SPEAKERS


FEATURED SPEAKERS: 


Sammy Rangel, Life After Hate

Sammy R angel is a man of many talents: he is first a father. He has Native American roots as well as Mexican heritage. He is a second-degree black belt, practices mixed martial arts, is a singer on a Native American drum. He is an author, social worker, peace activist, speaker, and trainer, with a gripping story. 

His part autobiography and part manual, Fourbears: The Myths of Forgiveness, was launched in Dublin, Ireland in 2011 at the Summit Against Violent Extremism. It is in schools, colleges, youth detention centers, jails, AODA and mental health treatment centers, Human Services Departments, and in hands all over the world.

In 2014, Sammy founded Formers Anonymous, a recovery network of people seeking redemption and freedom from a lifestyle of self-destructive involvement with crime, violence, power, and control through change and recovery.


Currently, Sammy is the Executive Director of Life After Hate, Inc (LAH), a unique 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded and run by former violent extremists. LAH’s core services stem from the foundation of its members’ reformed ideologies and decades of rare experiential immersion within some of the world’s most violent extremist organizations. LAH works in the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) field, offers outreach, consulting, interventions, and support systems for individuals who have successfully disengaged from violent extremism, among other things.


Copyright 2018 AVP-USA




FEATURED PRESENTERS: 

James Higginbotham

Dr. Higginbotham is Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at Earlham School of Religion. He has taught at colleges and seminaries in Indiana, Ohio, and China; he has broad experience in pastoral counseling, community mental health, chaplaincy, pastoral ministry, and community organizing. Jim earned his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in Religion and Personality with minors in Psychology and Ethics, and has advanced degrees in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola College of Maryland and a M.Div. from Vanderbilt Divinity School. Rev. Dr. Higginbotham is a National Certified Counselor and is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Dr. Higginbotham has written and lectured on a wide range of topics: crisis care, trauma, the psychosocial nature of terror, incarceration, personality theories, the diagnostic system of psychiatry, care to veterans and their families, professional ethics, the tragic character of human suffering, and a compassionate theology of pastoral care. 

He is a trainer/practitioner of STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) trauma healing methodology, and is a facilitator for the Alternatives to Violence Project.


RACHEL GOLDBERG


Dr. Goldberg has been mediating for over 25 years, and her work and training background include: individual, organizational and multi-party interventions; work around controversial issues like pro-life/pro-choice activism, police accountability, and Native American land claim conflict. Her research includes work on how worldview and values affect practice, best practices in environmental and inter-cultural conflict resolution, and her new framework developed with colleague Dr. Blancke, Multidimensional Conflict Resolution, integrates emotional, somatic, and spiritual intelligence with classic conflict resolution practice.

During her tenure in the field she jointly founded two mediation centers, and has coordinated three. She was also senior staff for the National Association for Mediation in Education (NAME, now CRENET/ACR) and is a facilitator for the Alternatives to Violence Project in maximum-security correctional facilities, and other audiences. Dr. Goldberg is a trainer/practitioner of STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) trauma healing methodology, and is also certified to do NY State Lemon Law Arbitration and Matrimonial Fee Dispute Arbitration.

She is an Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at DePauw University, in Greencastle, IN, where she heads the Restorative Justice Mediation program.Â