About the Conflict and Peace Specialist
The Conflict and Peace Specialist can be a resource that provides a neutral, private, and independent resource to assist the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (UHM) community in navigating conflicts, disputes, or complaints on an informal basis. We serve as a conflict coach, educator, intermediary, mediator, facilitator, information gatherer, or simply as an active listener. The UHM community is welcome to voice concerns, evaluate situations, and identify options on how to proceed.
José Barzola
Conflict and Peace Specialist, Office of the Provost
Background
Being an immigrant in this country shapes my approach and the perspective that has guided me throughout my personal and professional experiences. It is during my undergraduate years that I found some wonderful mentors that inspired me to continue my career in higher education. Through my extracurricular involvement in multiple organizations in higher education is how my initial organized steps in bridge building began that prepared me for the peacebuilding initiatives that I am involved in today. I have been actively passionate about creating social change through nonviolence, nurturing relationships that transcend cultural barriers, and focusing on issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity.
Education
In progress: PhD, Educational Administration in Higher Education, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, 2016
MBA, International Business and Management, Mercy College, 2014
MEd, Higher Education and Student Affairs, University of Connecticut 2006
BA, Anthropology, University of Connecticut 2004
BA, Spanish and Individualized Major in Latino Studies, University of Connecticut 2004
Specializations
Conflict management; conflict transformation; community building; dialogue; diversity and inclusion; facilitation; higher education; marketing; mediation; negotiation; nonviolence; peacebuilding; peace education; social justice; and social media
Research
I am a highly organized higher education administrator with over 20 years of experience and success in administration, student development within academic and student affairs. I have been an affiliate faculty teaching courses on peace and conflict transformation, a professional mediator and facilitator in the community for over 10 years both in New York and Hawai’i. I currently teach undergraduate courses on facilitation and community organizational change, negotiation, mediation, managing human conflict, and research and peace, as well as a graduate course on conflict management for educators at the Matsunaga Institute for Peace.
Community Engagement
Through the Matsunaga Institute, Ceeds of Peace, Conflict Resolution Alliance, Institute for Climate and Peace, Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Museum, Nagasaki Foundation for the Promotion for Peace, Pacific Asian Affairs Council, and other organizations, I have had the fortune to organize and facilitate many community dialogues and action planning around topics of diversity and inclusion, social justice and equity, migration issues, as well as organizational management, peacebuilding, strategic planning, and conflict management trainings. As the Conflict and Peace Specialist I am actively involved in providing conflict services to student to student issues, as well as developing programming to build community.