The following interviews with Loyola faculty participating in the conference were conducted by members of the Society of Professional Journalists Loyola University Chicago Student Chapter. 

DR. PATRICIA KAY FELKINS, School of Communication

By Ashton Mitchell

Patricia K. Felkins, Ph.D is an associate professor at Loyola University Chicago. She is the co-founder and vice president of the Africa Circle of Hope Foundation, which supports education and development projects for women and children impacted by AIDS and poverty in East Africa. She has traveled to Kenya extensively over the past 10 years and is the co-chair of the committee planning the interactive conference, “Promoting Justice and Peace: University/Community Collaborative Initiatives” in Nairobi, Kenya this summer.

You have an extensive history of working in Africa, particularly with your Circle of Hope Foundation. But this conference is the first of its kind. How did you come up with this idea?

I have always been focused on community as a process. How do you bring people together for a common good? What happens when individuals come together in a creative open space?  The conference is an opportunity for faculty from Loyola and from a number of different African universities to come together and to concentrate on strategic challenges and issues related to justice and peace, to share their research and develop new initiatives. It’s an opportunity to bring people together around the table for dialogue and action.

This conference is really a dream that a lot of people have had for a long time to come together in a way that serves our mission of education in the service of humanity in Africa. So the conference is an accumulation of a lot of discussion and dialogue here, planning and finally deciding that we’re ready to do this. I think the university as well is reaching out and recognizing Africa and some of the educational opportunities there.

What are some of your specific outcomes you’re looking to gain from the conference?

We want the conference to be a platform for continuing collaboration. Some of the outcomes should be at least two multi-disciplinary grant proposals and community development projects. I would say another thing to come out of this event is more collaborative research.  We will be connecting our faculty with scholars at Catholic University and community leaders so that we can look at multi-disciplinary grant proposals, collaborative research and new initiatives.

Also, there may be something that a faculty member here at Loyola has wanted to do in terms of community development, or outreach, or field work that can be done in collaboration with community groups and African scholars.  The people that are coming together at the conference are not only academics, scholars and faculty members but also representatives from business, government, nonprofit organizations and community-based organizations.  Bringing all those people together, we are looking at this as a kind of action research process. We’re not saying we want an expert at the table to say ‘I have all the answers’ but we’re looking at people coming to the table and saying ‘This what I’m doing, this is what I care about, these are some of the initiatives I’m working on, these are some of the challenges I have’ and that way we can, together, think about how we can help to address shared concerns related to peace and justice issues. 

Collaborative community initiatives might include a project to empower women with small business enterprises, a farming project with rural groups or a community health program. All the conference tracks are chosen, specifically, because they can provide very practical kinds of outcomes with grassroots benefits.

What has inspired and driven you to keep working on these collaborative projects in Africa?

I think, first of all, recognizing the opportunities that Catholic University of Eastern Africa offers, but specifically seeing the growth and development there.  IBM has just established a new research center, its first of its kind in Africa, at Catholic University in Nairobi.  There are so many opportunities in Kenya that I want to share and help connect Loyola faculty to new resources and scholars with shared interests. 

Beyond that it’s the children orphaned by AIDS, the women struggling to survive, the people within a community who are trying to create a better way of life. I see such strong energy and hope and faith in many hard working people and I think are there ways in which we can help to strengthen local resources. One of the aspects of action research is that you work together to identity issues, challenges, and opportunities. Then you gather relevant data and interpret the data together, make plans and implement together and evaluate the results. All through the process there’s ownership, participation, individual contribution and a sense of respect and cooperation. We’re all coming to this conference with knowledge, experience, hopes and plans and if we put that all together, we’re all stronger, we can do more and we can increase the impact of good in the world.

Another part of this collaborative effort it the student voice - Why do you think having this participation is so crucial to this conference?

I think the students are the future. We need to consider more and more who carries on and who really determines the future.  And there are things we can do now to help young people reach their potential and contribute to the future.  We begin with a student day, which is the first day of the conference. Undergraduate and graduate students are involved in every aspect of this conference. We’re also going to have young people performing each day, sharing their music, art, dance, drama and poetry so that in a way they inspire us as we begin our work. One of the youth groups is from the Mathare and Kibera slums sharing some of the poetry they’ve written and songs they’ve composed about social justice and peace. When I was in Mathare last summer a youth group sang for me and they were wonderful. There was joy and pain and wisdom in those poems and songs.  We need to hear these voices.

I really want this conference to be a connection so that we are reaching out and joining hands and working together for social justice and peace. We also are thinking about these orphans and young people and the better future that they seek. What can we do to help, to share knowledge, to provide opportunities, to bring people together with greater understanding and cooperation?  Universities and communities have an important responsibility to current and future generations and we want to find ways to work together for education in the service of humanity.

Dr. REGINA CONWAY-PHILLIPS, Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing

By Anna Heling

What intrigued you about the conference?

