Manuel Müller, Program and Communications Coordinator
Susana El Halabi (June 2018- November 2018)
Dianna Almanza (January 2018 -November 2018)
Dianna E. Almanza is grateful for the opportunity to explore more profoundly the links between rights, law, and peacebuilding within human rights and conflict. Moreover, she seeks to further develop expertise of how she can contribute, and affect the rise of human rights through the empowerment of local communities around the world. She holds a Master of Arts in International Human Rights, with a specialization in Conflict Resolution, from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, at the University of Denver. Elliot Wheeler (October 2017 – October 2018)
Elliot is a Houston, Texas native with prior field experience in conflicts zones. Upon graduating from Columbia University with a MSc. in Conflict Resolution and Negotiation, he sought an opportunity to work more closely with social movements at the local level. Elliot joined the SJA team in October 2017 in order to broaden his knowledge and experience of peacebuilding practices. Pendle Marshall-Hallmark (January 2017 – July 2018)
Pendle is originally from the mid-sized postindustrial city of Rochester, New York, USA. She grew up writing short stories and going to anti-war protests for fun, and went on to study Sociology and Latin American & Spanish Literature at Swarthmore College. Her thesis contextualized the efforts of undocumented immigrants seeking legal status in the United States within the country’s broader history of civil disobedience and activism. Before coming to FORPP, Pendle worked as a case manager and resource coordinator for a refugee resettlement agency in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has also been a community organizer for the international “Fight for $15” movement for economic and racial justice, and for a state-wide healthcare advocacy organization. Kati Hinman (December 2016- July 2018)
Kati is from the small town of Norfolk, Connecticut. After 18 years in the woods, she was ready to broaden her horizons by attending the University of California at Berkeley. She majored in Peace and Conflict Studies with a minor in Global Poverty and Practice. Through her minor program she was able to intern in Cochabamba, Bolivia with a sexual health education program that also focused on promoting the rights of people with HIV/AIDs and survivors of sexual violence. As a student and since graduating she has focused on working with survivors of trauma, such as women and children that are homeless, human trafficking survivors, and adolescents that have been abused or abandoned. She spent a year in the Dominican Republic working as Assitant Director and Volunteer Coordinator for a small organization that served primarily Haitian migrants and Haitian children that were on the streets. She was excited about the opportunity to do human rights accompaniment to work more on the political side of conflict resolution, and was particularly drawn to FORPP’s commitment to solidarity over charity for human rights defenders in Colombia. Ilaria Izzo (January 2017 – December 2017)
Ilaria is FORPP’s first Italian accompanier! She is a social educator in her country and has been working primarily in the field of migration, refugees and juvenile violence. In Argentina, Ilaria spent 6 months working as a social worker in a youth detention center, where her interest in violence, its causes and tools for its prevention was first ignited. These became the focus of her Master’s degree thesis, for which she spent 4 months in Nicaragua doing research. There, she investigated community-based and psycho-pedagogical strategies to end youth violence. Interested in Latin American social movements and politics, she turned her focus to Colombia, attracted to its unique contemporary history of conflict. Ilaria became engaged with FORPP, fascinated by its non-violent and peace-based approach to providing accompaniment to peace communities and local social organizations. Tom Power (January 2016- May 2018)
Tom was born and grew up in New Hampshire, USA. After graduating from the state university with a degree in Music Liberal Studies in 2012, he spent some time working with youth with special needs. In 2013 he moved to Argentina where he lived and worked for a year and a half in Buenos Aires. There, he met people involved with non-violence and social justice who worked in Colombia. In 2015 Tom moved to Bogotá to work in the SENA and it was in this time when he met FORPP. He decided be an international accompanier to be involved with movements dedicated to non-violence and human rights. Sophie Duval (July 2015 – January 2017, January 2017 – June 2017 staff)
Sophie grew up in La Rochelle (France) and she graduated at the Institute of Political Sciences of Bordeaux with a Master’s degree in Political Sciences and International Relations. During her studies, Sophie coursed two years in Colombia at Rosario University where she fell in love with the culture and the history of this country. She concentrated her attention on Colombian internally displaced people for her Master’s thesis and on the role of the international humanitarian community in the aftermath of a potential peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC, during an internship at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. After different research works about the evolution of the humanitarian action in Latin America, the gender approach in the Colombian public policy for victims of the armed conflict and the human rights impact of oil corporations in the region of Meta, Sophie looks forward to be involved in the field and is very excited about joining FOR international accompaniment team. Márton Diószegi (November 2015 – December 2016)
Sandra Amolo (January 2016 – December 2016)
Laetitia Sengseis (September 2015 – August 2016)
Adila Nasir (February 2015 – February 2016)
Julia Schutt (October 2014 – November 2015) |
