Leadership
The CPDD Co-Directors, in addition to being Senior Fellows and spearheading projects in one or more of the Center's key areas, establish and cultivate the Center's strategic direction. They are responsible for the Center's outreach, project and fiscal development, project oversight, and routine management.
Jeffrey Pugh, Co-Director
Jeffrey Pugh is an associate professor of conflict resolution at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he has taught since 2014. He received his PhD in political science from the Johns Hopkins University and previously taught in the political science department at Providence College. He was the founding executive director of the Center for Mediation, Peace & Resolution of Conflict (CEMPROC), an NGO in Ecuador, for 22 years.
Pugh’s research focuses on peacebuilding, migration, and non-state actors in the Global South. He has published scholarly articles, book chapters, and policy reports, and his book, The Invisibility Bargain: Governance Networks and Migrant Human Security (Oxford University Press, 2021), examines the integration, political participation, and access to human security of Colombian migrants in Ecuador. His research has received multiple awards, and he was a 2014-15 Fulbright Scholar affiliated with FLACSO Ecuador.
Pugh teaches graduate courses on Negotiation, Immigration & Conflict, Human Security, Theories of Peace and Conflict, and others. He is a co-founder of the Summer Institute on Conflict Transformation across Borders and the Regional Institute on Nonviolent Action in the Americas. He served as a volunteer interviewer in the U.S. node of the Colombian Truth Commission support network in the exterior and is now co-editing a book on the work of the Truth Commission with Colombians in exile. He is the editor-in-chief of the scholarly journal Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies, and he is a past president of the Middle Atlantic Council on Latin American Studies (MACLAS). In 2024-25, he served as a CFR International Affairs Fellow on the staff of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Karen Ross, Co-Director
Karen Ross is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in Conflict Resolution in the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance, where she has taught since 2015. Previously, she was an instructor at the Global & International Education Program at Drexel University and in the Inquiry Methodology Program at Indiana University.
Karen's teaching and research focus on issues at the intersection of dialogue, peace-building, social activism, and education. She conducts research that explores the impact of grassroots social change interventions and the way these interventions fit into efforts at broader societal transformation. In addition, Karen focuses on methodological issues related to how we conduct research about peace-building and social justice work and how we can do so in more inclusive, democratic, and dialogic ways. Among other areas, her work focuses on Israeli-Palestinian peace-building, restorative justice in US educational and correctional institutions, and dialogic teaching and learning in K-12 classrooms.
In addition to her academic work, Karen is a dialogue facilitator/facilitator trainer and evaluator. She is an Associate at Essential Partners and has consulted for organizations including UNESCO, GPPAC, the Edward Kennedy Institute, and the American Friends Service Committee. She also is active in community-based, grassroots peacebuilding work.