Nike Carstarphen

Nike Carstarphen, is a founding member of the Alliance for Conflict Transformation. She has a PhD form George Mason University's Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Her dissertation research, Shift Happens: Transformations During Small Group Interventions in Protracted Social Conflicts, focused on intergroup relationship building and the power of emotions for conflict resolution and reconciliation. She has an MA in International Affairs from American University, and an MBA from University of Houston-Clear Lake. Nike is an experienced facilitator, trainer, and researcher in conflict and peacebuilding analysis, intervention and evaluation. Her specialties include community building, civil society development, organizational capacity building, and intergroup and intercultural reconciliation and conflict resolution in the U.S. and abroad. She has worked primarily with policy makers, community and NGO leaders, educators, police and youth (including youth gangs). Nike has provided training for hundreds of people from over 30 countries, facilitated several long-term dialogues and problem-solving processes in the US, and has evaluated conflict resolution and reconciliation programs in schools and communities. She has taught conflict resolution courses at American University and George Mason University and has published articles in Negotiation Journal and Teaching and Change, among others. With a team, she facilitated a highly successful community dialogue process between police officers and gang-involved youth designed to build relationships and reduce community violence, which was featured in a special publication, Bridging the Police-Gang Divide, by the U.S. Department of Justice's Community Policing Consortium. Highlights of her work prior to ACT include Project Director for the Police-Youth Dialogue Project in Virginia, community organizer and facilitator in Washington, DC, and Program Manager of the International Peace and Conflict Resolution Program at American University.