The Peace & Conflict Studies Center of Austin Community College, with World Affairs Council of Austin Cordially invite you to join us for our annual commemoration of International Day of Peace The Human Cost of International Conflict: Refugees and Human Trafficking Featuring: Evelyn Apoko: Former Child Soldier in Uganda; two panel discussions with Q&A led by distinguished experts, and a screening of “Not My Life”, an award-winning documentary. Coffee, lunch, and refreshments provided to registrants. Space is limited to 200. Free Registration at http://go.austincc.edu/peace September 19, 2014; 10am—4pm Austin Community College, Eastview Campus, Multipurpose Room, Bldg. 8000, Room 8500 3401 Webberville Rd. Panel 1 - From Citizen to Refugee 11 - 12:30 Lunch (free; must be registered) 12:30 - 1 Film Screening – “Not My Life” 1 - 2:20 Coffee and Cookies 2:20-2:30 Panel 2 - Human Trafficking: Forgotten Victims 2:30 - 4 1 Detailed Program 10 AM Coffee and Registration 10:15 AM Welcome and opening remarks: Dr. Shirin Khosropour, Professor, Psychology, and Director, Peace & Conflict Studies Center, Austin Community College 11 AM First Panel- “The Journey from Citizen to Refugee” Moderator, Dr. Grant Potts, Associate Professor and Chair, Philosophy, Austin Community College Panelists: (read their bios below) • Evelyn Apoko, Former (abducted) Child Soldier, Uganda, Austin resident • Roy Casagranada, Associate Professor, Government, Austin Community College • Laurie Cook Heffron, LMSW, Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Center for Social Work Research, The University of Texas at Austin • Catriona Lyons: Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Office of Immigration and Refugee Affairs; Refugee Program Coordinator 12:30- 1 Lunch 1:00-2:20 Not My Life Screening 2:20-2:30 Coffee and Cookies 2:30- 4:00 Second Panel. “Not My Life” discussion. Moderator: Carleen D. Sanchez, PhD, Professor, Anthropology, Austin Community College Panelists (read their bios below): • Kay Mailander, MA, Program Supervisor, Refugee Services of Texas • Deek Moore, Detective, Human Trafficking/Vice, Austin Police Department. • Amira Suton, Community Liasion for the State Refugee Health Program; Texas Department of State Health Services 2 About the Presenters: Evelyn Apoko is from northern Uganda. At 12 years old she was abducted at gunpoint by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and forced to become a child soldier. Children abducted by the LRA often were beaten, forced to kill, treated as pack mules, forced to steal, sexually abused and treated as slaves. In March 2002, while she was washing clothes for one of the rebel leader’s wives, a plane flying overhead dropped a bomb nearby, which exploded and severely injured Eveyln’s face. She was left to die in the grass, but survived. The LRA was going to kill her because they did not want to care for her injuries, but in 2004, Evelyn escaped to a rehabilitation center in Northern Uganda. The rehabilitation center helped child soldiers like Evelyn recover their humanity and identity. Being a part of the Center changed Evelyn’s attitude toward her future and made her very hopeful. At the center, Evelyn was reunited with her family, who she thought had all been killed by the LRA, but were alive. In 2005, Evelyn came to the United States for facial reconstructive surgery, but went back to Uganda in 2006. In 2009 she returned to the States to undergo more surgeries, and is currently enrolled in Community College. She is a hard worker and is interested in social work, psychology and human rights issues. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, and told her story before Congress, as a witness to the horrible rebel-led massacres and child kidnappings in Uganda. She aspires to serve young people who are still experiencing war, because she wants to show them that there is a way to build a world without violence. She believes that no child was born to become a child rebel, and that we are teachers for one another; Evelyn believes that if we support the next generation to experience the peace that begins within, then peace in the world will follow. Roy Casagranda is Associate Professor of Government at the Austin Community College where he teaches US and Texas Politics. His areas of research are Middle East politics, U.S. foreign policy, political philosophy, and warfare. He is currently working on an ad hoc interdisciplinary PhD at the University of Texas at Austin. His dissertation is a work of political theory, which relies heavily on comparative methods, in order explain why citizens act politically, especially in revolutions, with particular emphasis on the causes and outcomes of the Arab Spring. He has written the University of Maryland University College’s course modules for the History Department’s WWII course. Casagranda is regularly featured on KVUE’s Weekend Daybreak where he serves as their Middle East Political Affairs 3 Expert. He was regular contributor for Iran’s Mehrmaneh Weekly and contributed one article to Hamshahri Daily before the Iranian government