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. |