Expertise

Conflict transformation,
Peacebuilding,
Interfaith dialogue,
Problem solving,
Conflict assessment,
Post-confliict reconstruction

Profile

David Steele has 20 years experience working with political, religious, and other civil society actors to effectively facilitate conflict transformation and interfaith coexistence within unstable, violence-prone situations of inter-ethnic and sectarian conflict. During 2010-2011, he served as adjunct faculty in the Heller School, led workshops for US Government personnel on developing “Programming in Religious Contexts,” and worked developed a manual for use in discussion of Muslim/Christian reconciliation efforts in Nigeria and inter-ethnic conflict in Kenya. During 2009-2010, he worked with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, following post-election violence in Kenya, to design a curriculum and manual for use in peacebuilding and conflict transformation and co-lead workshops for 300 participants from local NGOs. During 2008-2009 he served as Senior Reconciliation Facilitator with the Baghdad office of the U.S. Institute of Peace, providing training in negotiation, problem solving and interfaith dialogue for a variety of personnel from Iraqi Government agencies, educational institutions, religious groups and civil society organizations. In addition, he has previously worked as (1) a program manager at Mercy Corps for conflict management projects in Iraq, Sri Lanka and Indonesia (2004-2006), (2) program manager for a conflict management project in Macedonia, then interim executive director, at Conflict Management Group in Cambridge, MA (2003-2004), and (3) a fellow in the Program on Preventive Diplomacy at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington where he directed a project on conflict resolution for religious communities in the former Yugoslavia (1994-2003). During the '10-'11 academic year at Heller, Prof. Steele was TA for the following courses: Dialogue and Mediation Skills; Development, Aid and Coexistence; and Advanced Development, Aid and Coexistence.

Steele has a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics and Practical Theology from the University of Edinburgh, where he wrote a dissertation on a theological assessment of the Harvard-based “principled negotiation.” He is also the author of numerous other publications on faith-based peacebuilding, including: “Reconciliation Strategies in Iraq,” and an “Overview to Faith-Based Peacebuilding."