Kawtar El Alaoui, LL.B, PCC is the best-selling author of Unfolding Peace, 9 Leadership Principles to Create Cultures of Well-being, Belonging, and Peace. She is the Founder & CEO of Conscious Togetherness, a coaching and consulting firm through which she delivers her conscious leadership programs to organizations and not-for profits. Kawtar’s courses and consulting services are unique in their adaptability to different cultural contexts, in being trauma-informed, and equity driven. Her work has earned her multiple awards globally. In response to the current crisis in the Middle-East, Kawtar is co-leading an initiative titled How To End War In Two Generations with David Ruben Sauvage to support healing and bring a lasting path to peace between Muslims and Jews. In addition, Kawtar is Faculty, Mentor and Assessor with Leadership That Works India, and on a trainer track with the Canadian Institute for Conflict Resolution where she will be teaching mediation and facilitation.
Sandy Tolan is a professor of journalism at the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and author of two books on the tragedy of Palestine and Israel. Children of the Stone, about one Palestinian’s dream to build a music school in the midst of Israel’s military occupation, provides a history of Gaza since 1948. The book was a finalist for the 2015 Los Angeles Times book prize. Sandy is also author of the international bestseller, The Lemon Tree, an acclaimed history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He runs USC’s Specialized Journalism master’s program, helping to train the next generation of critically-thinking journalists. This spring has been writing and speaking extensively on the Israel-Gaza war, and on the crackdown on free speech at US college campuses.