Kathleen Pelley : Children’s book author speaking on her book The Giant King and the themes of difference and acceptance. Kathleen was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but spent most of her childhood summers playing on her grandparents’ farm in Ireland. Her passion for stories stemmed from listening to them on the BBC radio during the children’s story hour. Later, her gentle Irish father fanned the flame even more by feeding her his tales of fairies, leprechauns, and banshees.

Jan Rutherford entered the US Army at age 17, and spent six years in Special Forces as a medic and “A” team executive officer, and three years as a military intelligence officer. For the past 20 years, Jan’s business roles have been in the areas of marketing, business development, sales management, corporate training, product management, and government affairs.
Training and education have been the hallmark of Jan’s career, and the development of others is where he has derived the most fulfillment and satisfaction from various professional roles. Jan teaches “Leadership in New Ventures” at the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado for MBA students and Doctor of Nursing Practice candidates; and teaches “Leadership & Entrepreneurship in Ireland” each Summer in Ireland. He has also been a speaker at industry conferences in Europe and the United States.

Jennifer D. Klein taught high school and college English (and occasionally Spanish) for 19 years, including five years in Central America and 11 years in all-girls education. With both a BA and an MA in Literature and Creative Writing, she has published a wide array of creative and educational writing. Jennifer is currently working on a variety of writing and research projects focused on Cuban education, Poetry of Witness strategies for teaching conflict, and the development of purposeful pedagogies which encourage social change.
Jennifer also serves as an educational consultant to the Center for Teaching International Relations.
Jennifer will be leading an interactive activity focused on the Millennium Development Goals entitled: Building Utopia

Melinda Cain Ph.D., is a professor of intercultural communications and international affairs at the University of Colorado Boulder as well as the Managing Director of Real World Solutions and Vice-Chair of the CTIR Board of Directors.
Melinda has international experience in over 40 countries from corporate employment, international development consulting, education, training and research.
Melinda will be facilitating a course on intercultural communication during the Collaborative Question for teachers

Ben Davis has nearly ten years of experience in national security, human rights, and terrorism related matters. Mr. Davis is an attorney with the Gilbert Law Group,
concentrating on consumer safety, whistleblower and human rights litigation. From 2009-20011, he served as a Deputy District Attorney in the Denver District Attorney’s Office where he chaired nearly sixty jury trials. Between 2005 and 2008, Mr. Davis served as a counterterrorism advisor in the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Department of the Treasury, where he specialized in Middle East and Gulf-based terrorism and illicit finance issues. In 2007, he co-directed the National Security Council’s Iraq Threat Finance Cell in Baghdad, Iraq, an interagency initiative to investigate and target insurgency support networks for interdiction. In 2008, he established the first U.S. Treasury attaché position in Jerusalem, where he served as a senior U.S. representative to the Palestinian Authority on finance, economic, illicit crime and terrorism issues. From 2003-2005, he worked at the law firm, Motley Rice, LLC, investigating sources of al Qaeda financing on behalf of more than 5,500 September 11th victims in their civil action, Burnett v. Al Baraka. Between 2000 and 2002, Mr. Davis served as a legislative advisor to Senator Ernest F. Hollings (SC), where he advised the Senator on judiciary, foreign affairs, military and economic issues. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, a Master’s Degree in International Politics from the University of Chicago, and a juris doctor degree from the Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America.

Eric Glustrom started Educate! in 2002 after traveling to Kyangwali Refugee Settlement in Uganda to create a film about the life of refugees. There he met Benson Olivier, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Eric was inspired to start Educate! after seeing the potential in Benson and so many other youth to become the leaders who would bring solutions to the challenges facing Uganda and beyond. Eric graduated from Amherst College in 2007 with a degree in biochemistry. He likes skiing of all kinds, tennis, running with his dog, discussing social change, and is reportedly very good at catching food in his mouth.