Juan Pablo Hourcade is an Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa's Department of Computer Science. His main area of research is Human-Computer Interaction, with a concentration on technologies that support creativity, collaboration and information access for a variety of users, including children and older adults. Juan Pablo co-founded the HCI for Peace initiative, presenting a paper setting a research agenda for the field at CHI 2011, and organizing a panel at the same conference, and a SIG at INTERACT 2011.

Natasha Bullock-Rest is a Research Assistant at Brown University. Her main area of research is in understanding the causes of communication challenges and assisting people with these challenges. Natasha's work has included the development and evaluation of computer-based activities to enhance the social skills of children with autism, as well as neurological research on the causes of aphasia. While at the University of Iowa, she co-founded the HCI for Peace initiative, organizing grassroots activities at CHI 2010, co-authoring a paper setting a research agenda at CHI 2011, co-organizing a panel at the same conference and a SIG at INTERACT 2011.

Janet Davis is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Grinnell College.  Her current research explores the application of participatory and value-sensitive methods to the design of persuasive technology, particularly technology to promote environmentally sustainable behavior. She is chair of the SIGCHI committee on U.S. Public Policy.

Lahiru Jayatilaka is a graduate student in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. In his research, he has implemented a system to provide visual support to human deminers using metal detectors to clear minefields. The system is low-cost and intended to be used in developing regions where minefields are a common way in which past conflicts continue to affect populations. Lahiru also brings the perspective of being originally from Sri Lanka, a country that has experienced a great deal of armed conflict during his lifetime.

Neema Moraveji runs the Calming Technology Lab at Stanford University. His research involves the design and evaluation of systems intended to create calm in three areas: physiological, cognitive, and affective. He has published design techniques on influencing the respiratory patterns of desktop computer users. His work has laid out the foundations for a sub-field of HCI that identifies stressors in user interfaces and methods of mitigating them with design heuristics.

Lisa Nathan is a faculty member at SLAIS, the iSchool at the University of British Columbia. Through a range of projects she investigates: 1) the design of information systems that address societal challenges, specifically those that are ethically charged and impact multiple generations (e.g., environmental degradation, war, colonialism) and 2) creative information practices that influence how these systems are appropriated over time. She is a founding member of the Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal project hosted by the University of Washington. The project's website provides citizens around the world with various means to access and use video interviews with personnel from the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (e.g., judges, defense lawyers, translators, prosecutors). The research team is building design theory and method to inform the development of the multi-lifespan information system design research initiative.

Panayiotis Zaphiris is an Associate Professor at the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts of the Cyprus University of Technology. One of his main interests is in the social aspects of computing. Panayiotis was a panelist at the HCI for Peace panel during CHI 2011. Panayiotis will bring the perspective of coming from a part of the world that has seen armed conflict in his lifetime and where people from the two sides of the conflict have not always been allowed to communicate. Panayiotis helped setup mailing lists in the 1990s to bring people together and discuss ideas. He later helped develop social media applications to report news across the dividing line. Recently, Panayiotis supervised a new project (funded by the Fulbright foundation) to develop online tools to facilitate peace and mutual understanding among groups in conflict.