“For me, it was the involvement of the school of nursing that was in Nairobi [at Regina Pacis University College]. I know from previous experience when we work with other countries that have schools of nursing that there are resources and knowledge that we can share, and then there’s knowledge that we can gain. I was mostly intrigued with the possibility of establishing a relationship between our school of nursing and theirs and looking at potential research that we can do between the two. Especially considering my research,which is breast cancer screening in African American women. I know that breast cancer screening and breast cancer mortality rates are concerns there in Kenya as well as here in Chicago.”

What is your role at the conference?

“I will be on a panel at the conference, and my role on the panel is to discuss my research findings. I’m just interested in understanding if there are differences, if there are similarities, and how some of my findings from my study can be compared to findings from studies that are conducted in Kenya.”

What did your research find?

“I looked at several variables to see if any of them had greater influence on breast cancer screening behavior in African American women. Instead of looking at the typical barriers, I looked for the solution. I wanted to focus my attention on those African American women who face the same barriers - lack of insurance, lack of education, lack of knowledge - and were still able to overcome all of those barriers and utilize services that were available to them and practice breast cancer screening behaviors (mammograms, clinical breast exams, self breast exams). I looked at sense of coherence, social support, spirituality and health status as possible motivating factors that would motivate women to practice breast cancer screening behaviors. What I found was the one variable that was significant was spirituality.”

What do you hope to accomplish with your research in Nairobi?

“Given that I have the opportunity to go to Nairobi, I want to sit with researchers there and those women and the students in the school of nursing and explore the similarities or differences in their experiences with women and with breast cancer screening.”

Have you worked in Africa before? Have you traveled there?

“I’ve never been there and so that’s another component of this opportunity; I felt that this was the opportunity of a lifetime and I didn’t want to miss out on such a wonderful opportunity.”

Why do you think this conference is important?

“I think any conference or any opportunity to open dialogue between two countries is always important, especially here in the United States. In my mind the United States is not as aware and is not as knowledgeable about other countries as other countries are about us. I think that it’s important for us to open our minds and our hearts and our ears to hear what individuals from other countries have to say and to experience it on their turf, on their home front, because typically it takes place here. I want to be a part of going there and having that conversation and opening up the dialogue and discovering ways that we can work together to solve some of the world’s health problems.”

What do you hope to gain from your experience there?

“Nursing is a universal profession and if we can learn from the nurses there in Kenya and they can learn from us, there are benefits to be gained from both sides. Their focus is more of a public health focus I would think, and our focus in the United States tends to be on disease management more so than prevention. Having an opportunity to have this open discussion with another country that’s experiencing similar situations or similar statistics would be very beneficial to me, to my knowledge, to how I teach, to my students, and hopefully I can share my knowledge with the faculty of Regina Pacis.”

What are you most looking forward to?

“I’ve been in nursing for over 38 years and I thought I’ve seen very poor outcomes in people and poor situations, but I’m looking forward to having a different experience and a more eye-opening experience to help me appreciate what is in this country and what isn’t in this country; And what is and isn’t in Africa, in Kenya specifically. I’m also really looking forward to sitting down and having that conversation with the faculty and nurses at Regina Pacis because they’re in my profession. They’re peers of mine. I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences and seeing if they’re similar to mine, or how they differ. And if there are ways we can bridge these differences and similarities. I’m just excited to have this opportunity. It’s an unexpected but very, very welcome opportunity and I certainly consider myself blessed to have this opportunity.”

JOHN GOHEEN, School of Communication 

By Joseph Flaherty

Professor John Goheen has been a member of Loyola’s School of Communication faculty since 2009. He teaches courses involving video and multi-media production, as well as documentaries.  Professor Goheen is a 12-time Emmy winner for his work in television news. He has worked as a freelance producer and photographer for all the major U.S. television networks including NBC, CBS, and ABC. He has also won multiple awards for his work as a documentary filmmaker.

How did you initially get involved with the conference?

I was invited to attend based on the conference wanting to invite someone who had media production experience and background.

What will your specific role be at the conference?

Essentially we want to videotape all of the sessions, many of which will happen simultaneously. Jameson Chen, our SOC Manager of Technology, and I came up with the idea of trying to get students who may have an interest in video production from local universities to come and volunteer. They will all have access to the convention, and then as volunteers, we would assign them to operate a camera to videotape a certain session. Jameson and I will do training the day before the convention with these volunteers and teach them little tricks of the trade.

Since 1991, I’ve been to Africa and over 20 other countries. I’ve mostly covered conflict and that type of thing. I will talk about ways on how to cover conflict and to bring attention to a particular subject with the intent of informing a broader audience.

How do you think Digital Media and Media Technology can contribute to promoting peace and justice?

It has to do with what you’ve seen happening in the Middle East, in Egypt, and even in North Africa. Through social networking and people with their iPhones and things like that, people are serving to document events through social media and sharing video with digital technology. The rest of the world can sort of see what’s going on.

It’s one thing to hold your phone up and capture an event, but it’s another thing to take that footage and use it to further a cause or tell a story that can reinforce an event or an occurrence that takes place. Anyone can take video, but what you do with it, and how you use it, and how it’s used is part of what we want to bring to a conference like this. We want to help enable people to become better storytellers by using digital technology efffectively.