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 Julia is a Massachusetts native, but moved to Colombia from Colorado, where she graduated from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver with a Masters in International Human Rights. While at Korbel, Julia concentrated her studies on Colombia, with an emphasis on human rights in the context of the armed conflict. She also researched and reported on corporate human rights violations and responses in Latin America as part of the Corporations and Human Rights Database Project. Julia has spent time in Neiva, participating in a course on Gender and Transitional Justice and collaborating on research with the Grupo de Investigación Yumatambo at the Universidad Surcolombiana, and in Bogotá, interning with the Comité Permanente por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos. Julia is thrilled to be back in Colombia, and cannot wait to immerse herself in the world of international accompaniment. |
Manuel grew up in Zurich, Switzerland and completed a Master’s degree in Human Geography with a specialization in Political Geography, during which he wrote his thesis on the tension between collective and individual rights in Mexico. He worked on land and territorial rights in Argentina, later with a Swiss NGO in the field of agroecology, and then was an international accompanier for Peace Brigades International (PBI) in Colombia from 2019-2021. His time with PBI motivated him to continue working for human rights and nonviolent resistance in Colombia.
Born in Budapest, Márton (Maresz) spent several years back and forth between the United States and Hungary, eventually graduating from Corvinus University of Budapest with a Masters in International Relations with a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies. Having written his master’s theses on the transformation of the Colombian conflict, he has been eager to live and work in Colombia for quite some time. Prior to joining FOR, he worked as a community outreach person at Belmont Race Track in New York where he taught computer literacy and English to Latin American migrants working at the track, while also teaching language and computer skills to seniors. Having lived in a number of urban jungles (Istanbul, Mexico D.F., NYC) he hopes to enjoy rural life in the Peace Community before exploring the Bogotá metropolis.
Sandra grew up between Kenya and the United States, completing her bachelors in Business Administration with a minor in Global Studies from Seattle University. Her final undergrad project focused on the impact of eco-tourism initiatives on indigenous communities in Belize, and a feasibility study about the creation of a Q’eqchi education center at the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Center in western Belize. Learning about the challenges of indigenous people seeking recognition of their rights to land and justice moved her to be more involved with marginalized communities in the United States. After college, Sandra spent six years working in grassroots organizations dedicated to social and environmental justice in Washington and California. Sandra joined FOR Peace Presence to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of international relations between the United States and countries in Latin America. She is especially interested in the connections between business and human rights in Colombia. She looks forward to making connections between social movements happening in Colombia, Kenya, and the United States to amplify the voices of communities resisting displacement and economic injustice.
Born and raised in Austria, Laetitia finished her Master studies in Public Policy at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy in Erfurt, Germany. Prior to her studies in Public Policy she completed a degree in Political Science at the Universities of Vienna and Geneva. Since her first internship at the Intervention Center for victims of human trafficking in Austria, she’s been interested in human rights issues and therefore completed a course with the Straniak Academy for Human Rights and Democracy and researching on post-conflict issues in the Balkans. Besides working with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights in Vienna, Laetitia also worked for organizations in Geneva and La Paz, Bolivia. She decided to join the FORPP Team as she got inspired to contribute and learn more about non-violence and international accompaniment.
Adila grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and holds an Advanced LL.M in Public International Law (specialization International Criminal Law) from Leiden University, The Netherlands. She has previously worked with the International Criminal Court, the Centre for Public Policy Studies (Malaysia) and was also part of a Steering Committee for Accredited Election Observers for the 13th General Election of Malaysia. Sometimes she serendipitously finds herself building shelters for Tibetans in China’s Nujiang valley, harvesting cacao beans and killer bees in Ecuador, or navigating the open ocean of Colombia’s Atlantic coast. Currently her interest lies in finding manners in which people can reorganize and empower themselves on an individual and community level, especially amidst dissonant social conditions. From this stems her desire to join the efforts of FOR Peace Presence in Colombia. Check out her Michaela Soellinger (March 2013 – October 2015)
After growing up in the Upper Austrian countryside, Michaela studied physics and specialized in magnetic resonance imaging in medicine. Besides academics she tried to satisfy her passion for relating to people with different sociocultural backgrounds by volunteering, e.g. accompanying asylum seekers. A few years ago Michaela decided to focus on peace work and went to Guatemala to volunteer as an International Accompanier. She fell in love with the idea of International Accompaniment and studied peace and conflict transformation. In March 2013 Michaela joined the FOR Peace Presence Team.
Robin Llewellyn (July – September 2015)
Robin (Robinson) is from Wales, and studied International Relations and Human Rights before settling on a career as a freelance journalist. Having written about land conflicts in Latin America from Guatemala to Peru he is eager to contribute to Peace Presence’s work with the Peace Village of San Jose. Outside of work Robin loves riding horses, a skill that will be used on the hills of Apartadó, and playing football – preferably against children so he can show off his abilities without losing the ball.
Nikki Drake (July 2014 – June 2015)
I grew up in Idaho…beautiful state of mountains, renowned whitewater rivers, and yes, the famous potato. After graduating from Boise State University (of Smurf Turf fame) with a degree in International Relations and a minor in Spanish, I completed a year of AmeriCorps service with Habitat for Humanity in Upstate New York. From there I relocated to Brooklyn and worked for several years at a not-for-profit organization that provides educational and therapeutic services for children with developmental delays. Since university I had wanted to work in the field of international human rights and social justice, and I decided to kick off a change in career path with extended travel and work through South America, which included amazing experiences in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. After two years on the road, I settled in Colombia, where I worked for Witness for Peace, an international NGO supporting peace and justice in the Americas. I am extremely happy to be joining the FOR Peace Presence team and continuing the important work of accompaniment and advocacy in Colombia
Kaya Marie Allan Sugerman (January 2014 – April 2015) |
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 Kaya grew up jointly in Kona, Hawaii and Los Angeles, California. In 2012 she completed her B.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies with a focus on International Conflict Resolution and Political Ecology at the University of California, Berkeley. It was there that she developed a passion for investigating grassroots resistance to environmental exploitation and human rights abuses. She spent time in Malaysia working with a research institute and reporting on a consent policy which could curb the appropriation of indigenous traditional knowledge and customary lands by both foreign and national corporations and governments. As a seeker, activist, and writer, deciding to work with La Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó presented itself as a grand opportunity to learn how one group has developed nonviolent alternatives to Colombia’s long-standing, violent, and in part US-funded conflict. |
Gale Stafford (November 2013 – April 2015) |
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 Gale (or Virginia, as she is known by her middle name in the field) grew up in Massachusetts, learning about creativity, teamwork, and Spanish. It was in high school with past FORista Janice when she first learned about Colombia and some of the conflict within it. Gale has spent the last several years at Bennington College in the hills of southwest Vermont, investigating various education systems and how they relate to democracy and socioeconomic disparity, and thinking about how students and teachers learn and connect with each other both within classrooms and without. There she completed both her BA and her MA in Teaching, and is looking forward to flexing her understandings of how communities work and support each other, both within the Community and on the Peace Presence team. To learn more about Gale’s experience, check out her blog here. |
Isabel Moris Look (January 2014 – January 2015) Isabel spent half her childhood in Colombia, and the other half in Maryland suburbs. She found the solidarity movement during her studies at American University, while focusing on peace and conflict resolution, and participated in a very memorable delegation to Colombia, organized by Witness for Peace, visiting some of the peace communities, whom she promised she would visit again. After graduation, and some traveling, she returned to work and interned at Peace Brigades International in Washington D.C., working closely with governmental and non-profit institutions like the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), the US Office on Colombia (USOC), United States Institute of Peace (USIP), and the Organization of American States (OAS). Where she learned more about coordinated action in the US, political activism, and international refugee law. |
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Luke grew up in Qatar, studied in the UK, and arrived in Colombia via UN-NGO Working Groups in New York. He has variously been a barman in Doha, a Masters student in Manchester, and a professional butterfly hunter in Panama. His time at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute in Manchester encouraged him to understand conflicts as human problems with human solutions, and his girlfriend encouraged him to go live in a Colombian jungle on general principle. In addition to the past heroes of the non-violence movement, Luke draws inspiration from the words of grassroots community leaders such as Russell T. Jones and Mark Berry. 
