Our Writers

Margaret Eastman Smith

Margaret Eastman Smith has devoted her life to exploring the nexus between personal growth and social change.

Kalpana Sharma

Kalpana Sharma is an independent journalist and author based in Mumbai. With five decades at Indian Express, Times of India, The Hindu and other publications, she writes columns on media ethics gender issue and urban poverty.

Aishwarya Vardhana

Aishwarya Vardhana is a writer based in San Francisco, with roots in Oregon and South India.

Uditha Devapriya

Uditha Devapriya is an independent researcher, author, columnist, and analyst from Sri Lanka, whose work spans international relations, geopolitics, art and culture, history, anthropology, and politics.

Aranyani Bhargav

Aranyani co-founded IDGC (Indian Dancers for Gaza's Children), a movement that galvanized dancers in India and all over the world to raise over $14000 for Palestinian children affected by the ongoing genocide in the region. She is based in Bangalore.

Bhavani Vaidyanathan

Bhavani Vaidyanathan is a PhD economist and freelance consultant specializing in sustainable food systems. She has worked for more than 25 years in rural development, food security and agri-food systems across India, Bangladesh and South Asia.

Bjørn Ole Austad

Bjørn Ole Austad is Norwegian. He worked with Initiatives of Change for 30 years, sometimes in dialogues between people of different ethnic, cultural and social backgrounds.

Carol Chen

Carol Chen is a Chinese-Canadian interviewer, writer and a student at CUNY School of Journalism.

Che de los Reyes Ferrer

Che de los Reyes-Ferrer is an investigative journalist from Manila based in New York City. She specializes in engagement journalism and helps newsrooms build communities and grow their audience through deep listening and data-informed storytelling.

David Belden

David Belden has led an eclectic life as an activist, science fiction writer, professional carpenter, professor (with a doctorate from Oxford in the sociology of religion), business writer, magazine editor and columnist.

Dick Ruffin

Dick Ruffin is a graduate of Yale and also of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar. After brief service in the U.S. Navy, he worked with Initiatives of Change, an international not-for-profit engaged in peace-building.

Dilip Gupta

Dilip Gupta lives in Paradip, Odisha. A graduate in Commerce from Ravenshaw University, he believes in preserving the values of care, memory and ethical responsibility in everyday life.

Dilip Simeon

Currently teaching at Ashoka University, New Delhi, India, as Visiting Professor, Dilip Simeon has for long commanded respect as a courageous and independent academic and as a historian of labour.

Edgar Galea-Curmi

Edgar Galea-Curmi is a lecturer in social policy and social work at the University of Malta. His main lecturing and research interests include poverty and living standards, supported living, long-term care, and housing affordability.

Edward Peters

Edward Peters worked globally for 50+ years with Initiatives of Change across 50+ countries. He trained youth, edited For A Change magazine, and coordinated democracy programs in Eastern Europe. He now works in web development in Sweden.

Emma Tozer

Emma has worked in communications, nonprofit journalism, and media relations for the past ten years, with a soft spot for social justice organizations and union organizing campaigns.

Ghiwa El Fakhry

Born and raised in the mountains of north of Lebanon, Ghiwa El Fakhry is a peacebuilder, community activist, and environmental advocate whose work bridges dialogue, healing, and social change.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Gopalkrishna Devadas Gandhi (born 22 April 1945) is a former administrator and diplomat who served as the 22nd Governor of West Bengal serving from 2004 to 2009. He is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji).

Hennie De Pous-De Jonge

Hennie de Pous-de Jonge worked with Initiatives of Change in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. She has edited the Dutch IofC website since 1998 and pioneered intercultural dialogue. She authored Reaching for a New World.

Ishtiaq Ahmed

Prof. Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Professor Emeritus at Stockholm University, holds a PhD in Political Science from Stockholm University, where he was a faculty member in the Department of Political Science from 1987 to 2010.

Jehan Perera

Jehan Perera is a founder member and presently Executive Director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka. He is a political analyst and columnist for national newspapers and websites focusing on inter-ethnic reconciliation and peace building.

