Imagine Worcester

Rabbi Seth L. Bernstein is Virgina Swain's guest on this episode of Imagine Worcester and the World.

Imagine Worcester host talk with Denise Hart. Denise Hart is the deputy director of the Water Program and has oversight of the Northeast region. She joined Food & Water Watch after spending seven years working to stop a bottled water company in New England from setting up shop in her community (not one bottle sold yet!). She is passionate about advancing policy to establish water as a human right and keeping water accessible, clean, and managed sustainably in the public interest. Denise brings to FWW extensive experience in program development, strategic communications and media relations. Her articles in regional and national publications include sustainability, green building and humanities topics. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from S.U.N.Y. at Oswego, an M.Ed. in Counseling from Northeastern University and an M.A. in English from the University of New Hampshire. Denise can be reached at dhart(at)fwwatch(dot)org.

Dr. Paul and Mrs. Marjorie Ropp were raised and influenced in a historic peace church, the Mennonites, and now are active members of Worcester’s First Unitarian Church, helping the Lost Boys of Sudan in Worcester. They draw on their decades of experience living and working in China (Dr. Ropp is a Professor of Chinese History at Clark). Paul and Marj are co-founders, with others, the Center for Nonviolent Solutions. For more information, visit http://www.nonviolentsolution.org

David Steele is a Consultant in Conflict Transformation. Dr. David Steele is interviewed about his service in Iraq last year as a Senior Reconciliation Facilitator with the Baghdad office of the U.S. Institute of Peace. Dr. Steele provided training in negotiation, problem solving and interfaith dialogue for a variety of personnel from Iraqi Government agencies, educational institutions, religious groups and civil society organizations. Previously, Dr. Steele has worked as an independent consultant in conflict transformation, as a program manager in conflict management at Mercy Corps in Cambridge, MA, as program manager, then interim executive director, at Conflict Management Group in Cambridge, and as a fellow in the Program on Preventive Diplomacy at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington.

Clementina M. Chery, speaker for the 2009 Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast at the Beechwood Hotel, October 13, 2009, founded the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute after her oldest son was shot and killed on December 20, 1993. Tina” serves as Director and Milton Jones, Operations Manager are interviewed about reaching out to families whose family members are victims of violence. The Louis D. Brown Peace Institute developed the Peace Curriculum, a nationally recognized program that teaches the value of peace to students from kindergarten to high school. Tina has been invited to the White House for her achievements by President Clinton. http://www.louisdbrownpeaceinstitute.org/

Virginia Swain interviews Fran Mannochio and Ines Beron who work for the
City of Worcester Office of Human Rights and Disabilites Office. Fran is
the Director and Ines is House Discrimination Intake Worker.

Virginia Swain interviews Dr. Leonard Morse, Professor of Clinical Medicine,
UMass Medical School and Public Health Commissioner, City of Worcester,
Chair, Ethical and Judicial Affairs, American Medical Association Council.
Dr. Morse is interviewed as Public Health Commissioner for the City of
Worcester and featured doctor in the recently published book Characteristics
of Compassion: Portraits of Exemplary Physicians by Helen Meldrum (Jones and
Bartlett Publishers). Dr. Morse had a private practice in epidemiology and
was a teacher and mentor for 36 years.

Virginia Swain interviews Claire and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, co-directors of
the Saint Francis and Therese Catholic Worker Community at 52 Mason Street,
Worcester. The Catholic Worker is a lay movement, founded by Dorothy Day,
serving the poor while denouncing injustice and promoting peace. They
publish the Catholic Radical and helped co-found the Center for Nonviolent
Solutions in Worcester.

Salifu Kamara is a very bright young man who was caught in the war in his country, Sierra Leone, where he was forced to become a child soldier. For more on Salifu, go to http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/3039.cfm; http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=476&catID=2