The El-Hibri Peace Education Prize 2009 Award Winner this year is Dr. Mary Elizabeth King, “professor of peace and conflict studies at the United Nations-affiliated University for Peace, which has its main campus in Costa Rica, and distinguished scholar with the Center for Global Peace at American University in Washington, DC.” Learn more about The El-Hibri Peace Education Prize and Bethesda-resident Fuad El-Hibri. To be considered for the 2010 prize, nominations must be received no later than June 6, 2010.
Dr. Mary Elizabeth King is professor of peace and conflict studies at the United Nations-affiliated University for Peace, which has its main campus in Costa Rica, and distinguished scholar with the Center for Global Peace at American University in Washington, DC. She is also a Rothermere American Institute Fellow at the University of Oxford, in Britain. Priorities of her work include peace education and nonviolent civil resistance.
Among Dr. King’s many publications, she is the author of the highly acclaimed, A Quiet Revolution: The First Palestinian Intifada and Nonviolent Resistance, released in 2007. Her most recent book is, The New York Times on Emerging Democracies in Eastern Europe (2009), chronicling the peaceful transitions from Soviet rule that occurred in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic States, Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine.
Dr. King has worked with President Jimmy Carter as a special advisor since the early 1970s, including working closely with him on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As a presidential appointee in the Carter Administration, she had worldwide oversight for the Peace Corps and other U.S. volunteer service corps programs. In the U.S. civil rights movement, she worked alongside the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, an experience that defined her life. In addition to her work in the field of peace education, she has been a practitioner of international relations for 35 years—requiring personal contact with heads of state and government ministers of more than 120 developing countries.
Dr. King earned a doctorate in international politics from the University of Wales at Aberystwyth in the United Kingdom.
In Photo: Fuad El-Hibri (Founder of the El-Hibri Peace Education Prize) and Dr. Abdul Aziz Said (First Laureate of the El-Hibri Peace Education Prize)
Purpose of the El-Hibri Peace Education Prize
To honor one peace educator annually with the El-Hibri Peace Education Prize in order to bring awareness of and to promote the expansion of the field of Peace Education.
Mission of the El-Hibri Peace Education Prize
The El-Hibri Peace Education Prize recognizes outstanding peace educators based in the United States by awarding $10,000 annually to an individual or organization making valuable contributions to peace education and social justice in the Middle East.
Goals of the El-Hibri Peace Education Prize
- Recognize outstanding peace educators who demonstrate
successful and innovative efforts to promote peace
and social justice - Provide financial support for established and emerging
peace educators to continue their work - Promote the importance of peace education globally by
affirming efforts to integrate knowledge about and for
peacemaking into curricula at all levels of education
The El-Hibri Peace Education Prize
The El-Hibri Peace Education Prize is awarded each fall in Washington, D.C.
Winners will be selected based on nominations and interviews with references who can speak to their contributions to the field of Peace Education.
Who is Eligible for the El-Hibri Peace Education Prize?
Nominees can be individuals or organizations based in the United States making valuable contributions to the theory, practice, and teaching of
peace and social justice in the Middle East.
Notification of El-Hibri Peace Education Prize Award
El-Hibri Peace Education Prize winners will be recognized at the annual El-Hibri Peace Education Prize ceremony.
2008 El-Hibri Peace Education Prize Recipient
The El-Hibri Charitable Foundation and the El-Hibri family wish to congratulate Scott Kennedy, the second recipient of the El-Hibri Peace Education Prize. Scott Kennedy has been a Peace Educator for 40 years. He was instrumental in pioneering educational delegations to conflict zones, now a widely practiced form of peace education. He has personally led more than three dozen delegations to the Middle East since 1979. He also helped establish Witness for Peace, which brought thousands of US citizens to Nicaragua on short term educational delegations.
He co-founded the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz, California which is one of the most active community-based peace education centers in the U.S. The Center has been host to countless speakers, workshops, and programs focusing on the peaceful and just resolution of conflicts locally and around the world. Scott has actively served on the boards of many organizations that teach and exemplify peace and empowerment, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Middle East Witness, Refuser Solidarity Network, Middle East Advisory Committee of the American Friends Service Committee, Isla Vista Youth Project, Isla Vista Children’s Center, Thomas Merton Unity (Nonviolence) Center, the Isla Vista People’s Life Fund, California Youth Advocate Program, National Youth Advocate Program, and the Interfaith Peace-Builders.
Scott is a former mayor of Santa Cruz, California where he resides with his wife Kristin. They have 3 grown children.
2007 El-Hibri Peace Education Prize Recipient
The El-Hibri Peace Education Prize committee wishes to congratulate Professor Abdul Aziz Said, the First Laureate of this award.
He serves as the Mohammed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace at American University in Washington, DC, and receives this honor in recognition of his dedication to the causes of peace, his preeminent role in educating about peace and Islam, and his 50 years as a faculty mentor and teacher at American University.
“… life is a path of learning where we are each constantly called upon to awaken ourselves and each other to search for freedom, truth, beauty, creativity, and above all, justice.”
Abdul Aziz Said
The Actual El-Hibri Peace Education Prize
- $10,000
- Promotion and publicity through media activities, speaking engagements and other important networking opportunities to raise awareness of peace education and the honoree’s contributions within the field.
Timeline for 2010 El-Hibri Peace Education Prize
June 6, 2010: Nomination deadline
July 11, 2010: Prize winner notification
September 21, 2010: Prize presented annually on the International Day of Peace
The El-Hibri Peace Education Prize Nomination Process
Complete the nomination form and submit by email or mail.
Nominations must be received no later than June 6, 2010.
Nominations, questions, and financial contributions may be sent to:
Email: nonviolence@igc.org
Mailing Address:
The El-Hibri Peace Education Prize
PO Box 39127
Friendship Station
Washington, DC 20016 USA
Phone: +1 (202) 244.0951
