Dr. Arthur Romano
Associate Professor, Strategic Planning & Action
Program Director
Dr. Arthur Romano is an Associate Professor at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution and the Elise Boulding Scholar Practitioner for the National Peace Academy. He is the founder of the Program for Urban Peacebuilding and brings over 25 years of experience developing innovative, community-based education models in conflict-affected settings. His work centers on urban peacebuilding, nonviolence, restorative justice, and experiential learning.
Dr. Romano has collaborated with policymakers, youth leaders, artists, and activists on both local and global initiatives, including partnerships with the Connecticut Center for Nonviolence and the Truthtelling Project. Internationally, his peace education efforts span Japan, Nigeria, South Korea, and beyond. He is the author of Racial Justice and Nonviolence Education: Building the Beloved Community, One Block at a Time and co-leads the Peacelearner platform, providing open-access peace education resources used in over 100 countries.
Ashton Rohmer
PhD Candidate
Doctoral Research Fellow
Ashton is a PhD candidate at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. As an urban planner by training and a safe streets advocate in her home city of Washington, DC, she is drawn to questions about how our transportation systems shape social interactions - and how our social interactions shape our transportation systems. Specifically, Ashton examines vehicular violence and the conflict system of car supremacy through an interdisciplinary lens and studies how a range of strategies - whether it’s mobilizing bike buses as a form of social movement or tapping into the power of positive message framing to unlock our collective moral imagination - can be leveraged to co-create a more peaceful present for our mobility network. You can learn more by visiting her blog Peace and Planning.
Avril Agüero
Master's Student, Carter School
Graduate Research Fellow and Digital Storyteller
Avril is a second-year M.S. student at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, concentrating in Conflict, Narrative, and Sustainable Peace. Born and raised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, she researches how youth in urban environments serve as agents of peace and reconciliation within informal, community-rooted spaces often excluded from traditional peacebuilding frameworks. Her work challenges adultism by centering youth voices and lived experience and champions culturally grounded, trauma-informed approaches rooted in local knowledge and creative expression. She facilitates the Peacebuilding Club at Cardozo High School through the Latin American Youth Center, co-leads intercultural workshops with Second Story, and supports multilingual access to peace knowledge as a translator and editor for the upcoming edition of Zones of Peace. Committed to youth-led, place-based peace work, Avril advances sustainable and equitable approaches to conflict transformation.
Senior Research Fellow
Silvia Danielak
Visiting Scholar, Program on Urban Peacebuilding, Carter School
Silvia Danielak is a peace researcher and educator focused on urban peacebuilding and the links between climate change, conflict, and infrastructure. She is an Assistant Professor at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, where she researches how cities and spatial planning shape peace in post-conflict and fragile settings. She holds a PhD in Urban Planning from MIT and has worked in international development across several countries. Her current work includes a forthcoming book on infrastructure in UN peace operations and a project on community-led environmental peacebuilding in the context of climate adaptation.
Peacebuilding Summit
Nawal Rajeh
Peace Summit Director
Nawal Rajeh is a peace educator and community organizer in the DC/Baltimore area. She is the co-founder of By Peaceful Means (BPM), a grassroots organization dedicated to interrupting both physical and structural violence in Baltimore City. Rajeh holds a PhD from George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution and serves as an adjunct lecturer in Georgetown University’s Justice and Peace Studies Program. She is also a consultant with Movement Matters in DC, where she supports organizers in strengthening their capacity through training, facilitation, and accompaniment. In 2018, she was honored as Baltimore Peacemaker of the Year for her work leading summer peace camps in Baltimore, which she co-founded in 2007.
The Urban Peacebuilding Exchange Team
A. Billi Drakeford
UPex Director
Affiliate Faculty, Carter School
A. Billi Drakeford has designed and managed various arts and service-learning residencies for more than 15 years. She believes that the multi-layered experience of travel engenders unique understandings that effect change on deep levels. A. Billi is based in the Borderlands of southern New Mexico and currently serves as the General Manager of The LAB Learning Action Buffet, a leadership skills mentorship organization serving youth and young adults. She is also Affiliate Faculty at The Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, a Thought Partner in the Borderlands & Ethnic Studies Department at New Mexico State University and Cultural Ambassador and Site Manager with the Next Level Hip Hop Cultural Diplomacy program. Aside from her organizing work, A. Billi is active artistically as an emcee, singer/songwriter, sound selector and beat producer.
Kane Smego
UPex Director, Hip Hop Artist
Affiliate Faculty, Carter School
Based in Los Angeles, CA, Kane Smego is a global leader in cross-cultural creative exchange. Since 2008, he has been working at the intersection of the arts, educational programming and social change on local and international levels, including serving as the Associate Director of Next Level, a groundbreaking cultural diplomacy program that sends American hip-hop artists around the world to promote exchange, artistic collaboration, and community building. An artist himself, Kane has performed, taught, and managed programs in over 20 countries and his work has been featured on NPR, American Public Media, TEDx, BET, and more. He is a bilingual English-Spanish speaker with a B.A. in Romance Languages, and he is currently obtaining his Master's in Public Affairs at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy.
Visiting Scholars
William McInerney
Visiting Scholar, Program for Urban Peacebuilding, Carter School
Dr. William McInerney will bring his expertise on Violent Masculinities and the use of the arts and peace education interventions to bear on the work of urban peacebuilding. He is a peacebuilding consultant and researcher with over a decade of global experience supporting NGOs, universities, and governments. His work focuses on the intersections of education, gender, and storytelling to advance peace through critical, practical, and creative approaches. He has worked with clients including the UK and Fiji governments, UN Women Australia, the University of Cambridge, and McKinsey & Company. His expertise spans peace education, gender-based violence prevention, and the use of the arts for social change.
Michael Shank
Visiting Scholar, Program for Urban Peacebuilding, Carter School
Adjunct Faculty
Michael’s professional career includes leading press and/or policy shops at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Climate Nexus (clients included the United Nations, Vatican City, The White House, and Fortune 500 Companies), U.S. Congress, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Institute for Economics and Peace, Biodiversity Northwest, Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and more.