Staff of the Center for Global Peace

Abdul Aziz Said, Director

Abdul Aziz Said is the senior ranking professor at American University and the first occupant of the Mohammed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace. He founded the university-wide Center for Global Peace, which undertakes a range of activities, both on and off campus, aimed at advancing our understanding of world peace. He founded and serves as director of the International Peace and Conflict Resolution Division, in the School of International Service, which offers a Master of Arts degree and four dual or joint degree options, as well as concentrations at the Doctoral and Undergraduate levels. He is responsible for developing several educational, research, and outreach programs such as the Center for Cooperative Global Development, Project PEN (Providing for Educational Needs), the Washington Semester in International Peace and Conflict Resolution, the Summer Institute for Teachers: Education for Global Citizenship, the Center for Mediterranean Studies, and the Community for Social Change and Political Participation in the Middle East and Africa.

He is a frequent lecturer and participant in national and international peace conferences and dialogues and is deeply involved with a number of professional associations and Service Academies. He has lectured in more than one hundred universities in the United States and all over the world. His past and current public service includes consulting the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Defense, the United Nations and the White House Committee on the Islamic World. He has served as the president of the regional chapter for the International Studies Association and as moderator for the Ecumenical Council of Washington. He advises and serves on the Board of Directors for various international non-governmental organizations including Search for Common Ground, Global Education Associates, the National Peace Foundation, PAX International, International Youth Advocate Program, The Omega Institute, Nonviolence International, and Global Alliance for Transnational Education, International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, and the Jones International University-University of the Web. He also serves on the editorial boards of Human Rights Quarterly and Peace Review.

Dr. Said has written, co-authored and edited more than fifteen books including Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam: Precept and Practice, Concepts of International Politics in Global Perspective 4th Edition, Human Rights and World Order, Ethnicity in an International Context, The New Sovereigns: Multinational Corporations as World Powers, Theory of International Relations: The Crisis of Relevance, Ethnicity in an International Contexts, Ethnicity and U.S. Foreign Policy and articles on various aspects of world politics. Professor Said’s deep commitment to nonviolence, human rights, political pluralism, cultural diversity, and ecological balance has furthered the expansion of Peace and Conflict Resolution as a field of study throughout the world.

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Ms. Betty J. Sitka, Associate Director

Ms. Sitka has served as the Associate Director for the American University Center for Global Peace (AU-CGP) since its founding in 1996. She has primary responsibility for the Center’s project and program development and implementation, including fiscal management and external relations. Under her management, AU-CGP’s ten year history has produced 12 international conferences, 8 edited volumes in print (and 2 in the pipeline), a refereed journal, 3 endowed activities, 4 government grants, and total $7.5 million raised.  She is co-editor, with Nathan C. Funk, of Ameen Rihani: Bridging East and West.  Prior to this position, Ms. Sitka was the Program Coordinator for the International Peace and Conflict Resolution Program at American University, guiding it from a concentration to a Master’s degree program. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Denison University and a Master of Arts Degree in International Politics from American University. Prior to relocating to Washington, DC in 1991, Ms. Sitka served as founding director of Clark-Metro Development Corporation, a community-based nonprofit organization dedicated to commercial revitalization and development of a multiethnic community in the inner-city of Cleveland, Ohio, that completed $5 million in reconstruction projects during her tenure.