The Training will offer you an immersive experience in building skills with today’s top peace leaders. For each Pillar of Peacebuilding in the Training, you’ll learn from James O’Dea and 2-3 core faculty on the methodologies and peace practices they use in their work.

James will be weaving and integrating these teachings into a cohesive map for peacebuilding from the personal to the planetary throughout the Training. You’ll also have weekly practices, readings, and assignments that deepen your experience of the material and put you into close collaboration with other training members from around the world.

Pillar 1: Deep Personal Peace (March 9-30): These sessions will focus on helping you cultivate the psychological, emotional and spiritual dimensions of peace as the great foundation for engagement in the world. Core faculty include:

Cassandra Vieten (March 23) – Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, co-director of the Mind-Body Medicine Research Group at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, a pioneer in the Science of Peace. (full bio)

Swami Chidanand Saraswati (March 30) – Renowned Hindu saint and president of Parmarth Niketan ashram, Swamiji has represented India at the Parliament of World Religions and is known as great teacher of peace. (full bio)

Pillar 2: Healing personal & collective wounds (April 6-30) These sessions will focus on giving you the skills to transform personal wounds and collective trauma in order to create personal and social transformation and significant evolutionary change. Core faculty:

Aqeela Sherrills (April 6th) – Celebrated peacemaker who brokered truce between the Crips and the Bloods in Los Angeles, now the Executive Director of YES!, advisor to peacebuilding projects worldwide. (full bio)

Susan Collin Marks (April 13th) – Senior vice-president of Search for Common Ground, the largest conflict transformation organization in the United States, Susan served as a peacebuilder in S. Africa’s transition from apartheid. (full bio)

Belvie Rooks (April 27th) – Writer, educator, and producer, Co-Founder of Growing a Global Heart. (full bio)

Judith Thompson (Special Saturday session: April 30th at 10 am Pacific) – Former Director of Children of War, co-founder of Frontiers of Social Healing Dialogues, expert in reconciliation processes in post-traumatic areas. (full bio)

Pillar 3: Communicating Peace (May 4 – 25) In these sessions and practices, you’ll advance in the art of skilled communication for your self, family, community and world. You’ll learn the latest in peacemaking, conflict resolution, social discourse and dialogue. Core faculty:

Miki Kashtan (May 4th) – One of the foremost trainers of Non-Violent Communication in the world, Miki is the co-founder of the Bay Area Nonviolent Communication. (full bio)

Grandmother Mona Polacca (May 11th) – A member of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, Mona is an author in the field of social sciences and has worked in many fields of social justice. (full bio)

Mark Gerzon (May 25th) President of Mediators Foundation and a mediator for the United Nations, Mark is the author or seven books including Leading Through Conflict. (full bio)

Pillar 4: Mastering Systems Change (June 1-22). In these sessions, you’ll hone your understanding for how to create systemic change via models and strategies for unprecedented whole system shifts. Core faculty:

Don Beck (June 1st) – Spiral Dynamics theorist and wizard who has mapped and applied a comprehensive approach to working with different memes and transforming culture from S. Africa to the Middle East. (full bio)

Louise Diamond (June 8th) – Co-founder of the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy, founder of Global Systems Initiative and The Peace Company and author of four books on peace. (full bio)

Georgia Kelley (June 15th) – Founder and Executive Director of Praxic Peace Institute, which has sponsored 7 major international conferences addressing the leading edge of peacebuilding work. (full bio)

Pillar 5: Organizing for a New World (June 29 – July 20). These classes and practices will help you develop community-building and collaboration skills that expand your leadership capacity and help you offer your deepest gifts.

