2025 Healing Conversations Conference

2025 Healing Conversations Conference

Healing Conversations
Dialogue, Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation 


March 27th, 2025
10:00 a.m - 5:30 p.m.
Clarke Building (CB 511)
 

The conference will bring together nationally and internationally renowned leaders in the fields of mediation
and peacebuilding to address one of the most pressing questions of our time: How do we heal the significant
and threatening divisions within the United States through dialogue and compassionate conversation?

This event is part of the J. Bonner Ritchie Peace Conference series and is co-sponsored in partnership with
UVU's Center for the Study of Ethics and UVU's Center for Constitutional Studies & Civic Thought & Leadership Initiative. 

Schedule of Events

Thursday, March 27th

10:00 to
11:15 a.m.
CB - 511
Pathwasy to Reconciliation in U.S. Vietnam Relations

Carl Stauffer 
Senior Expert on Reconciliation at the United States Institute of Peace

 


LIVESTREAM
11:30 to
12:45 p.m.
CB - 511
Storytelling and Dialogue in Healing Conversations

Sara Cook

Director of Cook Consultancy: Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK


LIVESTREAM
1:00 to
2:15 p.m.
CB - 511
The Role of Identity in Healing Conversations

Rae Kyritsi 
Director, Caldera Dialogue and Consulting Services

 

LIVESTREAM
2:30 to
3:45 p.m.
CB - 511
Healing Conversations for Dummies

Bryan Waite, PhD.

Professor—Secondary Education, UVU

Director of Global/Intercultural Academic Programming—Innovation Academy

 


LIVESTREAM
4:00 to
5:30 p.m.
CB - 511
Conflict Resolution among the Founders

Eleesha Tucker

Constitutional Literacy Fellow in the Center for Constitutional Studies, UVU

 


LIVESTREAM

For more information, contact Courtney Burns at [email protected]

Participants

Sara Cook
Director, Cook Consultancy
Sara Cook is the Director of Cook Consultancy: Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. Sara is a social worker and conflict response specialist working with people affected by conflict in Northern Ireland and internationally. She addresses the psychosocial impact of conflict peacebuilding on practitioners and facilitates dialogue and storytelling encounters. Sara has given response and resiliency training to victims of trauma from over 45 countries. She has supported international efforts to promote the participation of women and girls in peacebuilding work. 
 
Carl Stauffer
Senior Expert on Reconciliation, United States Institute of Peace
Carl Stauffer is the Senior Expert on Reconciliation at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). He comes to USIP with 30 years of experience in 37 countries as both a practitioner and academic. Prior to joining USIP, Carl was associate professor at the Center for Justice & Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University and functioned as the academic director of the Caux Scholars Program in Switzerland. Carl is an expert in conflict transformation, post-war reconstruction and reconciliation processes. 
 
Rae Kyritsi
Director, Caldera Dialogue and Consulting Services
Rae Kyritsi is a dispute resolution specialist working in the upper Midwest. Rae is the founder of Caldera Dialogue and Consulting Services where she supports the development of conflict management programs, change management, grievance processes, and community dialogue. Rae teaches mediation, arbitration, and negotiation and coached Loyola’s students in the Vis Moot International Commercial Arbitration Competition for many years. Rae was the Programs Director at the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago for ten years and has been a part of the organization since 2010 as a volunteer and case manager. Rae is a certified mediator of civil, criminal, elder, and family disputes and a certified mediation trainer. She also facilitates community forums and has organized non-profits and LLCs through consensus building.
 
Eleesha Tucker
Constitutional Literacy Fellow in the Center for Consitutional Studies, UVU
Eleesha is the executive director of the Utah 3Rs Project, which encourages understanding of the right of conscience, the responsibility to protect that right in others, and the civic duty to engage respectfully in civic discourse. Eleesha holds a Master of Arts in American Studies from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts in History Teaching from Brigham Young University. She teaches the general education requirement American Heritage at Utah Valley University. Prior to 3Rs and UVU, she served as the Director of Education for the oldest patriotic organization in the United States, the Society of the Cincinnati, formed by the officers of the Continental Army during George Washington's presidency.
 
Bryan Waite, PhD.
Professor—Secondary Education, UVU, Director of Global/Intercultural Academic Programming—Innovation Academy
Dr. Bryan R. Waite is a Professor of Multicultural and Bilingual Education and Language Acquisition Theories and Methods and the Department Chair of Secondary and Special Education in the School of Education at Utah Valley University (UVU). At UVU he also works as the Director for Global/Intercultural Academic Programming. Originally from Texas and New Mexico, Dr. Waite has a BA from the University of Texas at Austin in Spanish, a MA in Spanish Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis Equity and Cultural Diversity also from the University of Colorado at Boulder.


 

 

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