Previous Instructors
2011 instructors
Mark Burch
Mark Burch is an author, educator, and group facilitator. He has practiced simple living since the 1960s, and since 1995 has offered workshops and courses on voluntary simplicity. He is a lecturer at The University of Winnipeg, former Director of the Campus Sustainability Office at the University of Winnipeg, and Co-Director of the Simplicity Practice and Resource Centre. He has been a featured guest on CBC-TV Man Alive, and What on Earth?, CBC Radio Ideas, Vision TV’s The Simple Way, and was a regular radio columnist on Discovering Simplicity for CBC-Winnipeg. Mark has written four books on voluntary simplicity, the most recent of which is, De-junking: A Tool for Clutterbusting.
David Dyck
David Dyck has been working and studying in the field of conflict resolution for more than 20 years. He developed many of the training courses offered through Resolution Skills Centre’s Certificate Program. His current focus is on mediating workplace conflicts, personal coaching, and designing and leading training courses in the private, public, and community-based sectors. He holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Conflict Resolution Studies and a Diploma in Mediation Skills.
George Lakey
George Lakey is Visiting Professor and Research Fellow at Swarthmore College and author of eight books on peace and social change, including his most recent book, Facilitating Group Learning: Strategies for Success with Adult Learners. First arrested in a civil rights demonstration, he has been an activist in a number of movements. He has led over 1500 workshops on five continents, including within the Canadian labour movement. He founded Training for Change and directed it for fifteen years.
Michelle LeBaron
Michelle LeBaron teaches at the University of British Columbia (UBC) law faculty and is Director of the UBC Program on Dispute Resolution. Prior to coming to UBC she spent twelve years teaching at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and the Women’s Studies program at George Mason University in Virginia. From 1990-1993, she directed the Multiculturalism and Dispute Resolution Project at the University of Victoria. Michelle LeBaron has lectured and consulted around the world on cross-cultural conflict resolution, and has practiced as a family law and commercial mediator. Her most recent book is Conflict Across Cultures,with co-editor Venashri Pillay of ACCORD (South Africa) and colleagues from three other world regions. She continues to pursue research into creativity, the arts, and multiple ways of knowing as resources for bridging cultural differences.
Rev. Stan McKay
Rev. Stan McKay, is an Aboriginal educator and was Canada’s first Aboriginal Moderator of the United Church of Canada (UCC), Canada’s largest Protestant denomination. He sought reconciliation and understanding both within and outside the UCC, and between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. Stan comes from Fisher River, Manitoba, a Cree First Nation community. He is the former Director of the Dr. Jessie Saulteaux Centre. He received a career National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 1997.
Kay Pranis
Kay Pranis conducts training on peacemaking circles and restorative justice across the US and Canada. She also facilitates peacemaking circles for workplace, faith community and family conflicts as well as for community building. Kay has helped develop the use of peacemaking circles in the justice system, social services, education, faith communities, neighborhoods and families. She is the author of The Little Book of Circle Processes and co-author of Peacemaking Circles: From Crime to Community and Doing Democracy – Using Circles for Public Planning. She served as the Restorative Justice Planner for the Minnesota Department of Corrections for nine years.
2010 instructors
John Bell
John Bell, a native of Kilmarnock, lives in Glasgow where he studied Arts and Theology. After spells of voluntary work in London and Amsterdam, and engagements in student politics, he was ordained by the Church of Scotland. He is a hymn writer, author and occasional broadcaster on national radio and television, but retains a primary passion for congregational song. He and the work he shares with his colleagues has been honored by the Royal School of Church Music, the Hymn Society in the U.S. & Canada, and the University of Glasgow, the first and second of which bestowed on him the status of Fellowship, the third a Doctorate.
Cathy C. Campbell
Cathy C. Campbell, rector of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in the inner city of Winnipeg, is actively involved in the challenges of living out the food and justice dimensions of the Gospel. She is author of Stations of the Banquet: Faith Foundations for Food Justice (2003) and Faith as if Food Matters (2008). Prior to her ordination she taught at Cornell University and the University of Toronto and held volunteer positions in a variety of non-governmental organizations. She is delighted to have finally returned to her roots on the prairies.