shut them down. Casagranda has been writing about the 2011 and 2013 Egyptian Revolutions for Austin’s Todo and has recently written about sanctions on Iran for Iran’s Donya-e-Eqtesad Daily newspaper. He has given approximately one public lecture per month since 2006 on topics as varied as Medieval Venetian politics, the US Presidency, a critique of Modernity, and the Arab Spring. Laurie Cook Heffron is a research program coordinator and doctoral student with The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (IDVSA), where she has contributed to multiple research projects since 2001. Laurie has both direct social work practice and research experience with a variety of communities, including refugees, victims of trafficking, asylees, and other immigrants in Central Texas. As a doctoral student, she is interested in exploring the experiences of, and relationships between, violence against women and migration to the United States. Laurie studied Linguistics at Georgetown University and earned a Master of Social Work (MSW) from The University of Texas at Austin. Laurie is a licensed social worker and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having worked in Niger, West Africa, with women and children in a rural community health initiative. Shirin Khosropour is professor of psychology and director of Peace & Conflict Studies Center at Austin Community College. In this role, she has developed curricula, conducted workshops, served on advisory boards, and organized events at ACC and national and local organizations to expand the reach of peace and conflict education in community colleges. Khosropour incorporates peace and conflict topics in her courses, and provides support to faculty in multiple disciplines for doing the same in their own courses. An educational psychologist, Khosropour studies peace and conflict in cross- cultural contexts. She has conducted comparative research with Iranian and American populations on single-sex education of girls, and conceptualizations of and responses to bullying. Since becoming deeply engaged with Peace and Conflict Studies in 2007, she has earned certificates in Global Conflict Analysis, International Humanitarian Law, and most recently International Conflict Management from the Johns Hopkins Bologna Institute for Peace & Security. In 2012, the American Red Cross appointed Khosropour as an International Humanitarian Law Teaching Fellow. When not in her office, she is likely running on trails anywhere in the world with a silly grin on her face. 4 Caitriona Lyons has been serving as the Refugee Program Coordinator for the State of Texas since 1989. Prior to this, she worked in the non-profit sector including the direction of a refugee resettlement program in Austin for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Caitriona has a master’s in Human Services Administration from St. Edward’s University and is a licensed social worker. She is a past President for the State Coordinator’s of Refugee Resettlement association and has served on the executive board in many capacities. In June 2006, Caitriona was awarded Outstanding American by Choice by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services for her work with immigrants and refugees in Texas. Ms. Lyons served as the vice chair on the Board of the Institute for Social and Economic Development and is currently a board member of the Association of Refugee Service Professionals. Kay Mailander is chair of the Central Texas Coalition Against Human Trafficking, and manager for the Community Wellness Mental Health and Survivors of Trafficking programs at the Refugee Services of Texas - Austin Service Center. She is a Certified Mediator and Parent Coordinator, Licensed Professional Counselor Intern and Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor Intern. She holds a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin and a Masters of Arts in Clinical Medical Health from the University of Mary Harden-Baylor. She has extensive experience working with refugees and survivors of trafficking in her current role in both case management and psychotherapy. Deek Moore joined APD’s Human Trafficking/Vice Unit in June 2010. He began his law enforcement career with the Amarillo Police Department in 1995, and came to the APD through a modified academy in 1999. As a police officer, he has been assigned to various patrol areas, including bike patrol in the downtown entertainment district and West Campus area of UT. Moore has worked a variety of undercover assignments, including 5 years with Southwest Street Response - a unit that addressed street-level narcotics, prostitution, serial crimes and warrant service. In 2008 he promoted to the rank of detective, and was assigned to SW Investigations. Detective Moore served as a South Bureau night shift detective for a year before joining the Central Texas Human Trafficking Task Force. He has conducted extensive community outreach on matters related to human trafficking, and trained various stakeholders – including law enforcement officers, judges, and social workers.