Alison Milofsky is a senior program officer at the United States Institute of Peace where she specializes in curriculum development and teacher education as well as training design, facilitation, and intergroup dialogue. Alison also develops curricula and workshops for the Institute’s Global Peacebuilding Center, which introduces young audiences to peacebuilding through multimedia exhibits and educational programs. Alison edited the Institute’s Peacebuilding Toolkits for Educators and provides workshops for educators on how to infuse peacebuilding concepts into their teaching. She has conducted programs for educators in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia, as well as workshops at conferences throughout the U.S. Alison teaches the Academy’s facilitation course and teaches intergroup dialogue at the University of Maryland. She regularly conducts trainings on communication and negotiation skills for U.N. peacekeepers in Africa. Before joining the Institute in 2002, Alison was associate director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Washington, D.C. regional office, where she designed and implemented anti-bias education programs and trained police officers on hate crimes and extremism. Earlier, she served in Peace Corps/Slovakia as a teacher trainer. Alison holds a BA in French Literature from McGill University, a MEd in TESOL, and a PhD in Education Policy, with a specialization in curriculum theory and development, from the University of Maryland.

Julia Schlam-Salmon is a lecturer and teacher trainer at the David Yellin Academic College of Education in Jerusalem. She also works as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher at the Max Rayne Hand in Hand School for Jewish-Arab Education. Dr. Schlam Salman’s research interests include language education, critical pedagogies and language learning, identity negotiation processes and English language learning in areas of intractable conflict.  Most recently, Dr. Schlam Salman has been working on teacher training initiatives focused on integrating language education methods, 21st century skills and information/communication technology.    

Valerie S. Jakar has just retired from working in the public schools and teachers' colleges system as lecturer (Educational Linguistics), teacher counselor, and academic coordinator for in-service education of teachers of English in the Jerusalem area.  Her special interests are sociolinguistics, multicultural and peace education - and the teaching of English - of one variety or another! - combined with those topics (as in CLIL and CBLI).