meet our team: Iper's board of directors

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Nomfundo Walaza  is a clinical psychologist who has worked as an activist in the human rights field for more than three decades. She served as the CEO of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre (DTPC) for 7 years. She also served for 11 years as the Executive Director of the Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture in Cape Town. In this capacity, Nomfundo focused primarily on the empowerment and the healing of victims of torture, trauma and violence, many of whom suffered severely at the hands of the Apartheid regime in South Africa. She also served the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa in multiple roles. 

Since leaving the DTPC, Nomfundo Walaza has been deeply involved in mediation, conflict transformation, dialogue facilitation, peacebuilding and assisting academic institutions with engaging in difficult conversation around issues of transformation and decolonization – conversations that were sparked by students protest of 2015-2017.  

Nomfundo co-founded the Unyoke Foundation with Chris Spies in 2017. She co-facilitates unyoke reflective retreats for international peace practitioners. She is dedicated to finding MikAfrican continent. Nomfundo has a keen interest in exploring African Indigenous Knowledge systems as they pertain to peacebuilding, mediation, conflict transformation and understanding mental health. She firmly believes that intergenerational accompaniment and support of local practitioners is crucial in addressing Africa’s intractable conflicts.

Darren Kew, Ph.D. is the newly appointed Dean of the Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego. Darren holds a Ph.D. from Tufts University and has a wealth of experience and expertise in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and international relations. He is a professor and former Chair of the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance, and Executive Director of the Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Darren has advised democracy and peace initiatives to the United Nations, USAID, US State Department, and several NGOs, including the Carter Center and the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Interfaith Mediation Centre in Kaduna, Nigeria. Professor Kew's work focuses on the relationship between conflict resolution methods and democratic development in Africa, particularly in Nigeria. His research interests include civil society, international security, culture, religion, and nation-building. He also recently been doing comparative research in Northern Ireland on a Fulbright award at Queens University, Belfast. Professor Kew tweets – or whatever it is called on X – at @DarrenKew. 

Father Aelred (Gerard) Magee was appointed superior of Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey, Portglenone, on the Solemnity of the Founders of Cîteaux, 26th January 2024. Previously, Fr Aelred has acted as Sub-Prior and Vocations Promoter for the community, initiating, amongst other projects, an online community of prayer for which he has written a substantial number of articles. Dom Aelred was born in 1967 in Belfast and studied at Queen’s University Belfast and the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, where he specialised in Canon Law. He was ordained a priest in 1993 and made his Solemn Profession as a monk in 2010. His initial training as a musician saw him work as Head of Music at St Malachy’s College, Belfast, and Orchestra Manager of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland.  He also served for a time as Chaplain at Queen’s University Belfast.  There is a long and quiet history of the monastery’s role in peace-making that dates back several decades. Dom Aelred is pictured with his dog, Jack, in the grounds of Bethlehem Abbey.

From the early days of the Troubles in the 70s Felicity McCartney was a community worker with the Centre for Neighbourhood Development when it was based in Frederick Street Meeting’s Institute building where we will meet on 19th. The building - and the Quakers in Belfast - have a long history of community work and activism in which Felicity played - and plays - a key part in recent times. In August 1969, women and children whose homes in North and West Belfast had been firebombed, sheltered in the Meeting House. This was the first of a multi-level response by Quakers, in Belfast and throughout Ireland, during the Troubles. The web of connections and practical service that had been developed during the Famine, and the level of trust built up at that time, was a foundation for the response to a different crisis, a century later. Felicity has worked for 14 years with Community Foundation for Northern Ireland in various roles including as Programme Manager for EU Peace II which included the measure for ex-prisoners and the measure for victims of the Troubles. In that role she developed a deep knowledge of both former combatant issues and the issues facing victims of the Troubles. Felicity has also served on  the committee of Quaker House Belfast including 3 years as chair, where she dealt with a wide range of peace and justice issues, working alongside the Quaker Service whose pioneering work in the prisons since the early days of internment is without parallel. By now, Felicity’s knowledge of and interest in paramilitary groups is well established.  Felicity is co-editor of Coming from the Silence: Quaker Peacebuilding Initiatives in Northern Ireland 1969-2005 (Sessions of York, 2009).

Roger Mac Ginty  is a Professor in the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University. Roger works on peace and conflict, particularly on the intersection between top-down and bottom-up approaches to peacemaking. He is interested in everyday peace and the different ways in which this might be captured. He co-directs the Everyday Peace Indicators project (with Pamina Firchow) and edits the Taylor and Francis journal Peacebuilding (with Oliver Richmond). He also edits the "Rethinking Political Violence" book series. Roger has conducted extensive fieldwork and his research has been funded by the EU, ESRC and Carnegie Corporation of New York and others. His latest book, Everyday Peace: How so-called ordinary people can disrupt violent conflict (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2021) won the 2020-2022 Ernst-Otto Czempiel Award for best book on peace 2020-2022.  

Mike Nesbitt M.A. (Cantab) D.B.A. began his distinguished broadcasting career before he left university. After graduating from Jesus College Cambridge, he returned to study at Queen's University Belfast while reporting for BBC NI Sports at the weekends. He is a former Irish schools international athlete (400m Hurdles, 4 x 400 relay) and keen golfer. As a broadcaster, from the early 1980s Mike presented sport, news, current affairs, religion, lifestyle and even light entertainment programmes.His credits cover both the BBC and ITV at local and national level, as well as BBC Radio Ulster. In January 2008, the then First Minister (Dr Ian Paisley) and deputy First Minister (Martin McGuinness) appointed Mike as a Commissioner for Victims and Survivors of the Troubles. In February 2010, Mike decided to enter politics, seeking to become the next Member of Parliament for Strangford. He has been elected four times as the Member of the Local Assembly for Strangford, first in 2011. He was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 2012-2017, has chaired Assembly Committees and served on the Policing Board of Northern Ireland. He acted as Chief Negotiator for his party in the Haas, O’Sullivan and Stormont House talks. He was a Commissioner for Victims & Survivors and a founding member of the John and Pat Hume Foundation. Before entering politics Mike was a broadcast journalist and news anchor for Ulster Television and BBC Northern Ireland and accumulated extensive television broadcast experience. He is currently the Minister for Health in the Northern Ireland Executive.