Berkley Center

Emma Leslie is executive director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, a not-for-profit organization that promotes research and action on peace building initiatives throughout Asia. Based in Cambodia since 1997, she works together with her husband, Soth Plai Ngarm, on peace education and conflict transformation. She advises the Friends Economic Development Association, a community-based organization providing English language and vocational skills to young people in the former conflict zones of Cambodia’s northwestern provinces, and Teanthor, a community-based organization working with monks who counsel people living with HIV/AIDS. Leslie helped found the Asian branch of Action International Network, a network of conflict transformation practitioners who share their learning through practical experience and enhance peace work by developing new initiatives. Leslie co-authored the peace and disarmament curriculum for Cambodian high schools, a curriculum for community level training on mediation and alternative dispute resolution.