Patricia Shafer

PATRICIA SHAFER is Senior Fellow for Peace Education at Washington, DC-based Alliance for Peacebuilding; a Rotary Peace Fellow; Rotary Positive Peace Activator; and Executive Director of nonprofit NewGen Peacebuilders. On behalf of NewGen Peacebuilders, Patricia – along with Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding – is a co-implementing partner for the Rotary Zones 33 & 34 signature initiative “Youth & Peace in Action: Engaging Young Community Peacebuilders.” (YPA) This is the largest local peacebuilding initiative in the history of Rotary International. NewGen Peacebuilders was founded in 2014, and has since expanded to provide peace education, training and mentoring for young people in the US, South America, East Africa, Lebanon, and Western Balkans. Patricia was chosen as a Rotary Peace Fellow based on her nonprofit work providing primary and secondary school education to students in South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda. Later, Patricia was nominated by the government of South Sudan for a UNESCO prize for girls’ and women’s literacy. Previously, Patricia held senior positions in change management and communications in two global Fortune 100 companies. She holds an MSc in Consulting and Coaching for Change – a joint-venture of Oxford University, UK, and HEC France; an MBA, Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management; and MA, Journalism from The Ohio State University.