The goals for this fellowship are to 1) enhance peacebuilding skills; 2) familiarize fellows with USIP experts and available resources; 3) develop projects with USIP program teams for implementation afterwards; and 4) engage members of the U.S. peacebuilding community, including representatives of the U.S. Congress, executive agencies, academia and civil society groups. The inaugural program ran from May 1 to June 30, 2024.

The 2024 Inaugural Cohort of John Lewis Peace Fellows

Aliah Adam
Founder, Singanen o Mindanao and the Bangsamoro Women's Peacebuilders Network, Philippines

Adam has devoted her life to grassroots peace advocacy, especially among the region's most vulnerable communities. She has received regional and national recognition for her tireless efforts.

Madeleine Maceno Avignon
Country Director, Communities Organizing for Haitian Engagement and Development, (COFED), Haiti

Avignon is the co-founder of COFHED, a Haitian non-governmental organization that works in the south of the country building citizen capacity in marginalized communities. She has pioneered an alternate approach to humanitarian assistance that depends on Haitians setting their own development agenda through community dialogue.

Farah Bdour
Country Director, Seeds of Peace, Jordan

Bdour has been tapped across a variety of international Track II efforts pertaining to Middle East peace and security. She is a certified mediator who writes reports about current regional conflicts and has been published in numerous research institute journals.

James Kinu Komengi
Independent Consultant, Tari, Papua New Guinea

Komengi is a development practitioner from Tari, the capital of Hela Province. He has dedicated himself to peacebuilding efforts between warring parties in his home province for the last 25 years.

Aloys Mahwa
Country Director, Living Peace Institute, Democratic Republic of Congo

Mahwa oversees activities and conducts research in north and south Kivu, Ituri and Kinshasa provinces, playing a key role in coordinating stakeholder working sessions in the promotion of positive masculinity to end sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).

Alba Purroy
Director, Redialogo, Venezuela

Purroy is a facilitator of conflict resolution programs, based on nonviolence and peacebuilding. Her focus is on strengthening women as key actors in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and their contribution to sustainable peace processes.

During the program, the inaugural cohort of John Lewis Peace Fellows visited sites related to the civil rights movement in Georgia and Alabama — such as the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma — and met with people who knew Congressman Lewis to learn more about his lifelong commitment to peace and nonviolent action.