Albanian American Womans Organization • Motrat Qiriazi •

	Ambassador William G. Walker, Honorary Board Former Head of the Kosovo Verification Mission Kosovo and the Balkans: The Future of South-Central Europe An Address by Ambassador William G. Walker Former Head of the Kosovo Verification Mission A thirty-eight year veteran of the Foreign Service, Ambassador Walker has served mostly in Latin America: Bolivia, Brazil, El Salvador, Honduras, Peru, and on the Argentine desk in Washington. From 1985-88, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs responsible for Central America and Panama. From 1988-92 he served as Ambassador to El Salvador. From 1994-97, he was the Vice President of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. In August 1997, Ambassador Walker was named Special Representative of the Secretary General, heading the United Nations Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES), Croatia. The mission he commanded consisted of some 800 UN civilian and 2500 military peacekeepers and administrators. From October 1998 through June 1999, Ambassador Walker was Head of the Kosovo Verification Mission, some 1400 international and 1500 local staff,in a peacekeeping effort mounted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), under the terms of the Holbrooke-Milosevic Agreement of October 15, 1999.

	Beverly Bruce Dr. Bruce holds a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Harvard University. She has taught at several colleges and universities including Wellesley, Harvard, UCLA and Howard. Her publications include articles about students of color and higher education as well as reports on the situation of refugee women and children around the world. Dr. Bruce serves on a number of boards including Adventures in Health, Education and Development (AHEAD), and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) where she chairs the Program Committee and the Women?s Foreign Policy Group. The SSRC operates with a staff of approximately 60 employees. We are responsible for carrying out the SSRC's mission of establishing research networks, conducting research planning, organizing conferences and workshops throughout the world, and administering our various fellowship programs.

	Delina Fico Delina Fico holds an MS in Nonprofit Management and an MA in Political Science from the New School University in New York. She is the co-founder of a number of women?s rights groups in Albania and has been active with various women?s groups and networks in the Balkans and Eastern and Central Europe. Delina serves on the board of the Network of East West Women, an international NGO, and women?s association ?Refleksione? (Albania). She has served as trainer and consultant for a number of agencies and organizations including UNIFEM, Open Society Institute, and East West Management Institute. Delina advises the Urgent Action Fund for Women?s Rights on their Balkan-related program. She is currently the Training Advisor for Kosovo NGO Advocacy Project, a three-year USAID-funded capacity building program.

	Elzibeta M. Gozdziak Elzbieta M. Gozdziak is the Director of Research at the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) at Georgetown University. Formerly, she held a senior position with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the US Department of Health and Human Services. She has taught at the Howard University's School of Social Work in the Social Work with Displaced Populations Program, and managed a program area on admissions and resettlement of refugees in industrialized countries for the Refugee Policy Group. Prior to emigrating to the US, she was an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Pozna?, Poland. Dr. Gozdziak's recent publications include two edited volumes (with Dianna J. Shandy): Rethinking Refuge and Migration, published by the American Anthropological Association in 2000, and a thematic volume of the Journal of Refugee Studies on Religion and Forced Migration published by Oxford University Press in 2002.

Eve Ensler

Eve Ensler's Obie-Award-winning play, THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, translated into over 25 languages and running in theaters all over the world, including a current sold-out run on London's West End (2002 Olivier Award nomination, Best Entertainment), initiated V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. Ms. Ensler's performance in THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES can be seen on the DVD of the HBO original documentary of the play (2002).

Her play NECESSARY TARGETS, set in a Bosnian refugee camp, opened Off-Broadway at the Variety Arts Theater in February 2002, after a hit run at Hartford Stage. Other plays include Conviction, Lemonade, The Depot, Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man, and EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES. THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES and NECESSARY TARGETS have both been published by Villard/Random House, as will Ms. Ensler's upcoming new play and book, THE GOOD BODY.

Ms. Ensler has devoted her life to stopping violence, envisioning a planet in which women and girls will be free to thrive, rather than merely survive. Her work grows out of her own personal experiences with violence. THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES is based on Ensler's interviews with more than 200 women. The piece celebrates womens' sexuality and strength, and exposes the violations that women endure throughout the world.

V-Day originated out of Ms. Ensler's conversations with women who approached her after early performances of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, to tell her of their own experiences of violence. She began to use performances of the play to raise funds for organizations working to stop violence. Soon, she and the group of women who make up V-Day found that support for their efforts was far-reaching and expansive. What began as a simple possibility quickly transformed into a worldwide social and activist movement.

Today, V-Day is a global movement that helps anti-violence organizations throughout the world continue and expand their core work on the ground, while drawing public attention to the larger fight to stop worldwide violence (including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), sexual slavery) against women and girls. V-Day exists for no other reason than to stop violence against women. In just five years, it has raised over $14 million and was named one of Worth magazine's "100 Best Charities" in 2001.

V-Day stages large-scale benefits and promotes innovative gatherings and programs (The Afghan Women's Summit, The Stop Rape Contest, Indian Country Project, and more) to change social attitudes towards violence against women. In 2003, more than 1000 V-Day benefit events - produced by local volunteer activists and performed in theaters, community centers, houses of worship, and college campuses - are scheduled around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls and raising funds for local groups within their communities.

Ms. Ensler is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Playwriting, the Berrilla-Kerr Award for Playwriting, the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, and the Jury Award for Theater at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, as well as the 2002 Amnesty International Media Spotlight Award for Leadership and The Matrix Award (2002). She is Chair of the Women's Committee of PEN American Center and is an Executive Producer of WHAT I WANT MY WORDS TO DO TO YOU, a documentary about the writing group she has led since 1998 at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. The film had its world premiere at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival where it received the "Freedom Of Expression" award.

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Grace Dunbar

Grace Dunbar is a native of Liberia, West Africa and resides in Stone Mountain, Georgia. She was educated in Liberia and Great Britain. Grace has a passion for working with multicultural groups and works with refugee and immigrant women in the United States. She is a Board Member of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and the Albanian American Women Organization. Grace is a Training Consultant with the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith in their International Anti-Bias Education and Diversity Training Program. Grace is an Advanced Speaker of Toastmasters International. Grace is a tutor on Basic Adult Literacy with Liberary Volunteers of America - Metropolitan Atlanta, Inc. and a Member of Georgia Refugee Council. Thanks.

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Jeanne Anne Norton

Jeanne Anne Norton is an attorney specializing in Elder Law, Trusts and Estate. She came to the law in her 40?s after a career in marketing public relations. Growing up on Long Island with four brothers and three sisters, Jeanne Anne was raised with the principle of helping others. She has created and implemented community based outreach programs, such as the Coats for Kids campaign and The Shop-in Service, a not-for-profit nation wide volunteer based program. Further, Jeanne Anne was Marketing Public Relations coordinator for the First Earth Run, UNICEF's "official" 40th anniversary global project, a peace initiative involving over 50 countries and 30 Heads of State. She recently married her senior prom date, Kenneth McGuinness, pictured here, after a thirty-three year hiatus.

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	Maha Muna Maha Muna is Officer in Charge at the Governance, Peace and Security sectionof UNIFEM. She holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University, School of Public and International Affairs. Ms. Muna also studied at Beirzeit University in Ramallah in the Occupied Palestinian Territories after earning a Bachelors of Arts at the University of California in Santa Barbara. Prior to her current post at UNIFEM, Ms. Muna served as Deputy Director of the Women's Commission for four years. She has also worked at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) where she held several positions including Regional Director for the Great Lakes region, Acting Country Director for Azerbaijan and Program Officer in headquarters geographic sections. Ms. Muna worked for Save the Children/US before joining the IRC.

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