Rotary District Governor Mark Pearce is proud to announce that a Missouri educator has been chosen as a Rotary World Peace Fellow, to study international peace and conflict resolution at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand during the summer of 2013.
Dr. Akis Kalaitzidis, associate professor in the Department of Government, International Studies and Languages at the University of Central Missouri, will join with twenty-four other professionals from a variety of nations and cultures, to explore historical and contemporary conflicts and discuss ways in which such differences might best be addressed.
The Rotary International Peace Fellowship is designed to bring together professionals who have a demonstrated commitment to international understanding, to examine and discuss problems that lead to death and dysfunction in the world, and to encourage fellowship participants to share their own perspectives and insights that might relate to resolving those issues.
Dr. Kalaitzidis has served as Associate Professor at UCM since 2004, teaching courses in international relations, comparative politics, international organizations, American foreign policy, global terrorism, and post-communist transitions. He has published four books on American foreign policy, international relations and immigration topics; and for several years he has been active in humanitarian assistance projects on behalf of underprivileged youth in Ghana, Africa.
Dr. Kalaitzidis is the second Rotary World Peace Fellow chosen from Rotary District 6080. The first, Margaret Carolla from Springfield, has completed a two-year World Peace Fellowship at the Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aries, Argentina. She is currently working for a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) focusing on South America.
More information on the Rotary World Peace Fellowship is available on the Rotary International here.
Rotary District 6080 has supported the Rotary Peace Fellow program for several years by contributing District Designated Funds (DDF) to the program. Governor Pearce encourages Missouri Rotarians to be on the lookout for future Rotary World Peace Fellow prospects, saying “it’s one more way that Rotary District 6080 can make the world better a better place.”
