Charles Dambach

Topics: Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping, Sustainable Peace, Security
Regions: Ethiopia (Specialty)

Chic Dambach's wide-ranging career includes six years as President and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, where he established a network of organizations and professionals to help build sustainable peace and security worldwide. He led an initiative to incorporate the peacebuilding concept into the public policy lexicon, and he helped establish a violence prevention and conflict resolution framework into the U.S. foreign affairs structure. With Harriet Fulbright, he created and produced the first Global Symposium of Peaceful Nations. Previously, he restructured and revitalized the National Peace Corps Association and developed innovative programs to engage returned Volunteers and staff in vital projects at home and worldwide. He helped Peter Yarrow build Operation Respect's anti-bullying initiatives, and he served as Chief of Staff for Congressman John Garamendi. His career began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia.

His memoir, Exhaust the Limits, the Life and Times of a Global Peacebuilder, has received rave reviews. He also co-wrote Structures and Practices of Nonprofit Boards and The Business Professional's Guide to Nonprofit Board Service, both published by BoardSource where he was a senior governance consultant. His essays have appeared in Foreign Service Journal, Social Education, Board Member, WorldView, Olympian, and the US Olympic Committee's book Seoul Calgary 1998. He has been featured in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Professional Speaker and several other books and magazines. Chic is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow with the Council of Independent Colleges, and he was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the Worthington (Ohio) Schools; Distinguished Alumnus of the Oklahoma State University College of Arts and Sciences, and he received the International Platform Association's Global Coalition Peace Award.

Congressman Garamendi and Chic created a team of returned Peace Corps Volunteers to help the leaders of Eritrea and Ethiopia end their border war. The team worked directly with Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki, and they were officially recognized for "creating the momentum and the spirit which made this historic achievement (the peace agreement) possible." Chic and the Congressman engaged in a similar initiative in the Congo, helping President Joseph Kabila and the leaders of major rebel groups end hostilities and form a coalition government leading to elections.

Chic has been a top rated speaker at the International Platform Association, and he gave the graduation address at the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. He has been a featured speaker at US Department of State sponsored National and Regional Town Meetings, and he has lectured at Harvard University Law School, the College of William and Mary, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Principia College, and many other institutions, and he was a keynote speaker for the Student Peace Alliance and the Congress of Student Government Associations. He is also an adjunct professor at both the Elliott School at George Washington University and the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

He serves on the governing boards of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, Institute for Economics and Peace, International Peace and Security Institute, and Institute for Horn of Africa Studies, as well as Future Symphony and the CityLit Project in Baltimore. He serves on the advisory boards of the United Nations Association-NCA, Operation Respect, People's Peace Fund (Israel and Palestine) and the Peace Alliance. He was board chair of the Coalition for American Leadership Abroad for over a decade, and he served as chair of the US Canoe and Kayak Team and the Pan American Canoe Council, as well as membership on the Racing Committee (making rules for Olympic and world championship competition) of the International Canoe Federation.

Chic has a BA degree in speech/communications from Oklahoma State University where he played varsity football, was on the varsity debate team, active in student government, and was named the outstanding student of the year by the student newspaper. He also has an MBA degree from Wake Forest University. He was an award-winning marathon runner and national champion kayak racer, and he served as an official in the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games. He lives with his wife Kay near Annapolis, Maryland, and he is the father of three grown boys.

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Charles-F.-Dambach/e/B001K8I61G