Imagine Worcester

Lisa Laurel Weinberg is a political asylum and human trafficking attorney with Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Services and Community Legal Services and Counseling Center. She is the founder of the Asylum Legal Assistance Project and LGBT Human Rights Protection Project. Attorney Weinberg has legal experience in Senegal, West Africa and Cairo, Egypt. She approaches her legal practice from a humanitarian perspective and long-time interest in justice, social issues and the betterment of humankind.

Erin Mone is an expert in children’s rights issues, having worked with youngsters in war-torn countries for Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee. Erin is the regional director of recruitment for the Peace Corps and teacher at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work (where she graduated in 1999 with a Master in Social Work). She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica and responded: "Seeing children in adverse situations, realizing how lucky I am and where I come from—something just sparked. I felt that my goal and my responsibility was to be an advocate for them." Erin focus her enormous sense of responsibility on some of the world's toughest cases. For four years, Mone lived mostly in refugee camps with former child soldiers from Sierra Leone, street children in Indonesia and youth displaced by war in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Dr. Mary Lee Morrison is the founder and director of Pax Educare, a Connecticut Peace Education Center. holds a Ph.D. in Educational Studies/Curriculum and Instruction from the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut and a Master's in Social Work from the University of Iowa. A former practicing clinical social worker for over 20 years, she has taught educational foundations and courses in global social work and sociology at several universities. She has authored books and articles on peace education and has been providing consultation and trainings for schools and community groups for the past eighteen years. Dr Morrison is the co-author of Peace Education (with Ian Harris) McFarland Press, 2003 and of the Elise Boulding: A Life in the Cause of Peace (McFarland Press, 2005).

Dr. Pingeton is a physician with a specialty in obstetrics and gynecology. Dr. Pingeton brings a unique, perspective to her medical practice of walking in the shoes of both a nurse and doctor. Educated at Fitchburg State and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Dr Pingeton received yoga teacher training at Guru Ram Das ASHRAM in Millis, MA. Her commitment to healing and stress reduction gives her a unique place in the medical community. Dr. Pingeton supported youth involvement post-Katrina.

Domingo Guyton mentors youth and sings rap music to bring about peace and reconciliation among all people..” In a recent interview, Worcester Magazine wrote: "With blood oozing from four knife wounds, Boston teenager Domingo Guyton made an unusual decision—he did not want his mother to see him this way. So, he walked to a friend’s house and sat on the front steps while they waited for an ambulance. By 1990, the 14-year-old had already been in and out of trouble with local street gangs for three years. Growing up in a loving home with his mother and grandmother, Domingo had never experienced alcohol, drugs, swearing, abuse or neglect. He sang in the church choir, played the drums and his mother read Bible verses to him every night. Stepping outside their house, however, was like “entering a different world.” His neighborhood was “hardcore” and fights, drugs, and gangs dominated the streets. “Every day, someone got shot or stabbed,” he recalls.

Seth Bernstein is the Rabbi of Temple Sinai in Worcester. He completed a. Doctor of Ministry Degree at Andover Newton Theological School, co-hairs the Interreligious Forum, and helped create Worcester Interfaith, a coalition of churches and synagogues that support youth, elderly and crime prevention initiatives. Rabbi Bernstein is the President of Jewish Family Service, Worcester Pastoral Counseling Center and Executive Board Member, of Youth Opportunities Upheld, Inc. He is a member of the American Red Cross National Critical Response Team and served as lead administrative spiritual care officer for American Red Cross New York City 9/11 response. Rabbi Bernstein was responsible for the duties of 450 active chaplains at four sites of the aftermath of 9/11, December 15-30, 2001.

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.