David Smith, educational outreach officer with the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), will speak at UNCG Tuesday, Nov. 15.

Smith’s visit is sponsored by the Conflict and Peace Studies Program at UNCG. His talk, which runs from 6-9 p.m. in Room 120, School of Education building, is free and open to the public. He will focus on cutting-edge efforts for conflict management and peacebuilding that USIP supports.

While at UNCG, he will speak to both graduates and undergraduates. He will also speak to students at Northwest Guilford High School on Wednesday, Nov. 16.

Smith considers peacebuilding and conflict resolution skills essential. “I would call them basic life skills,” he says. “Conflict situations – on the personal and professional levels – are ubiquitous in society. We all need better ways of working with each – from the playground to the battleground. Youth need to know better ways that are peaceful and collaborative, and military in field need to know about nonviolent ways of resolving differences.”

Smith will speak to UNCG undergrads about USIP’s work in promoting peacebuilding, conflict management and security, as well as careers in the field. He will talk to the Northwest Guilford students about their roles as the global peacebuilders of the future.

Smith coordinates USIP’s educational outreach and public programming efforts. He works with educational and professional associations, academic institutions, and public groups to promote USIP objectives. He speaks frequently to community, faculty and student groups on a variety of issues including civil society and peacebuilding, child soldiers, conflict resolution education and international education.

Before joining the Institute in 2005, his work focused on teaching at the college and university level. As a Fulbright scholar, Smith taught peace studies and alternative dispute resolution at the University of Tartu in Tartu, Estonia. He has also taught at the undergraduate level at Harford Community College, Goucher College, Towson University, and Stevenson University, and at the graduate level at George Mason University.

At USIP, he has traveled widely around the U.S. consulting with colleges and universities on approaches to teaching peace. He has also worked in the fields of domestic and community conflict resolution, and as a practicing attorney. He has lectured on American mediator practice at Uppsala University in Sweden and the University of Jammu in India. Smith currently serves on the Rockville, Maryland Human Rights Commission and has published in the International Herald Tribune, Baltimore Sun, and Chronicle of Higher Education.

Smith holds a B.A. in political science and urban affairs from the American University School of Public Affairs, an M.S. from the George Mason University Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and a J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

USIP is a congressionally funded and established nonpartisan agency that promotes conflict management and peacebuilding. The Institute focuses specifically on intractable conflict around the world — it does not work on U.S. based conflict — and the prevention of violent conflict. USIP was established in 1984 and started operating in 1986. Visit www.usip.org for more details.

For more information on the Conflict and Peace Studies Program, which offers the master’s degree and the post-baccalaureate certificate, visit http://www.uncg.edu/cnr.

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