SPEAKERS:
PROFESSOR HODA MAHMOUDI
Hoda Mahmoudi has held The Bahá’í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland, College Park since 2012. As director of this endowed academic program, Professor Mahmoudi collaborates with a wide range of scholars, researchers, and practitioners to advance interdisciplinary analysis and open discourse on global peace. Before joining the University of Maryland faculty, Professor Mahmoudi served as the coordinator of the Research Department at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel. Prior to that, Dr. Mahmoudi was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northeastern Illinois University, where she was also a faculty member in the Department of Sociology. Professor Mahmoudi is co-editor of Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Dignity and Human Rights (Emerald, 2019) and of Children and Globalization; Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Routledge, 2019). Professor Mahmoudi is also co-author of A World Without War (Bahá’í Publishing, 2020), co-editor of The Changing Ethos of Human Rights (Elgar, 2021), and most recently co-editor of Fundamental Challenges to Peace and Security: The Future of Humanity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).
PROFESSOR JENNY ROE
Education: School of the Built Environment, Heriot Watt University UK, PhD; University of Greenwich UK, PG Diploma in Landscape Architecture; University of Nottingham UK, BA (Joint Hons) English and American Studies
Jenny Roe is Professor and Director of the Center for Design & Health in the School of Architecture, University of Virginia. An environmental psychologist and former head of Landscape Architecture for an international architectural practice, she writes, lectures, and consults for a wide range of academic and public audiences on human health-centered design for the built environment. She is an expert in restorative environments that support mental health including an important role for public parks and urban green space. Her book on this subject, Restorative Cities: Urban Design for Mental Health and Wellbeing (Roe and McCay, 2021) explores a new way of designing cities that puts mental health at the forefront. A new co-edited book continues this theme by exploring ‘Infrastructure, Wellbeing and the Measurement of Happiness’ (Mahmoudi, Roe & Seaman, Routledge, 2022)
Roe has won numerous awards and research grants exploring a rich variety of architectural and landscape contexts and their psychological impact on people. Her scholarly outputs include over fifty-five peer review publications including for the World Health Organization and the Lancet, the world’s leading medical journal. She acts as expert advisor to the UK’s Design Council and advises various community organizations and foundations on strategies for promoting and implementing health-centered design. She serves as a mentor and coach to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Scholars Program.
DR KATE SEAMAN
Kate Seaman is Assistant Director of The Bahá’í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland. Dr. Seaman previously held positions at the University of Baltimore, the University of Bath and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of East Anglia. Dr. Seaman received her Ph.D. from Lancaster University. She is the author of UN-tied Nations; The UN, Peacekeeping and the development of global security governance (Ashgate, 2014). Dr. Seaman is the co-editor of The Changing Ethos of Human Rights (Elgar, 2021), and co-editor of Fundamental Challenges to Global Peace and Security: The Future of Humanity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022). Her research has been published in Global Governance and Politics and Governance.
Moderator:
STELLA HOLLADAY HUDSON
Stella is a Masters of Library and Information Science Student and a Graduate and Teaching Assistant with the Bahá'í Chair for World Peace, in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. She earned her BA from the College of William and Mary, where she majored in English and minored in Classical Studies.