Professor David Weissbrodt (Co-Director) weiss001@tc.umn.edu

Professor David Weissbrodt attended Columbia University and the London School of Economics. He received his J.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall), where he was Note and Comment Editor of the California Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. After graduation, he clerked for Justice Mathew O. Tobriner of the California Supreme Court and practiced law with Covington Burling. He joined the University of Minnesota Law School faculty in 1975 and has been a visiting professor at the Universite Jean Moulin in Lyon, France. Since joining the law faculty, he has written several books and numerous articles on international human rights law, immigration law, and other subjects. He is co-author of International Human Rights: Law, Policy, and Process (3d ed. 2001).

Professor Weissbrodt's Law School Biography Page. Biogragraphy also in traditional and modern Chinese.

Kristi Rudelius-Palmer (Co-Director) krp@umn.edu

Kristi Rudelius-Palmer is a human rights educator, activist, and idealist. Kristi has been involved in the field of Human Rights Education (HRE) since 1986 in various capacities. She founded a campus Amnesty International group, facilitated prejudice reduction workshops for teachers, taught decision groups and parenting classes for fathers in prison and for mothers on the outside, and developed a self-esteem class for young children with parents in prison. Kristi edited the first report for Article 19, a freedom of expression organization, in London and assisted economically disadvantaged individuals obtain legal assistance with the Minnesota Justice Foundation for two years. In 1989, Kristi became a Co-Director of the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota. She organized three community-wide HRE series from 1989 to 1992, including a mock trial of Christopher Columbus, which was carried in newspapers throughout the world. In 1997, Kristi was a founding member of Human Rights USA and creator of the national Human Rights Resource Center and Web Site, which services the nation with resources and training for building a human rights movement in this country. Kristi directs the publishing of The Human Rights Education Series, produced by the Human Rights Resource Center with diverse organizational partners.

Patrick graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in Global Studies and minors in French and History in May 2005. His responsibilites at the Center include maintaining the online events calendar and field opportunities page, responding to inquiries, drafting and editing documents, co-coordinating the Human Rights Center Film Series, helping to maintain the Resource Center, and French-English document translation. His interests include politics, music, reading, and writing.

Natela Jordan jorda274@umn.edu

Natela Jordan has worked in the field of education since 1999. As Education Coordinator with the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) in Uzbekistan, she coordinated projects on interactive student-centered methodology, and worked with teachers and school administrators to make this methodology a part of schools’ culture. Natela was a local liaison for such international education programs as Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking, Street Law, and National Council on Economic Education projects. Inspired by the human rights aspect of her work, she graduated from the Central European University with an MA degree in Human Rights. She organized international human rights advocacy conferences and coordinated other international human rights education events in Budapest, Hungary. In 2004 she worked with Freedom House as a human rights trainer. In this capacity she provided training and advice to Uzbek human rights advocates on local and international human rights documents. Natela joined the Human Rights Resource Center in May 2006, and now works as Education Coordinator for This is My Home.

Lucy Arimond hrfellow@umn.edu

Lucy is the Human Rights Center’s Director of Fellowship Programs. She is also an alumna of the University of Minnesota Law School. Lucy has extensive experience in adult education, pastoral ministry, advocacy and human services, and has worked with people from many walks of life. Lucy has served as staff attorney for St. Joseph's House, a crisis shelter for women and children in Minneapolis. She also helped to found Loaves and Fishes Too, a Twin Cities organization that feeds the homeless and needy. During her years as coordinator of the Dorothy Day Center site of that program, Lucy directed day-to-day operations, oversaw the recruiting and training of some 1,500 volunteers, and engaged in fundraising and public speaking. Most recently, Lucy spent ten years as the director of adult and sacramental formation at Nativity of Mary Catholic Church in Bloomington, having previously served as an adult educator and pastoral minister in other parishes, as well as an adjunct faculty member in the theology department at the University of St. Thomas.

Lauren P. Merritt humanrts@umn.edu

Lauren is the Human Rights Center’s Office Administrator. She brings over a decade of experience in project and office management in diverse fields, such as community development, health, sales, and real estate. Previously, Lauren worked as a Community Development Specialist with the Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission in Iowa, administering Community Development Block Grants and managing a FEMA Flood Recovery Project for 37 properties. She coordinated the efforts of multiple government agencies, including the USDA, the Iowa Department of Homeland Security, and other local government agencies. Lauren also brings extensive experience in customer service, having served as a Service Representative with Textron Fastening Systems and a Commercial Real Estate Project Manager with the J. Donegan Company.

Birhanemeskel Abebe Segni

Birhanemeskel received his LL.B. degree in law from Addis Ababa University School of Law in Ethiopia. After graduation, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice which led to his appointment as High Court Judge. As High Court Judge, he served on civil, criminal, and labor benches. He later joined the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as legal adviser on international law. In that capacity, he represented the Ethiopian Government at various multilateral and bilateral forums including the Organization of African Unity (OAU, now African Union (AU)) and the United Nations (UN). From 2001 to 2006, he has served as legal adviser at the Permanent Mission of Ethiopia to the United Nations Headquarters in New York covering the work of the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council as well as various regional bodies such as the African Union (AU) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Birhanemeskel has been a Research Fellow at the Human Rights Center of University of Minnesota Law School since October 2006. He is working on Human Rights Center’s online Research Library by focusing on human rights country situations in Africa.

Rebecca Janke

Rebecca Janke attended Iowa State University and Xavier University where she received her M.Ed. She is a peace education consultant, trainer and artist-in-resident as well as the co-founder and Executive Director of Growing Communities for Peace. She helped implement the Montessori Magnet Program in the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Forest Lake, MN Public Schools and founded and directed a private Montessori School in Hudson, Wisconsin. She is a columnist for the Public School Montessorian and is the co-author of The Compassionate Rebel: Energized by Anger, Motivated by Love, Chicken Soup of the Soul: Stories for a Better World and Peacemaker's A,B,C's: A Conflict Resolution Guide for Young Children Using the Peace Table, which is now used in over 6,000 locations worldwide.

Rebecca's current focus involves a collaborative relationship with the Human Rights Resource Center to do community outreach, development, and research and make available human rights and peace education tools and resources available for PreK-College educators, students, parents, community service providers and community organizers at www.humanrightsandpeacestores.org.

She serves on the Executive Committee for the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers and is the Minnesota Coordinator for the Worldwide Season of Nonviolence.

Leah Marks hrlib@umn.edu

Leah Marks joined the Human Rights Center staff team in March 2004. She is the Web Coordinator of the Human Rights Library, maintaining the English, Spanish, French versions of the Library.

Sai Ram Kuchibhatla kuchi008@umn.edu

Khoi Nguyen nguye725@umn.edu