Distinguished Alumni Award

In 2012, the Conflict Resolution Program began honoring outstanding alumni with the Distinguished Alumni Award. Information about past recipients is below. If you would like to nominate a CR alum for the award, please contact Marie Champagne (mtc@georgetown.edu). 

2014 Recipient

Evelyn Thorton ’10 serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Inclusive Security, which strives to increase the participation of all stakeholders—particularly women—in preventing, resolving, and rebuilding after deadly conflicts. In her role as CEO, Ms. Thornton focuses on strategy and management, including communications, development, and general operations. Ms. Thornton has written on women’s participation in peace processes (including co-writing a chapter on Gender and Peacebuilding in Dr. Zelizer’s edited Volume Integrated Peacebuilding, Westview Press, 2013), led training programs for women leaders from Asia and Africa, and advocated extensively to advance the Institute’s work.

Before joining the Institute, Ms. Thornton worked for His Holiness The Dalai Lama on “women, peace, and security” initiatives at the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, in New Delhi. There she assisted with conflict-transformation workshops for young people from India and Pakistan and published research on the changing contours of diplomacy in South Asia. Her career path was influenced by formative periods of work in Bolivia and the UK. A native of Virginia, Ms. Thornton has a master’s in conflict resolution from Georgetown University. She lives with her husband Marc Pfeuffer, a US government attorney, and their vivacious young daughter in Washington, DC.

2013 Recipient

Daniel Weggeland ’07 currently works for the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction and previously spent 2008 to 2011 in Afghanistan focused on the relationship between development assistance and counterinsurgency. He worked for the Counterinsurgency Advisory and Assistance Team (CAAT) in Kabul providing advice to two Commanders of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Generals Petraeus and Allen. Prior to that, he worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a Development Adviser with the brigade combat team for Khost, Paktya and Paktika provinces (Task Force Rakkasan) and before that as the interagency development lead with the Paktika Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT). His first assignment in Afghanistan was with the USAID/Local Governance Community Development (LGCD) program initially as the Conflict Mitigation Manager in Kabul and later dual-hatted as the Deputy Western Regional Manager in Herat. Daniel holds a Masters in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University. During his studies he assisted in course design and instruction at the National War College, researched and produced military culture analysis at SAIC for the United States Marine Corps, and led a field team in Liberia in preparation for ex- combatant demobilization and rehabilitation with the NGO Landmine Action. As an undergraduate student he conducted field research on the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) exploring the experience of developing country military forces in peace operations.

2012 Recipient

Mike Jobbins ‘08 currently serves as the Africa Programs Manager for the DC office of Search for Common Ground, where he supports the management, design, and development of conflict resolution programming in 15 countries across Africa. He previously worked in Search for Common Ground’s field programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, where he support the startup and management of projects on SGBV prevention, refugee reintegration, security sector reform, and postwar governance. Mike led field missions in humanitarian and emergency settings and opened Search’s first offices in North Katanga, North Kviu, and Equateur Provinces of the DRC. He also managed the re-launch of SFCG’s programs in Cote d’Ivoire following the election crisis and previously supported the Great Lakes regional programs in Bujumbura. Prior to his work at Search for Common Ground, Mike worked on African affairs at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

According to Professor Fathalil Moghaddam, Director of the Conflict Resolution Program: “Mike Jobbins combines both academic and applied excellence in conflict resolution. He came to Georgetown with very strong recommendations from Harvard and showed outstanding promise as a highly engaged and dedicated student. Since his graduation from Georgetown, he has already become a leader in the design and delivery of conflict resolution programs in some of the most challenging inter-group contexts on earth. We are proud to have him as one of the leading members of the fast growing and global Georgetown Conflict Resolution Alumni Network.”

While a student in the CR Program, Mike worked as a Research Assistant for the Institute for the Study of International Migration in DC and as a Capacity Building Assistant for Mercy Corps in Sudan. He continues to serve the Georgetown CR community by mentoring current students and recent graduates. In addition to his M.A. in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown, Mike holds a BA in Government from Harvard University.