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Tom White, Jan Cohen, and Jim Waller Named Peace Ambassadors

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Our three Peace Ambassadors (l–r): Tom White, Jim Waller, Jan Cohen
Our three Peace Ambassadors (l–r): Tom White, Jim Waller, Jan Cohen

The board of directors of the Center for Peacebuilding (CIM) has named Tom White (coordinator of Educational Outreach for the Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies), Jan Cohen (Cohen Center Advisory Council member), and James Waller (Cohen Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies) Peace Ambassadors for 2015. CIM’s annual selection of Peace Ambassadors aims to acknowledge the inspiring work being conducted by modern peacebuilders and to connect like-minded individuals devoted to peace work.

Dr. Waller was also recognized for his work as director of academic programs with the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR) and for his renown as a genocide scholar.

Besides serving on the Cohen Center’s Board, Jan Cohen also serves on AIPR’s Board of Directors. “It’s an honor to be so named, and to be associated with an institution that is educating people the world over about the dangers of genocide, past and present,” she said. “Keene and Keene State are on the map, and we will continue to speak out and teach these lessons, as they are so critically needed. The ripple effect that HGS and the Center have created in the teaching of Holocaust and genocide studies continues to grow, and this housewife from New Hampshire is honored to play a small part. You never know what you can do until you ‘just do it.’ We must try.”

For Tom White, this is a great opportunity to share resources between the Cohen Center and CIM. “It is humbling to be named a Peace Ambassador,” he said. “The difficult and vital importance of the work of the Center for Peacebuilding is an example of the power of individuals who choose hope over despair and peace over war and revenge. Joining the Cohen Center and Keene State College to this work will have a mutually nurturing effect, and I hope to connect the educational outreach initiatives of the Center and its network of teachers, advocates, and supporters to the good work of the people in Bosnia Herzegovina.”

The Center for Peacebuilding is located in Sanski Most, in northwest Bosnia, and “seeks to rebuild trust and foster reconciliation among the people of Bosnia—Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, and others—as well as support peace processes in other countries that have suffered from violent conflict.”

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