Conference Presenters

Evelyn Grammar, MSOD, SPHR, is the Business Development Manager for the Examinations Team of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Prior to joining the AICPA, Grammar held positions in Human Resources, Quality and Process Improvement for Ford, General Electric and Lockheed Martin as well as establishing and operating programs for school-age children for a social service agency. She holds a master’s in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania, and has served on a Bahá'í Spiritual Assembly since 1975.

Jeffery Huffines is the representative to the United Nations for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the U.S. Huffines serves as president of the Committee of Religious NGOs at the UN; sits on the Executive Council of the U.S. Conference of Religions for Peace; and is immediate past chair of the Executive Committee of the New York Council of Organizations of the UN Association/USA. He is co-chair of the Faith-Based Caucus of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC), a broad-based network of over 1,000 NGOs, international law experts and civil society groups dedicated to the establishment of an International Criminal Court. From 1989 through 1996 Huffines worked in Washington, D.C. at the Bahá'í Office of External Affairs where he collaborated with non-governmental organizations and government officials on human rights, particularly in the ratification and implementation of UN human rights treaties.

Elinor Grace Mattern teaches English as a Second Language at Atlantic Cape Community College. She recently traveled to China as part of a delegation of educators to set up academic exchanges between colleges, and has exhibited her photographs of Beijing. As a poet and an
artist, she speaks to groups and leads workshops on many aspects of creativity, communication, and cultural understanding. Her topics include The Creative Process, Motivating the Muse, Healing through Art and Poetry, and Developing Your Creative Potential.

Patricia Romano McGraw is a psychologist in the outpatient psychiatry department of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where she works to help severely mentally ill adults. She is a forensic expert in Battered Woman Syndrome and family violence and a consultant to Providence House, a shelter and treatment program for families struggling with issues of violence, and a consultant to the Gregory Foundation, which works to help traumatized children. She is currently preparing a book on the neurobiology of relationships and emotional injury, due to be released this year.

Michael Penn, keynote speaker, is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Franklin & Marshall College as well as Landegg International University, a Baha’i Institution in Switzerland, and holds degrees in religion, history, and philosophy. Dr. Penn has published on cross-cultural psychology, religion and philosophy, and is a Ford Foundation Fellow. He served as a consultant to UN-related agencies in New York, the Caribbean, and Austria. His most recent book, Overcoming Violence against Women and Girls, has just been released by Rowman & Littlefield.

Ian Rozdilsky holds a doctorate from Oxford University-Trinity College. His research includes studies of the history of science at Cambridge, non-linear mathematics at the Santa Fe Institute, and low cost solar cell production at Cornell. Most recently his focus has been on the resolution of larger ecological issues through consultation. This research was begun in the Middle East as a Fulbright Scholar, and is continuing at his current position on the faculty of the Ecology Department at Princeton. Rozdilsky has numerous scientific publications in both physics and ecological journals and is currently focusing on the development of a conservation plan for the northern Rocky Mountains of the U.S. and Canada. An active artist, Ian regularly performs poetry readings and displays exhibitions of his photography and painting.

Martha Schweitz, keynote speaker, practiced international business law before becoming a law professor at the University of Oregon. She lived in Japan for 11 years, teaching as a Fulbright lecturer and a professor in the Seinan Gakuin University Law Faculty. She is a former Visiting Fellow at the Center of International Studies at Princeton University. Her teaching areas include international organizations, human rights, international economic law, and development. Her field of scholarship and public service is the relationship between intergovernmental organizations and civil society. She co-edited, with Prof. Tatsuro Kunugi, Codes of Conduct for Partnership in Governance: Texts and Commentaries, presented to the World Civil Society Conference. Her Bahá'í writing focuses on Bahá'í institutions, law and governance principles, human rights, and gender equality. She is currently with the Office of Governance Studies at the U.S. Bahá'í National Center and serves on the Executive Committee of the Association for Bahá'í Studies, North America.