Update from Insight’s First Fellow, Dan Green

It has been almost two years since I returned home after being the first Insight Fellow. Sometimes it’s hard to believe it has been that long, for I still carry the memories of my experiences that year with me as I move through each new part of life. Yet at other times, it feels a lifetime away, given how much has happened since I came back.

Soon after the end of my Fellowship year I moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I worked with the alternative dispute resolution firm Ingouville & Nelson (www.ingouvillenelson.com.ar) doing training, content development and executive coaching in negotiation and effective communication. I was welcomed to South America for the first time by the I&N partners and good friends of Insight, Patricio Nelson and Francisco Ingouville (among others), who ensured my experience there was one I will never forget. It was seven months filled with exciting career developments, great friendships, and late nights of good conversations, fine wines, and tango music.

Last fall, I started my Master’s of International Affairs at Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR- www.sipa.columbia.edu/cicr/) where I work closely with its director, Professor Aldo Civico, on the ongoing peace process in Colombia. Outside of the classroom I have been working with two student organizations, the Microfinance Working Group (MFWG) ( www.mfwg.org) and the Conflict Resolution Working Group (CRWG). As co-chair of the MFWG and director of outreach and development for the CRWG, I collaborate with a dynamic group of students to advance the fields of microfinance and conflict resolution and strengthen the link between their respective fields of practice and the work we are doing in academia.

Most recently I returned from two weeks in Medellín, Colombia, where I was working on a university-affiliated political consulting project with a consortium of NGOs called Colombia Lider (www.colombialider.com.co). While there, I had the opportunity to meet with an organization called La Casa de Paz, which Professor Civico and the CICR have been working closely with over the last few years. The Casa de Paz is an organization run by former ELN guerrillas that was created as a space to explore the role of civil society in peace-building in Colombia, especially as it pertains to the dialogue between the Colombian government and the ELN guerrilla. Casa de Paz is now an NGO that explores the links between conflict resolution and social-economic development. This summer I will be returning to Medellín to work at La Casa de Paz for a few months before coming to back to school in the fall.