Martin Entz
Martin Entz is a professor of “natural systems agriculture” in the University of Manitoba’s faculty of agricultural and food sciences. Martin has spent 20 years developing food production systems based on nature’s own template. Projects include no-tillage (conservation) farming, organic farming, integration of animals and crops for small-holder production, and development of perennial grains. Martin heads the Glenlea study – Canada’s oldest organic cropping plots. Martin’s international work includes a “pesticides reduction” project in cooperation with universities in Central America. Martin enjoys rural extension and interaction with farmers. Martin and his family operate a small farm near Libau, Manitoba.
Irma Fast Dueck
Irma Fast Dueck was born and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was a university chaplain and pastor before beginning her teaching career at Canadian Mennonite Bible College (a predecessor college of Canadian Mennonite University) in 1991. She received her Doctorate of Theology from Victoria University at the University of Toronto, a Masters of Divinity from the University of Winnipeg and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Waterloo. Irma is frequently on the road, speaking and leading workshops on a variety of themes and is currently completing a book manuscript on Mennonite worship and ethics.
Marc Gopin
Marc Gopin is the James H. Laue Professor of Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, and the Director of the Center on Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Gopin has trained thousands of people worldwide in peacemaking strategies for complex conflicts in which religion and culture play a role. Gopin conducts research on values dilemmas as they apply to international problems of globalization, clash of cultures, development, social justice and conflict and he has engaged in back channel diplomacy with religious, political and military figures on both sides of conflicts. Click here to see a video of Marc Gopin.
Harry Huebner
Harry Huebner graduated from University of Manitoba with a B.A. in Philosophy/Psychology and an M.A. in Philosophy. He earned his Ph.D. in Theology at the University of St. Michael’s College. Harry has been teaching at Canadian Mennonite University and its predecessor colleges from 1971 – present. He took one year off to do Ph.D. work in Toronto from 1974-5 and served with Mennonite Central Committee in Jerusalem from 1981-3. Harry was also involved in the founding of Christian Peacemaker Teams. In his spare time Harry enjoys traveling, especially to the Middle East.
Kenton Lobe
Kenton Lobe is a teacher/practitioner at heart with an interdisciplinary Master’s degree in Natural Resource Management and until recently balanced his teaching in International Development Studies at Canadian Mennonite University with work at the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in Winnipeg as Policy Advisor. In particular his work focused on Canadian public policies surrounding issues of agricultural trade, the human right to food, and development assistance for small-scale farmers in the global South. On the practical side, Kenton was one of the driving forces behind the Manitoba Food Charter and a founding member of Canadian Mennonite University’s community garden. He has recently become a farmer within a community shared agriculture operation.
Ovide Mercredi
Ovide Mercredi is the first Chancellor of the University College of the North. He is a Cree, a lawyer, a negotiator, an author, a lecturer in Native Studies, and an activist on behalf of First Nations in Canada. He was a sessional adjunct professor on Aboriginal peoples at the University of Sudbury, the University of Lethbridge, and McMaster University. Mercredi held the position of National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations from 1991 to 1997. Among Chief Mercredi’s many honours and awards are the Order of Manitoba, nomination for the Gandhi Peace Prize, and honorary law degrees from Bishop’s University, St. Mary’s University, and Lethbridge University. Click here to see a video of Ovide Mercredi.
Karen Ridd
Karen Ridd is a dynamic educator, facilitator and speaker with experience throughout North America and overseas, including El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Thailand and Cambodia. Karen is presently a sessional instructor in the Conflict Resolution Studies department of the University of Winnipeg, an associate of Training for Change in Philadelphia and as well as an associate trainer for Resolution Skills Centre. Karen holds a Bachelor of Arts (1984), a Master of Arts in Peace and Justice (2009), a Diploma in Mediation Skills, and has been working and studying in the field of conflict resolution since 1986. Karen began her affiliation with Mediation Services in 1995, when she became the Training Coordinator, responsible for carrying out and developing trainings, as well as overseeing the program as a whole. Karen presently lives in rural Manitoba, and is the delighted mother of Ben and Daniel. She has received numerous honours for her work, including the 1992 Government of Canada 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation Governor-General’s Award, the 1990 Canada YM/YWCA Peace Medal and the 1989 Manitoba International Human Rights Achievement Award. Click here to see a video of Karen Ridd.
