Conference 2023

February 23 at 12:25 p.m.

Alice Wairimu Nderitu of Kenya is the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. Ms. Nderitu is a recognized voice in the field of peace-building and violence prevention, having led as mediator and senior adviser in reconciliation processes. She served as Commissioner of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission in Kenya, as well as Founding Member and co-Chair of the Uwiano Platform for Peace, a prevention agency linking early warning to early response. She was also one of the founders of Community Voices for Peace and Pluralism, a network of African women professionals preventing, transforming and solving violent, ethnic, racial and religious conflicts worldwide. Widely published, she is the recipient of awards recognizing her commitment to peaceful conflict transformation throughout Africa and her innovative approach to mediation.

February 23 at 2 p.m.

Judge Lionel Jean-Baptiste was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in political science and a certificate in African-American history. He later received a law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law and practiced law for 20 years. Jean-Baptiste served as an alderman for Evanston in 2001. In 2011 he became the first Haitian-American to be sworn in as a Cook County Circuit Court judge. Jean-Baptiste is largely credited for his advocacy for reparations in the city of Evanston and establishing an outreach program for youth.

February 23 at 9:25 a.m.

Dr. David Ragland is a writer, scholar, and activist with a focus on racial justice, reparations and abolition. He is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director for Culture, Organizing, and Reparations at the Truth Telling Project, Director of the Grassroots Reparations Campaign, and special advisor to Congresswoman Cori Bush and a number of progressive political candidates throughout the U.S.

February 24 at 12:15 p.m.

Dr. Jermaine McCalpin is an internationally recognized expert and consultant on transitional justice, genocides and reparations. He has traveled to South Africa, Cambodia, Armenia and across the United States and Canada researching and presenting on the Armenian genocide, the transatlantic trade in Africans and reparations, truth commissions and issues of justice.

February 25, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Lucy Duncan is the Truth and Reparations Education Fellow. She currently co-chairs the Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission on Faith-Based and Interfaith Affairs focusing on a campaign to invite 100 white majority congregations into sincere reparations work.

February 25, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Dr. Melinda Salazar is a first generation U.S. American whose ancestors are Colombian/Muisca/Ukrainian and who serves as the Co-Executive Director of the Truth Telling Project. A professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and of Elementary & Secondary Education, as well as a Participatory Action Practitioner, her interests fall in the intersections of feminist peace scholarship, Indigeneity and rural community sustainability.