Staff Redo

Joumana Altallal is the Program Lead on the Trauma and Violent Conflict team. She is a researcher, writer, and artist focused on issues of spectatorship and the commodification of violence in post-2003 Iraq. She enjoys survey design, research ethics, developing transformative evaluation models, and supporting local research capacity. Joumana holds a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, where she received a fellowship to conduct qualitative research in Najaf for her thesis on gender-based violence following the American invasion of Iraq. She is currently working on her first poetry collection. Joumana is fluent in Arabic and Spanish.

As the International Peacebuilding Program Director, Karen oversees the strategy and development of peacebuilding programs. For most of her career, Karen worked in entrenched violent conflict and post-conflict reconstruction contexts, specifically in Israel/OPT, Cambodia, Nepal, US, Ireland/Northern Ireland and South Sudan. Through her role as a civilian peacekeeper at the UN peacekeeping missions in Nepal and South Sudan, she partnered with local governments to create socially-inclusive policies and structures, and led teams to implement early warning detection systems. In Nepal and Cambodia, she conducted research and developed projects focused on addressing the needs of socially-excluded and vulnerable groups in the population. She has also led the largest mediation provider in the US and served as the Political Advisor on the Middle East Peace Process and Human Rights for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Karen is a Rotary World Peace Scholar and the runner-up winner of the FCO’s Sir Nick Brewn Policy Excellence Award in 2015.

Lily Winston Grob graduated Cum Laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in Cognitive Neuroscience and Evolutionary Psychology. While her interests are broad, she is particularly fascinated with how social concepts such as stigma, political identity, and meta-perceptions are implicated in individual biology, psychology, and group contexts. She hopes ultimately to use a bio-psycho-social lens to promote peace and support marginalized communities in the U.S. and abroad. In her spare time, Lily conducts research on the intersection of film studies and social movements.

Michael Niconchuk is the Program Director for Trauma & Violent Conflict at Beyond Conflict. Based in Amman, Jordan, Mike oversees Beyond Conflict’s research, intervention design, and policy work that address the role of chronic stress and trauma in the genesis and escalation of violent conflict, and the role of trauma healing in conflict resolution efforts. Specifically, Mike and the TVC team build trauma-informed solutions to address issues such as violent extremism prevention, combatant reintegration, refugee integration, and community violence. Mike is the author of several innovative scientific publications on issues of neuroscience, violent extremism and intergroup conflict, and is the author of the Field Guide for Barefoot Psychology, a psychoeducational and trauma recovery program for communities affected by trauma and adversity. Mike is a former Fulbright Scholar and holds degrees from Tufts University and University College London. Prior to joining Beyond Conflict, Mike worked as an independent neuroscience consultant for international NGOs, as the Emergency Response Coordinator for the Syria crisis response for Questscope, and in community development programs with reintegrated combatants in Guatemala. Mike is fluent in Spanish and Arabic.

Opeyemi Adeojo is the Nigeria Program Lead at Beyond Conflict where he leads on the development of research-based behavioral-science informed peacebuilding programs in Nigeria. He previously worked as a research manager for Busara Center for Behavioral Economics in Nigeria in which he managed research portfolios and initiatives across a number of sectors. He has professional experience working with the Gates foundation and USAID funded programs. Opeyemi has consulted with organizations and academics to design, run research studies to support development programs in Nigeria. He has experience conducting randomized impact evaluations and has worked in the private and nonprofit sectors over the last seven years. He is passionate about community-driven development, and innovations that promote a peaceful and non-violent society. He holds an MSc in Sociology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and a BSc in Sociology from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

Tim Phillips is the founder and CEO of Beyond Conflict. Using the unique approach of shared experience, Tim has helped catalyze the peace and reconciliation processes in several nations, including Northern Ireland, El Salvador, and South Africa. He has advised the United Nations, the U.S Department of State, and the Council of Europe and has been a frequent speaker in national and international forums, including the Council on Foreign Relations and the U.S Congress. He also helped launch and serves on the Advisory Committee of the Club of Madrid, a forum for over 90 former democratic heads of state and government.

As Research Director, Dr. Vivian Khedari DePierro provides and coordinates strategic support to ensure the scientific rigor with which Beyond Conflict applies the findings and methods of brain and behavioral science. A Clinical Psychologist by training, she draws from her expertise on the impact of psychological trauma and chronic stress to advise the team on best practices for trauma-informed and culturally sensitive research and intervention design. In 2021, her research on the impact of Beyond Conflict’s Field Guide for Barefoot Psychology received an award from the American Psychological Association’s Committee on International Relations in Psychology due to its innovative design and scientific excellence. Dr. Khedari holds degrees from The New School for Social Research (NY) and Universidad Católica Andres Bello (Caracas, Venezuela). Based in New York, Vivian also has a small psychotherapy private practice and frequently lectures psychiatry residents on topics related to trauma and global mental health.

Bill Casebeer advises teams to develop novel science and technology to aid in conflict prevention and resolution. Most recently, Bill served as Senior Research Area Manager in human systems and autonomy for Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Laboratories. In that role, he led science and technology development to improve human performance, human-machine teaming, and training. His research interests include the intersections of cognitive science and national security policy, neuroethics, political violence, philosophy of mind, and human performance. Bill is a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and former DARPA program manager.

As Director of Finance at Beyond Conflict, Yadira oversees the organization’s financial management and risk management. She leads the financial planning and analysis, including accounting, forecasting, budgeting, and cash flow management. Yadira has over 15 years of experience, serving in a wide range of nonprofit finance leadership and management positions in various nonprofit fields such as immigrant rights, fiscal sponsorship, affordable housing, and environmental justice. Yadira is constantly challenging herself to find ways to translate, narrate and socialize finance as a tool across an organization. In addition to her finance career, she has served on multiple boards of directors for various nonprofit organizations. Yadira attended UC Davis, receiving a BA with a double-major in Economics and International Relations. She also received a certificate of Accounting from UCLA extension. A native of Oaxaca, Mexico, Yadira currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. When she is not busy working on an Excel document, she enjoys spending time with her two children and husband.