Howard Zehr
Howard Zehr joined the graduate Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) at Eastern Mennonite University in 1996 as Professor of Restorative Justice and was the co-director there from 2002 – 2007. Prior to this he served for 19 years as director of the Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Office on Crime and Justice. Dr. Zehr’s book, Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice, has been a foundational work in the growing “restorative justice” movement. He lectures and consults internationally on restorative justice and victim offender conferencing, which he helped pioneer. He is author of 8 books in the field and has received numerous international awards for his work. Click here to see a video of Howard Zehr.
Ray VanderZaag
Ray VanderZaag was raised on a potato farm in south-central Ontario. After graduating from Calvin College (B.Sc. – Biology) and Michigan State University (M.Sc. – Crop and Soil Sciences), he went to work in Haiti with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee. During the first five years in Haiti, he worked in a rural community development program, supporting local staff and community groups involved in agriculture, reforestation, cooperative, literacy, water, and leadership activities. The next three years he worked in Port-au-Prince giving overall leadership to three CRWRC programs in Haiti. Returning to Canada, he earned an M.A. in International Affairs (Development Studies) and a Ph.D. (Geography) at Carleton University. His dissertation involved 11 months of field research on NGO/local community relations in rural Haiti. Ray then worked for a year for the Canadian International Development Agency as a project officer in the Southeast Asia Regional Program before joining CMU’s faculty. Ray also teaches one course per year in the IDS program at Menno Simons College, Canadian Mennonite University’s campus at the University of Winnipeg.
2009 instructors
Babu Ayindo
Babu Ayindo currently functions as an independent consultant in the design and facilitation of conflict resolution and peacebuilding initiatives, processes and interventions; as a researcher and trainer in arts, peace education and development communication; and as a program developer and evaluator with various organizations. He has extensive experience in applying “arts approaches” in peacebuilding in various parts of the world since the mid-1980s when he served as artistic director of Chelepe Arts (Nairobi, Kenya) and later as founding artistic director of Amani People’s Theater (Nairobi, Kenya). Babu Ayindo has taught at peacebuilding institutes around the world. His latest publication is “Arts Approaches to Peace: Playing Our Way to Transcendence” in Peacebuilding in Traumatized Societies (2008).
Dave Dyck
(see 2011 Instructors)
Irma Fast Dueck
(see 2010 Instructors)
Piet Meiring
Piet Meiring was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1941. He studied at the University of Pretoria, South Africa as well as at Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He was ordained to the ministry of the Dutch Reformed Church in 1968 and served in two congregations in Pretoria. His academic career includes the chair in Missiology and Church History, University of the North (Turfloop), a part-time lectureship at the University of South Africa, and, since 1988, the chair in Science of Religion and Science of Mission at the Theological Faculty, University of Pretoria. Professor Meiring was invited to join the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (1996-1998), where he was primarily involved in Reparation and Rehabilitation issues, as well as co-coordinating the TRC Faith Community Hearings.
Janet Schmidt
Janet Schmidt has been working in the field of conflict resolution and mediation since 1986. She has a Masters of Education and a Diploma in Mediation Skills. She worked at Mediation Services in Winnipeg and gave leadership to the development of a 22-day Certificate Program. From 1996 to 1999 Janet developed a nine-month Peace Building and Conflict Transformation program in a pan-African Institution in Kitwe, Zambia. Upon her return from Africa, she co-founded Facilitated Solutions, where she is currently managing partner. Janet has taught courses in conflict resolution at the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg, and Canadian Mennonite University. Janet has written numerous articles and is currently co-authoring a book outlining the distinctive approach that Facilitated Solutions undertakes in workplace mediation.
