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About Us

		Courtney Adams Ghodrat

Courtney was born and raised in Davis, California. During her studies at Earlham College, she served as the convener for the Earlham Volunteer Exchange and headed up the first-ever Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. She majored in German with a minor in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). She then spent two years teaching at an Austrian high school through the Fulbright Scholarship Foundation.

Courtney lived in Vienna from 1998 to 2005. During this time, she worked as a Researcher at an International Executive Search firm active in Central and Eastern Europe. In addition, she lectured at Vienna’s University of Applied Sciences and taught seminars for a variety of international companies. Courtney now lives in Prague, where she works for European Property Development on the Palladium project.

		Christina Limbird

Christina is a psychologist with degrees from Earlham College, the Technical University of Braunschweig, and the Free University of Berlin. She currently serves as the director of Student Support Services and the head school psychologist for the Berlin Brandenburg International School. With a fellowship from the Max Planck Institute for Human development, she completed a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology on the unique challenges facing young immigrant children in German schools in 2006. Christina was awarded the prize for Promising Young Scientists from the Educational Psychology Committee of the German Society for Psychology in 2003.

		Martha Lynn Coon

Martha Lynn graduated from the University of the South in 2000, where she majored in English literature and minored in German. Martha Lynn worked for the Public Defender Service of Washington D.C. and continued her involvement in the legal services sector of Washington as an employee of the Legal Aid Society. Her work in the non-profit sector includes volunteer and intern experiences at the Common Cause National Headquarters in Washington D.C. and The Servant-Leader Development Center. Martha Lynn was selected as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar for 2002-2003 to study Theology at Humboldt University in Berlin and was most recently employed by the American Academy in Berlin, where she worked in a number of capacities. Martha Lynn moved back to the United States in August 2004 to pursue an MFA in Playwriting at the University of Texas in Austin.

		Burcu Culpan Scherr

Burcu was born in Ankara, Turkey and raised in the U.S.A. While in school in Hershey, PA, she volunteered in a variety of service activities for her community. After completing her Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University with a double major in Radio/TV/Film and German in 1998, she received a teaching position in an Austrian high school through the Fulbright Scholarship Foundation.

After a ten-year residency in Vienna, Austria doing business in the Central and Eastern European region, Burcu relocated to Shanghai, China in June 2007. In addition to getting acquainted with life in The Middle Kingdom, she is working for an American marketing firm, PMI Worldwide, as their International Marketing Manager for markets in Europe and Asia.

		Brian Israel

Brian was born and raised in Sonoma, California. During his studies at University of California, San Diego, he directed the International Affairs Group, and worked extensively with the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice and their Youth WorldLink program. As a recipient of the Chris Borton memorial scholarship, he spent a year studying public international law at the University of Bristol in England.

After college, Brian worked for AAA Travel in San Francisco where he led efforts to develop socially responsible tourism. Brian is presently a student at University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall). He recently worked for Justice Kennard at the Supreme Court of California, and is a Research Associate with the Public International Law and Policy Group, providing legal assistance to organizations in Nepal and Liberia.

		Sharon Himsl

An Arkansas native and a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Sharon is a former youth counselor and has been a social justice activist for many years. Her travel in countries showing the tragic scars of war (in Central America, Southeast Asia, the Caucuses, and the Balkans) increased her passion to build a future of peace, particularly through education of the next generation. She serves on several NGO boards such as Sister Cities and the American Association of University Women where she can keep the concept of peacebuilding in all nations “front and center”. She and her husband live in Tyler, Texas.

-- what's new ---Zwischen den Fronten
-Durst nach Frieden
-IFA Approves Youthbridge Projects
-U.S. Awards Grant
-5 Jahre zivik
-Benefit Event in Berlin
-Benefizabend in Berlin
-Croatian President
  Stjepan Mesic
-Generali-Award 2005
-Friedensinitiative
  Judenburg

-- current links ---austrian peace service
-skatepark.org