Lawrence Ellis (June 29th) – A Rhodes scholar on Gandhian social movements, Lawrence is a complexity-scientist consultant and spiritual activist with great wisdom on movement building and systems change. (full bio)

Sharif Abdullah (July 6th) – Founder and director of Commonway, Sharif is working to align our global human societies with our common spiritual and moral values. A leading expert in non-violent social movements. (full bio)

Ocean Robbins (July 13th) – Founder of YES!, which has touched more than 200,000 youth worldwide and organized “Jams” around the world to empower emerging youth leaders. (full bio)

James is currently Co- Director of The Social Healing Project funded by the Kalliopeia Foundation. This work has led him to Rwanda, Israel/Palestine, N.Ireland and elsewhere. He is a member of the extended faculty of The Institute of Noetic Sciences and its immediate past President.

He was Executive Director of The Seva Foundation, an international health and development organization and, for ten years, was the Washington Office Director of Amnesty International. The Social Healing Project, assessing the convergence of societal healing initiatives around the world, is also collaborating with Intersections International in New York to convene frontier multidisciplinary dialogues on this theme. He is a member of the Evolutionary Leaders group founded by Deepak Chopra and Diane Williams and lectures widely on emerging worldviews, and integral approaches to social transformation.

He is committed to dialogue as a practice and is engaged in dialogues at SEED Graduate Institute between native elders, physicists, and thought leaders; between Israeli and Palestinian psychologists and social workers, and contributes to dialogue on systems thinking and government policy making with the DC based Global Systems Initiatives. He has been a part of dialogue initiated with the Obama Administration on systems work and policy making. He and Dr Judith Thompson co-led a series of international dialogues called Compassion and Social Healing. His book Creative Stress: A Path For Evolving Souls Living Through Personal and Planetary Upheaval ( April 2010) is highly praised and featured in Kosmos Journal, Spirituality and Health magazine, The Well Being Journal and dozens of other media outlets.

James is also an adviser to the World Peace Festival, the largest peace event ever to be held, and on the Advisory Board of The Peace Alliance.

“I tremendously value my personal path as a peacemaker and this course was informational, concrete, spiritually inspirational and motivating for me to continue and intensify my effort to be a peacemaker in my community and how I approach everything I do.” -Anne M Picard

“A truly quality experience from start to finish, this telecourse presented a deep synthesis of peacemaking material combinedwith practices that, when applied, had immediate and profoundly life affirming impact on my relationships. These practices work! The Shift Network’s ability to fully support the student learning experience through group interaction, audio tapings, class transcripts and the Ning website convinces me of the stellar quality of virtual classes!” -Carol Anne

“If God could speak to us He/She would speak, perhaps even beg, a message of living in peace. God sent humanity a message for peace. James O’Dea delivered that message.”
-Rita Kathlyn

“I feel really empowered and happy by all the inspirations I got out of The Path of the Peacemaker Course. The 4 sacred skills are since then part of my daily life. A really nourishing course, uplifting my body, mind and spirit.” -Katharina Sander

“It is unusual for a course to be always dynamic and deep. Most courses are a little helpful and a little informative. This course was deep and gentle and demanding. I recommend it highly.” – Mary van den berg Green

“James O’Dea is a gifted synthesizer of theories and belief structures, states and stages, levels and perspectives. James has the capacity to think and speak from his heart on complex and potentially divisive subjects, rendering choices simple.” – Lisa Norton

• Twenty 90-minute class sessions with James O’Dea and core faculty, including live, interactive calls and exercises plus question and answer time. Classes on Wednesday nights.
• Twenty 30-minute small group practice sessions (Wednesdays after class with James)
• Special Bonus Workshop #1 with Kimmie Weeks
• Special Bonus workshop #2 with Ervin Laszlo & Barbara Marx Hubbard
• Unlimited access to recordings of all class sessions (listen online or download the mp3 file to your iPod or audio player)
• PDF transcripts for each class session
• Clear and concise homework exercises and practices to deepen your experience and application of the material
• Participation in a private online community with other course members from around the world.
• Constructive feedback on your personal project for peacebuilding during the Summer of Peace 2012

Title: Peace Ambassador Training: a 20-week Certification Program

Price: only $197/month for five months or single-pay discount of $897 (save $88)

Note that your registration also supports a scholarship fund for peacebuilders from developing countries who will become part of your global community.