Erik Gustafson

Founding director of the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC), an organization promoting peace and human rights in Iraq since 1998. From early 2009 to late 2010, I directed an Iraq-based professional development program for Iraqi human rights defenders from 9 of Iraq’s 18 provinces including Baghdad, Basra, Najaf, Anbar, Kirkuk, and Erbil. More recently, my focus has been on research, advocacy, and field work to serve young people and educators in Iraq and the region. In 2011, I led EPIC’s first youth project in Iraq, the Iraqi Youth Hike. Offering a diverse group of young Iraqis from Kirkuk a chance to get away from the dust and violence and enjoy the great outdoors. The program included a guided hike along a dry wintering stream in the Piramagroon Mountains, a nature survey using camera traps, and presentations by Iraq's first environmental organization, Nature Iraq.

In 2013, I visited Syrian refugee camps and Iraqi IDP camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to assess the response to the region’s growing humanitarian crisis, and to help raise awareness about the needs of the region’s displaced and vulnerable populations. The past year also marked the start of two new programs at EPIC: PHOTOVOICE IRAQ and the IRAQ MATTERS podcast. Join me in helping to put #Iraq back on the agenda.