Amr Abdalla, Ph.D. In the Fall of 2004, Dr.Abdalla became a Professor and the Dean for Academic Programmes at University of Peace, Costa Rica. Before arriving at University of Peace, he was a Senior Fellow with the Peace Operations Policy Program, School of Public Policy, at George Mason University, in Virginia. He is also a Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Ashburn, Virginia. As a professor, Dr. Abdalla teaches courses on conflict analysis and resolution, terrorism and research methods in the area of peace building.

Both Dr. Abdalla’s academic and professional careers are multi-disciplinary. He obtained a law degree, L.L.B. from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt in 1977 where he practiced law as a prosecuting attorney from 1978 to 1987 and then emigrated to the U.S. where he obtained a Master's degree in Sociology and a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University.

He has been teaching graduate classes in conflict analysis and resolution, and has conducted training, research and evaluation of conflict resolution and peace building programs in Egypt, Switzerland, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Italy, Rwanda, Ireland, Iraq, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Zambia. He also authored, and co-authored, several research and evaluation teaching manuals including: Doing What You Want With Your Data, A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning and Implementing Evaluation Strategies, and Qualitative Evaluation: The What and Why.

Dr. Abdalla has been an active figure in promoting effective cross-cultural messages within the Islamic and Arabic-speaking communities in America through workshops, T.V. and radio presentations. He has also been actively involved in inter-faith dialogues in the United States. He pioneered the development of the first conflict resolution training manual for the Muslim communities in the United States titled (“…Say Peace”) at The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences and also lead Project L.I.G.H.T. (Learning Islamic Guidance for Human Tolerance), a community peer-based anti-discrimination grant funded by the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) at The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences.