Academic Year 2022-2023

Fall 2022: Frank Osei, Jeffrey Sizemore, Kate Ferguson

Spring 2023: Ashley Rogers, Vahidin Omanovic, Debbie Stothard

SPRING 2023

Ashley Rogers, The Whitney Plantation

Ashley Rogers
Ashley Rogers
Time at I-GMAP: February 27 - March 3, 2023

Ashley Rogers is the Executive Director of the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, which educates the public about the history and legacies of slavery in the United States.  It is the first plantation museum with an exclusive focus on the lives of its formerly enslaved population.  In 2020, Ashley joined the board of the Southern Mutual Help Association (SMHA) which aides rural communities in Louisiana through self-help, partnerships, and the just management of resources.  She is currently a PhD Candidate in History at Louisiana State University and holds a Master of Arts in History (Museum Studies) at Colorado State University.   

Vahidin Omanovic, Center for Peacebuilding

Vahidin Omanovic
Vahidin Omanovic

Time at I-GMAP: March 27 - March 31, 2023

Vahidin Omanovic is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Center for Peacebuilding, which seeks to rebuild trust and foster reconciliation among the people of Bosnia-Bosniaks, Croats, Serbs, and others.  Prior to that, Vahidin received a Master's degree at the School for International Training (SIT) in Brattleboro, Vermont in International Relations with a concentration in Conflict Transformation.  Additionally, he taught classes on forgiveness and conflict transformation for SIT's Conflict Transformation Across Cultures program.  He has attended peace workshops and trainings throughout the world, including in Switzerland, the Philippines, and Nepal, where he helped to found a peacebuilding organization.

Debbie Stothard, ALTSEAN-Burma

Debbie Stothard
Debbie Stothard

Time at I-GMAP: April 24 - April 28, 2023

Debbie Stothard is the Founder and Director of ALTSEAN-Burma, a human rights organization that has been advocating for democracy and minority rights in Burma/Myanmar since 1996.  During her 32-year career, she has worked as a journalist, community education consultant, governmental advisor, and trainer in Malaysia, Australia, and Thailand.  Her work has focused on innovative and empowering advocacy and capacity-building strategies for marginalized groups, in particular women and youth.  In 2013, Debbie was elected Secretary-General of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).  

FALL 2022

Frank Okyere Osei, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre

Frank Osei
Frank Osei

POSTPONED UNTIL SPRING 2023

Frank Okyere Osei is a research associate at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra, Ghana.  There, he works as an expert on the implementation of the R2P (Responsibility to Protect) framework in Africa and has broad experience in translating atrocity prevention principles into concrete policy.  He has also been involved in risk-assessment modeling for African governments and civil society institutions, serving as a consultant for multiple organizations including the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.  Osei holds a master's degree in International Studies and Diplomacy from the University of London (SOAS) in addition to specialized certificates from both the University of Virginia and the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, where he was Mandela Washington Fellow in the Young African Leaders Initiative.  Osei was also recently accepted in the Public Administration doctoral program at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Jeffrey Sizemore, U.S. Department of State

Jeff Sizemore
Jeff Sizemore

Time at I-GMAP: November 28 - December 2, 2022

Jeffrey Sizemore serves as the U.S. State Department Senior Advisor on Atrocity Prevention at the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor in the Office of Security and Human Rights.  In addition to coordinating his bureau's atrocity prevention efforts, Jeff also manages atrocity prevention training for the Department of State as well as participating with interagency colleagues as part of the Atrocity Prevention Task Force.  Jeff received a bachelor's degree in American Studies from George Washington University in 2001 and a master's degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College in 2012.  Prior to joining the State Department, Jeff served for over 20 years in the United States Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer, retiring as a commander in 2020.

Kate Ferguson, Protection Approaches

Kate Ferguson
Kate Ferguson

Time at I-GMAP: November 7 - 11, 2022

Kate Ferguson is the Co-Executive Director and Head of Research and Policy at Protection Approaches, a UK-based NGO that is committed to understanding what drives identity-based violence in order to better prevent it.  Kate is an experienced analyst and strategist driving a prevention-first approach to foreign policy and the cycle of crises.  She is a regular commentator on domestic and international issues relating to identity-based violence in the press and continues to publish academic writings.  Her book, Architectures of Violence: The Command Structures of Modern Mass Atrocities, was published in 2020 by Hurst and Oxford University Press.  Before founding PA, Kate worked in political strategy and research across a number of roles in the third sector, academia, the UK parliament, and as a private consultant.  She received her PhD in 2015 from the University of East Anglia on devolved structures of modern mass atrocities and has an MPhil in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Oxford.