Jacobo started as an engineer from San Francisco, California. After studying at Chulalongkorn University as a Rotary Peace Fellow, he also accompanied in Guatemala. Over five years of environmental and human rights work throughout the Americas, Jacobo is dedicated to solidarity between the continent and peoples against their exploitation and expropriation of labour and earth. His strong relationships with indigenous refugee communities of Panamá planted the seed for this move further south. When not creating communities within this global south, Jacobo likes to call Washington-DC a 2nd home. There he also spent years as a civil servant for the US EPA, while staying active and integrated with Central American immigrant neighborhoods. Jacobo is excited to be apart of these non-violent movements in Colombia and learn the real data, inspiring faces, and tools for la lucha on the solidarity road ahead at home. He is an avid cyclist and looks forward to bicycling those curves in tandem with others.
Emily was born in Milwaukee. A fine city. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with degrees in art and global studies. Among other things, she has worked translating, teaching English, and juggled in the streets of Colombia. In exchange for picking a whole bunch of weeds she got some sheep’s wool which she spun, dyed with local campo materials, and knitted into a handbag while in the Peace Community. Read her article about the People’s Summit in Cartagena 
Elisabeth’s blog can be read 
Charlotte’s blog can be read 
David considers himself an Angelino but grew up in the Salinas Valley, a mythical land where the sweat of agricultural communities helped define perseverance, hard work, and purpose. Often wanting to romanticize to forgive the internal conflicts that continue to exist in Salinas, David fantasizes about the valley´s surreal imagery whose vast landscapes and childhood reminiscences had the power to stimulate John Steinbeck´s literary masterpieces. After graduating high school, David served in the Marine Corps and discovered passion for travel and his love for people. During these formative years, he traveled to many under developed countries, and through these experiences learned to see the world through a diverse lens. Prior to joining FOR and until this day, David continues to feel the need to serve, and after his Honorable Discharge from the Marines worked as a police officer in Los Angeles for several years until deciding to pursue his education. David attended the University of California Los Angeles, where he majored in Political Science and minored in Latin American Studies, and hopes to attend law school in the near future.
Dominique Aulisio is from Lakeland, FL. She recently graduated with a B.A. in Women’s Studies from the University of Central Florida. During college, she spent much of her time as a volunteer organizer with the National Farmworker Ministry’s Youth and Young Adult Network and the Student Labor Action Project.
After graduating with a degree in Peace, Justice and Conflict studies from Goshen College Isaac had a short stint at a Christmas tree farm before joining FOR’s accompaniment project in Colombia. Isaac had encountered the idea of accompaniment work and the history of FOR in his studies and was especially attracted by the level of strategic thinking and sensitivity he found in FOR’s volunteers and staff.
Jon graduated kind-of-cum laud from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He dabbled in a little bit of everything but became most interested in human rights and rolled on out of there with a degree in International Studies. While he understands he should probably do himself good and live in Seattle, WA, Jonathan knows that ultimately he will never be able to break the Midwestern ties and will probably end up with a front room full of hand-made crafts, and maybe a few mop-dolls, in a farmhouse in Northwest Ohio, “the heart of it all.” He is looking forward to living in La Union, testing his ability to withstand stress, make difficult decisions, overcome boredom and maintain a garden. Read his blog here.
For over two years I have lived in Colombia, exploring new worlds and discovering myself. In shantytown neighborhoods on the margin of Bogotá’s urban sprawl, I learned that destitute populations could both create alternative systems to violence and replicate cycles of oppression. Likewise, I comprehended that hope could be cultivated in neighborhood organizations, in subsistence household gardens and in youth affected by regimes of rampant aggression. Overtime, I grew to understand that big outcomes could be produced by small projects; that is, local communal projects could engender solutions to death squads and systematic abandonment. As a result, I have since embarked on my lifelong journey to actively participate and positively contribute to these alternative projects. Furthermore, I seek to reflect these unperceived social realities through poetic prose, without compromising the veracity of the facts.
After having grown up with 5 brothers and sisters in a small village in Austria/Europe, Marion studied Environmental Engineering and worked for different environmental organizations. In 2006 she went to Tumaco, Colombia to do an internship for her studies, when she got caught by this wonderful country and its people.
Peter Cousins grew up in Cornwall, UK, and went on to study German and Spanish language and literature at undergraduate level. Following graduation, he worked in inner-city Glasgow with asylum seekers, in Cambridge with homeless people and for local government in Cornwall.
Rachel Dickson studied Spanish Area Studies and International Studies at Kenyon College in Ohio. She has worked for a bilingual political magazine in Guatemala, has taught English in Colombia, has studied philosophy and history in Cuba, interned at In These Times magazine, and worked on counter-recruitment at American Friends Service Committee in Chicago. Read Rachel’s blog 
