Saint Martin’s names international peace-builder and educator Rev.
Headley as Commencement speaker for May 8
April 22, 2010
Lacey, Washington — Reverend William R. Headley,
CSSp, Ph.D., founding dean of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies
at the University of San Diego, will be the commencement speaker at
Saint Martin’s University on Saturday, May 8, at 2:00 p.m. in the Hal
and Inge Marcus Pavilion. Fr. Headley will also receive an honorary
degree in humane letters from the University.
“It is our privilege to bestow an honorary degree
upon Rev. William Headley,” says University president Roy Heynderickx.
““Fr. Headley has led a lifetime of pursuing issues and topics
surrounding peace and justice, both in his education and in actual work
experience.”
Internationally recognized as a respected
peace-builder, practitioner, and educator, Fr. Headley has a vast career
that spans over thirty years and over eighty countries. He has served as
a lecturer, trainer, consultant, and participant in numerous conferences
and symposia throughout North America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. With a
great passion and a deep sense of vocation, he has dedicated many years
of his life for advancing nonviolence, conflict resolution, and
peacebuilding.
Headley was the first president of the Africa Faith
and Justice Network/USA and was instrumental in starting the Washington
office on Haiti. In 1986, he conducted a study of Nairobi, Kenya’s
refugees for Jesuit Refugee Services. Called to Generalate
administration for the Spiritans in 1987, Headley started the
community’s first International Justice and Peace Office in Rome, Italy,
where he was director for five years.
In 1993, Headley established a graduate program in
Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies at Duquesne University in
Pittsburgh. He was named deputy executive director of policy and
strategic issues of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in 2000. Early in
2003, he was appointed counselor to the CRS president with major
responsibility for the agency’s peace work. He had the privilege of
playing a facilitating role in establishing the Catholic Peacebuilding
Network when it was formed in 2004. As a peace-builder, he has assisted
conferences of bishops in Ghana, Nigeria, the Balkans, Sudan, Haiti,
Burundi, and Myanmar (Burma). In 2007, he was appointed founding dean of
the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego.
Headley holds a doctorate in sociology from New York
University, as well as advanced degrees in counseling and theology. He
has done postdoctoral work at Harvard Divinity School, George Mason
University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and the
Gandhi Peace Institute in New Delhi. In 2009, he received an Honorary
Doctorate in Ministry from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago,
the largest Roman Catholic graduate school of theology and ministry in
the United States.
Says Heynderickx. “Fr. Headley’s work with Catholic
Relief Services in Washington, D.C., his work at other institutions of
higher education, and now as founding Dean of the School of Peace
Studies, exemplify his role in focusing the world on resolving
international conflict and promoting the concept of peace as human
development.”
Saint Martin’s will confer 341 bachelor’s degrees
and 80 master’s degrees at its May 8th ceremony.
For more information on this event visit the Saint
Martin’s University Commencement website at
www.stmartin.edu/commencement2010.
Saint Martin’s University is an independent
four-year, Catholic, coeducational university located on a 380-acre
wooded campus in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic
Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 18 Benedictine
colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only
one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares
students for successful lives through its 21 majors and six graduate
programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education and engineering.
Saint Martin’s welcomes 1,250 students from many ethnic and religious
backgrounds to its main campus, and 650 more to its extension campuses
located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Everett College, Centralia College,
and Tacoma Community College.
For additional information:
Genevieve Canceko Chan
Director of communications & marketing
Saint Martin’s University
360-438-4332
gchan@stmartin.edu
www.stmartin.edu