Staff

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.

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.

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.

Alex is the Chief of Staff and Director of Operations at Beyond Conflict. He received his undergraduate degree in Statistics from the University of Connecticut and his Master's in Economics from Tufts University. In his spare time, Alex enjoys staying up to date on current macroeconomic trends, reading, playing chess, traveling, hiking, and very bad puns.

Born and raised in Tripoli, Lebanon, Bilal Hindi is a Program Associate on the Trauma and Violent Conflict program team at Beyond Conflict. He joined Beyond Conflict in 2021, after graduating from the University of Richmond with a degree in Psychology and Neuroscience. With the TVC team, Bilal assists in the design and scaling of trauma-informed approaches to the prevention of violent extremism and improved mental health support for conflict-affected populations. Previously, Bilal’s research focused on cognition and cognitive flexibility in animal modals. His research on wild raccoons and Long-Evans rats, focused on induced traumatic stress, lead poisoning, efforts-based cognition, and cognitive flexibility. In a research lab with Dr Kelly Lambert, Bilal’s thesis and most recent publication outlined cytoarchitectural characteristics associated with cognitive flexibility in wild-caught raccoons.

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.

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. Full Bio

Jasmine Ramsey is a Program Director supporting initiatives on social identity, democracy, and inclusion. For much of her career, Jasmine has been deeply engaged with domestic and community-based social and reproductive justice projects navigating public safety, criminal justice, and human rights at the intersection of public policy. While pursuing a graduate degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Jasmine led a capstone team of graduate consultants to produce original research on the dynamics of dangerous speech spread online and actualized communal conflict in the Philippines, Nigeria, and Brazil. Jasmine holds an MPA in human rights and technology, media and communications policy from SIPA, and a BA in transnational feminism from the Evergreen State College.