Elena Mustakova-Possardt Editor

Elena Mustakova-Possardt, Ed.D., LPC, is an independent scholar and developmental psychologist in clinical practice in Arlington, VA. Former tenured Associate Professor of Psychology at University of West Georgia, she has published, lectured and taught widely, in cultures as diverse as Switzerland, Zimbabwe, United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, and the U.S. She works with diverse forms of oppression worldwide and explores paths to cultivating an emancipated and truly liberated consciousness. Her re-thinking of moral development won the 1995 Dissertation Award of the Henry A. Murray Research Center for the Study of Lives at Harvard University, and the 1998 Outstanding Dissertation Award of the Association for Moral Education. Her book Ontogeny of Critical Consciousness: Study of Morality in a Global Age (Greenwood/Praeger 2003) was also published in Bulgarian (Sofia University Press 2004).  Her cross-cultural community development work with Latino immigrants won the Carter Award for Campus and Community Initiatives. She can be reached at [email protected] or at www.elenamustakova.net.

Mikhail Lyubansky, Ph.D., is a member of the teaching faculty in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where, among other courses, he teaches Psychology of Race and Ethnicity and a graduate-level restorative justice practicum based at a youth detention center. Since 2009, he has been a practitioner of Restorative Circles, a restorative practice developed in Brazil. In addition, Mikhail also has a long-standing interest in race and racial dynamics and writes a blog about race for Psychology Today called Between the Lines. Born in Kiev, Mikhail immigrated to the United States with his family as a child in 1977. He currently lives in Urbana, IL with his wife and two children, ages 5 and 10. He can be reached at [email protected].

Michael Basseches, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychology, Suffolk University, is a life-span developmental and clinical psychologist whose academic and professional work has been devoted to conflict resolution. He has practiced psychotherapy since 1985.  He has published two books, Dialectical Thinking and Adult Development (Ablex, 1984), and (with Mascolo) Psychotherapy as a Developmental Process (Routledge, 2010). Michael has also taught on the faculties of Swarthmore College, Cornell University and Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. Born in New York City, he is married to Angela Brandão, and has two sons, Joshua and Benjamin Basseches. He can be reached at [email protected].

Julie Oxenberg, Ph.D.,MALD, is a clinical psychologist with a master’s degree in International Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.  She is co-founder of Spiritual Psychology Associates, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for Psychotherapy and Spirituality at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (MSPP). Founding member of the Psychology of Peace Initiative at MSPP, she has served on the New England and National Advisory Boards of the Tikkun Community associated with Tikkun Magazine. Julie is involved in several intercultural dialogue and conflict transformation procedures, including Beyond Words, an Israeli-Palestinian organization working with women in the Middle East, One by One, a Berlin-based organization working with dialogue processes between descendants of Holocaust survivors and descendants of Nazis, and the Public Conversations Project in Boston, MA. She can be reached at [email protected].