the History and Social Sciences Department, Jason teaches courses on social justice, human rights, ethics and philosophy, and religion. He is a community partner at the Perception Institute, a diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting firm. Jason’s consulting work concentrates on diversity, equity, and inclusion; conflict transformation and restorative justice; and leadership development. He is on the boards of Inwood Academy, Seeds of Peace, and Hidden Water.
Kate Lauer began practicing law in 1990 at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She is now at the financial/technology company Stripe, where she leads the strategic regulatory work. In between these jobs, she spent almost two decades as a regulatory policy advisor on increasing the access by low income people to financial services. Kate has also spent time teaching law in Budapest (at the Central European University), as in-house counsel in London (at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and in New York (at Goldman, Sachs & Co.). and working on risk and compliance at PayPal (in the Bay Area and in Singapore). Kate is an active member of a Berkeley non-profit that works on racial justice and criminal justice reform. She also serves on the board of the International Accountability Project, a human rights organization that works with communities threatened with forced eviction due to large infrastructure projects. And she is on the advisory board of Carbon AGX, a technology start-up that is building tools to enable small and underserved farmers to participate in the current USDA efforts to promote carbon removal through healthy soil. Kate has a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. in economics from Dartmouth College. In her free time, she plays music (cello) and enjoys life with her family (husband, three children, dog, three chickens ...).
Kay Pranis teaches and writes about the dialog process known as 'Peacemaking Circles.' Kay learned about Peacemaking Circles in her work in restorative justice in the mid-90s. From 1994 – 2003 Kay held the position of Restorative Justice Planner at the MN Dept of Corrections, the first state government position in the US related directly to the framework of restorative justice. Since that initial exposure to the use of Peacemaking Circles in the justice system, Kay has been involved in developing the use of Peacemaking Circles in schools, social services, churches, families, neighborhoods, museums, universities, municipal planning and workplaces. Kay has authored or co-authored several books about Circles: Peacemaking Circles - From Conflict to Community; The Little Book of Circle Processes – A New/Old Approach to Peacemaking; Doing Democracy with Circles – Engaging Communities in Public Planning; Heart of Hope – A Guide for Using Peacemaking Circles to Develop Emotional Literacy, Promote Healing & Build Healthy Relationships; Circle Forward – Building a Restorative School Community. In addition to her work in the US Kay has shared Peacemaking Circles with people in Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica and Canada.
Laurent has been circle keeping for Hidden Water for many seasons. He has been held accountable and takes responsibility for the harm he has caused and is eager to pass his knowledge along to others in Purple Circles as a Circle Keeper. Laurent believes that Circles allow people who have caused harm to come to terms with what they have done. From Laurent’s own experience in Circle, he has seen that people can hold themselves accountable and responsible and do the healing necessary to make the changes they need to prevent themselves from causing any more harm to others, allowing them to live a fuller and happier life with dignity. In his professional life he is a construction worker and photographer. As a photographer, he enjoys capturing folks "in their moments" and focuses on the LGBTQIA+ community and nightlife artists and performers. When he is not working, he enjoys spending time with his fiancé (another Circle Keeper) and their dogs (Colin, Penny, and Steve - pictured), riding his motorcycle, playing video games, and caring for a saltwater aquarium.
Liliana Riva Palacio is an educational psychologist, actress, lighting designer for the performing arts, cultural producer, and founder and general director of the Proyecto ConcentrArte. Liliana is currently the Director of the ConcentrArte Project association, which she founded. In this role, she developed several social development projects including: promotion of the rights of girls and boys through art, resilience for hospitalized children, environmental education, community development with native peoples, food sovereignty, among others. Under her direction Proyecto ConcentrArte was awarded the 2013 Ecological Merit Award in the category of non-formal education, the Razón de Ser award in the category of Educational Creativity for its methodology, the Infinite Window in 2014, and the 2021 Community Development award by Fundación Compartir. Liliana recently received her certification as a permaculturist from the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute, Guatemala. In 2020, she was invited by the National System of Creators to participate in the evaluation commission for the category “scenography design, lighting, sound, and costumes FONCA 2020/22 and in 2015 she participated in a TEDx talk to share her work with the Wixarika people. She has been an educator for over 30 years and a national trainer for CONACULTA for the program "Wings for Our Dreams for Children's Hospitals".
Ms. Linares has more than twenty-five years of experience in the organizational and financial management fields including strategic planning, budgeting, financial analysis and reporting, project and accounting oversight for commercial and nonprofit organizations. Currently as Civic Nation’s Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Linares is responsible for the organization’s finance, accounting, and audit oversight. She held leadership positions at the American Immigration Council and CASA de Maryland. Ms. Linares also has more than seven years of consulting experience for small and medium sized private companies in strategic and operational planning with an emphasis on financial and operational design, projections, implementation and monitoring. Ms. Linares has held finance and management positions at multiple non-profits overseas, with a focus on women's economic development. A DC native with Venezuelan roots, Ms. Linares has volunteered her time and expertise to several nonprofits to advance health services for communities afflicted by poverty, conflict and natural disasters.