Gregory Khalil, President & Co-founder. From 2004 to 2008, Greg served as a legal advisor with the Negotiations Support Unit (NSU) in Ramallah, the West Bank, an international organization that provides legal, policy, and communications support to the Palestinian leadership on peace negotiations with Israel. While at the NSU, he liaised with hundreds of top Western diplomats and politicians regarding the conflict. He was also an official member of the Palestinian negotiating team at the Annapolis conference hosted by President Bush in November 2007.
Although Greg was born and raised in San Diego, California, much of his extended family still lives in Beit Sahour, a predominately Palestinian Christian town near Bethlehem. He has lectured widely on the region--including at a special session of the United Nations commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation--and has written on the conflict in various publications such as The Review of Faith & International Affairs and The New York Times. Greg is a member of the State Bar of California and is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles and Yale Law School.
Todd Deatherage, Executive Director & Co-founder. Prior to joining the Kairos Project, Todd spent 16 years in senior positions in the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government. From 2005 to 2009, Todd was Chief of Staff in the Secretary of State’s Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department, where he covered Israeli-Palestinian issues. He also spent two years as Senior Advisor in the Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, where he specialized in religious freedom in the Middle East.
Todd spent a decade working in the U.S. Congress, including six years as Chief of Staff to Senator Tim Hutchinson. He is a native Arkansan and a graduate of the University of Arkansas. He began his career as an educator. He and his wife Judith have four children--Abigail, Zachary, William, and Anna--and live in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Rich Stazinski, Senior Advisor & Director of Project Engage. Prior to joining the Kairos Project, Rich was a consultant for a number of nonprofits, seeking to strengthen constituent relations and promote activism among their supporters. He has also served in outreach and advocacy leadership positions with the Save Darfur Coalition, Citizens for Global Solutions, and the Stanley Foundation. From 2001 to 2002, he was the Program Director for the Human Resources Investment Council for the State of Indiana.
Rich is a native of Northwest Indiana. He began his professional career as a campaign manager for Representative Peter J. Visclosky. He has a Master in Public Affairs from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs and currently lives in Chicago.
Daniel Seidemann, Senior Advisor, Kairos Jerusalem Initiative. Daniel is also a practicing attorney in Jerusalem and a partner in a firm specializing in commercial law. Since 1991, Daniel has specialized in legal and public issues in East Jerusalem, particularly representing Israeli and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem before the statutory Planning Boards regarding development issues. Key cases have included the takeover of properties in Silwan, the legality of the Har Homa expropriation and town plan, the Ras el Amud town plan, the closing of the Orient House, administrative demolition orders, and denial of free education in East Jerusalem. He has argued more than 20 Jerusalem-related cases before the Israeli Supreme Court. Since 1994, he has participated in many of the Track II talks on Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians, and in 2000 and 2001 he served as a member of a committee of experts commissioned by the Prime Minister Barak"s office to generate sustainable arrangements geared to implement the emerging political understandings with the Palestinians Daniel is a native of Syracuse, New York, and a graduate of Cornell University. He immigrated to Israel in 1973, where he has lived since. A retired Reserve Major in the Israeli Defense Forces, he received a degree in Law from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is married and has three daughters.
Julie Schumacher Cohen, Senior Advisor. For the past eight years she has worked for a variety of non-profit organizations on Middle East issues, focusing on advocacy, government relations and ecumenical and interfaith organizing. Most recently, she was Deputy Director of Churches for Middle East Peace, a coalition of twenty-three national church bodies based in Washington, DC. Previously, she directed programs at a cross-cultural exchange NGO in New York City, working with Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders to organize a series of public dialogue events following 9/11. Julie began her career in New York City as a Community Outreach/Public Policy Associate for Citizens Union Foundation, a good governance civic organization. She has also served for two years as a facilitator for Soliya, an organization that connects students from the US and the Middle East.
Julie is a graduate of Gordon College. The daughter of a Jewish, Israeli convert to Christianity, she has extended family residing in Tel Aviv. She currently lives in Scranton, PA with her husband Will and their two children, Ella and Matthew, and is active in city revitalization efforts.
Ginger Doyel Artist-in-residence. Ginger received a B.A. in leadership studies from the University of Richmond in 2001. In 2002, she returned to her hometown, Annapolis, Maryland, where she became an author and artist. She has written Annapolis Vignettes; Gone to Market: The Annapolis Market House, 1698-2005; The Annapolitan Club: A Tradition of Hospitality since 1897; and Over the Bridge: A History of Eastport at Annapolis. She has also penned an award-winning history column for The Capital newspaper, contributed frequently to several magazines, and illustrated multiple children’s books. In summer 2009, Ginger moved to Washington, DC, in order to work on a book sponsored by the Kairos Project. She will be in Israel and Palestine illustrating and gathering background information for this publication through early 2010. Ginger can be reached via www.gingerdoyel.com.
Julie DeMareo, Research Associate. Concurrently, Julie is a senior undergraduate student at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. Julie is an International Affairs major with a concentration in Conflict & Security and a Religion minor. She studied abroad in Madrid, Spain during her spring 2009 semester. In addition to working for GW Housing Programs, she has interned for the Institute for Global Engagement, Soroptimist International of the Americas, and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.
Julie is a native of Philadelphia and enjoys traveling.
Paul Karolyi, Research Associate. Paul is a sophomore undergraduate student at The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. He is an International Affairs major with a concentration in Middle Eastern Studies and a History minor. He worked for the Mid-Ohio Food Bank and looks forward to a career in activism.
Paul is a native of Columbus, Ohio
Jack Spencer, Research Associate. Jack is a senior undergraduate student at the George Washington University Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. Jack is a Political Science and Middle East Studies major with a minor in Semitic Languages and a concentration in Arabic. He has spent time in the Middle East studying Arabic and teaching English. He is on the Dean’s List and has been on the executive board of several different campus organizations.
Jack is a native of Princeton, New Jersey.