Johannes Langer

Johannes Langer is a Vienna-based political scientist specializing in dialogue and peace-building. He has worked across Europe, East Africa and South America on peace-building, international cooperation and human rights,

John Bond

John Bond was the Secretary of Australia’s National Sorry Day Committee for nine years. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia and now works in Britain. He is a member of the Balfour Project’s advisory forum.

John Graham

Kenneth Noble

Ken was born in Manchester, England. He graduated in Physics from Imperial College, London and spent his entire working life with the Initiatives of Change movement. Later he was for more than a decade the Secretary of IofC's legal entity in the UK.

Kingsley Moghalu

Kingsley Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, is the CEO of Sogato Strategies, a global strategy and risk advisory firm. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, an M.A. from Tufts University.

Kiran Kumbhar

Letlapa Mphahlele

Born in rural South Africa, Letlapa Mphahlele grew up there during the height of apartheid. Letlapa has experienced life in refugee camp and military camp, life underground, and life in prison.

Litcy Kurisinkal

Litcy Kurisinkal is a political activist and a Human Rights Professional. She is the Policy Chair of Women for Color Coalition (WOCC). She served as the elected Chair of the Local School Council (LSC) in the Chicago Public School system.

Manini Chatterjee

Mary Lean

Since graduating from Oxford University in 1974, Mary Lean has worked with the international charity Initiatives of Change. She is author of five books, including Bread, Bricks and Belief: communities in charge of their future (Kumarian Press, 1995).

Melanie Verwoerd

Michael Nagler

Michael Nagler (Prof. Emeritus at UC Berkeley) is the Founder and President of the Metta Center for Nonviolence and the author of several books including The Third Harmony: Nonviolence and the New Story of Human Nature.

Nathaphob Sungkate

Nathaphob is an independent journalist from Thailand focusing on Migration, Human Trafficking and Indigenous Peoples Reporting.

Pascal Alan Nazareth

Pascal Alan Nazareth is a distinguished Indian diplomat with a notable career spanning over three decades. Nazareth is an advocate of non-violence and peace in international relations, and held diplomatic positions in Japan, Ghana, Egypt, and more.

Philip Boobbyer

Dr. Philip Boobbyer is Reader Emeritus in History at the University of Kent where he taught European, Russian and Cold War history. His works include "Conscience, Dissent and Reform in Soviet Russia" (2005) and "Geography, Money and War" (2021).

Raju Rajagopal

Ramachandra Guha

Ramachandra "Ram" Guha (born 29 April 1958) is an Indian historian, environmentalist, writer and public intellectual whose research interests include social, political, contemporary, environmental and cricket history.

Randy Ruffin

Evelyn “Randy” Ruffin worked for over fifty years with Initiatives of Change. She and her husband Dick hosted a center for the work in the Washington, DC metro area for twenty-seven years.

Richard G. Weeks

Rohit Kumar

Rohit Kumar is an educator, author, and citizen journalist. For over three decades, he has worked with tens of thousands of high school students in schools across India through workshops that challenge bullying and build emotional intelligence.

Salim Rashid

Shereen Siwpersad

Shereen Siwpersad is a communications expert and university lecturer. Since 2020, she fosters dialogue at Initiatives of Change Netherlands, exploring migration, identity and belonging through storytelling and social change.

Simon Galkevich

Simon Galkevich covered sports internationally for a decade before fleeing Russia in 2022. He has traveled to more than 40 countries across five continents. He is a graduate student at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Spencer Brown

Spencer Brown trained as an agricultural scientist in South Australia, got soil under his nails in India, then did research in cell biology in Paris where he enjoyed collaboration with scientists from across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Sunny Mawiong

Syeda Hameed

Dr. Syeda Hameed is a feminist writer and former member of the Planning Commission and of the National Commission for Women in India. She is the Founder Member of the Muslim Women’s Forum and known for her work on women, minorities and peace issues.

T.M. Krishna

T.M. Krishna is a leading Indian musician and a prominent public intellectual.

Uday Dandavate