2008 Leadership Development Workshop

Our second annual Leadership Development Workshop attracted 32 participants including 21 leaders and activists from Sudan who are living and working in the United States where they came to escape political persecution and violence.  We were also pleased to welcome the president of the Youth League of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement, who flew all the way from Juba in Southern Sudan to participate. Not only did the participants come from diverse racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds, they also came from different generations. Several were in their 30s and 40s and their average age was 29.

Back home, the participants are college and graduate students, peace activists, educators, college professors, executives in nonprofit organizations, social entrepreneurs, a lieutenant in the Coast Guard, journalists, computer scientists, engineers, biologists and political leaders. Even among the Sudanese, there was much diversity, as they originally came to the U.S. from the north of Sudan, Darfur and southern Sudan.

Overcoming the divisions that many in the world think of as insurmountable, we were able
 to build a “relational container” that could hold all the differences among the participants. Over the course of our
 seven days together, with the help of our outstanding Senior Fellows, we engaged in a more
 civil discourse and built a dialogue around such questions as:

•    What skills and qualities will leaders of the future need in order to build sustainable
 peace?
•    What is sustainable peace and what does it look like?
•    What can we do in our own backyards to begin working toward sustainable peace in 
the next year?
•    How can we influence the institutions or companies of which we are a part to work
 together  for the common good while at the same time creating profits and value
 for our constituents?

We were privileged to have an outstanding group of speakers/mentors from multiple disciplines:

- Dr. Andrea Bartoli, Founding Director, CICR at Columbia University and Drucie French 
Cumbie Chair of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University’s Institute 
for Conflict Analysis and Resolution                                                                                              - Mrs. Kathleen Krueger, city council member in New Braunfels, Texas
- Dr. Robert Krueger, former U.S. Senator and Ambassador to Burundi
- Mr. John Montgomery, founder Bridgeway Capital Management
- Dr. Herman Detering, scholar, entrepreneur, and “natural horseman”
- John Masuku, radio journalist and reform activist in Zimbabwe
- Dr. Guy Burgess, professor at the University of Colorado and director of BeyondIntractability.org
- Ms. Ada Edwards, civil rights and anti-apartheid activist, three term Houston city council
 member and Deputy Chief of Staff for Neighborhoods in Mayor Bill White’s office
- Dorian Ducka, International Secretary of one of the main political parties in Albania and activist for reform
- Randall Butler, Executive Director of The Institute for Sustainable Peace

Each speaker invested a minimum of three days in the workshop and spent considerable time in
 significant conversation with the other participants.

At the end of the workshop, we invited each individual participant to commit to specific actions
 that he or she could take in the next 30 days to begin working towards sustainable peace in his 
or her own sphere of influence.

Here some of the observations from those who came to the workshop:

“It has been hard to just sit still and fully reflect on all that has happened over the week I spent 
in Estes Park, but still, the language of mental models, and committed community keeps creeping
 into my vocabulary...I miss everyone tremendously. I am so excited about working with
 you in the future…”

“I'm writing to encourage each of you - you are all incredible people! I am so glad I got to become
 friends with you each! Let's really stay faithful to each other and keep each other accountable
 to making changes. I'm SO excited to hear each of your stories as you pursue the goals you
 set these past few days. I miss you all and I truly do believe the world can change in the next 29 
days.”

We are now in conversations that could lead to a similar Leadership Development Workshop in
 Sudan. Thank you for making this kind of life changing work possible!