Pictures are great, pictures say a lot, but how you use them and who you talk to, how good it is… all of that makes a difference in getting out your word and reinforcing whatever it is that you want people to learn, hear and see.

What do you hope to gain from the conference?

I’ve been a storyteller, a documentary filmmaker for over 30 years. Now I’m an educator, and it’s the next generation’s turn; people in their 20’s who you want to share your skills with so they can become the storytellers of tomorrow.

On the African continent there’s lots of conflict, as there is in other parts of the world. You want to be able to make sure that every part of the world has competent people who can tell a story accurately and fairly, and do it well so that it becomes credible. That way when people see it, they recognize that it’s legitimate and that it’s important to share whatever that message is to the rest of the world so the rest of the world is aware of what’s going on in that particular place at any particular time.

What do you hope the conference accomplishes as a whole?

At these kind of conferences, like anything in life, you never know who you’re going to impact, how you’re going to do it, or when that’s going to take place. From personal experience, I’ve done things where I’ve affected change, or influenced people with what I’ve said. You never know when that’s going to happen, and it only has to happen one time to that one person, where something you say resonates with them and directs them in a certain way.

That’s not really something you can control. Some people will be there for a different purpose or reason, but you always hope that what you say will make a difference in someone’s life, and that they will somehow be impacted by your presence and your experience and your knowledge. They can then take that and eventually become a person who does the same thing as a result of what they have heard. That’s when it becomes a chain of events that leads to good.

Will you be doing anything else in Africa outside of the conference?

Jameson and I have applied for a grant, and if we get it, we will go to Malawi after the conference and do some shooting there for a U.K. not-for-profit organization that operates in several countries. They work towards bringing education to rural communities in Africa that need assistance, mostly for girls. Lots of times in African countries as in many other parts of the world, girls are often neglected when it comes to education. In a lot of places, education isn’t provided by the government. You have to pay for it. In a lot of these impoverished countries, people don’t have the resources or the money, and so girls are usually the first ones who aren’t allowed to continue and get a full education. We plan on doing a video that will show the value of educating all people. The video will go to help with furthering their cause: either fundraising or raising awareness for the organization.

Anything you’d like to add?

I love Africa. Having been there since 1991, and having been to over 20 different countries, you realize every place is a little bit different. Almost everything I’ve done, with a few exceptions, has always been during difficult times. It’s nice to go there and not have to cover a Civil War or a famine or something of that nature. To give back to Africa in such a way would be rewarding.

DR. JAMES GARBARINO, Department of Psychology

By Mary Byrne

Dr. James Garbarino holds the Maude C. Clarke Chair in Humanistic Psychology and is the founding director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago.  He received his B.A. from St. Lawrence University, and in 1973, earned his PhD from Cornell University, where he taught and served as Co-Director of the Family Life Development Center. 

Dr. Garbarino has consulted organizations such as the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, National Black Child Development Institute, the FBI, and many more.  He has consulted a variety of major television, magazine, and newspaper outlets on reports on children and families. Dr. Garbarino has received many awards throughout his career, and most recently was the recipient of the 2011 Hayman Award from the American Orthopsychiatric Association. 

What will your role be at the conference?

As I understand it, it is to be a resource to the general discussions, but particularly on the issue of interfaith initiative and how different traditions and spiritual practices can support the cause of peace and justice.

How do you think bringing together different religious groups and community groups will help bring peace to Africa?

Religious groups everywhere motivate people to act.  When they motivate people to act in nasty, hateful ways, they are part of the problem.  When they motivate them to act in kind, generous compassionate ways, they are the pathway to a solution.  I think religion is always going to play a role; it’s a question on what role it plays.  I might be preaching to the choir at a conference like this, but I think I can help them have some concepts they can bring to bear in their interfaith dialogues wherever they come from, and that’ll be the goal in my presentation.

How will your background and research in humanistic psychology contribute to your role in the conference?

I’ve had a longstanding interest in the connections between conventional psychology and spiritual matters, so I try to bring that to bear in my work with children in war zones, as well as delinquent juveniles.  I worked as an expert psychological witness in murder trials.  I’m always trying to bridge those two worlds in my work.  I see the conference in Africa as a way to continue doing that in a forum explicitly devoted to that.

Is there anything that you personally hope to gain from the conference?

Well, I’ve been to Africa several times.  I’ve never been to Kenya…  So I’m looking forward to this experience in East Africa as a place that I’ve always looked to as a rich, cultural historical context, and I’m hoping to make some connections with peers there that may continue beyond the conference.

What do you hope the conference accomplishes as a whole?

I think the most likely accomplishment is to build a sense of solidarity and mutual support and networking among scholars and activists from the African continent that are faced with enormous challenges with respect to peace and justice, war and trauma, and hopefully we can learn from them as well as help support them in the work that they have to do there.

What about the conference are you most excited about?

I’m most excited being in Nairobi with a group of African spiritual leaders and academics.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I’ve been to war zones and refugee camps all over the world.  I’m always impressed with the role of spiritual life and stimulating, organizing and sustaining good deeds.  I see [the conference] as part of that global phenomenon.