Paul Turner, Conflict Prevention Officer, Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization U.S. Department of State, will speak at UTC as part of Perspectives 2010: The Raymond B. Witt Lecture Series. Turner, a UTC University Honors alumnus, will address Dr. Fouad Moughrabi’s political science class on Tuesday, January 26, 12:15 p.m.-1:30 p.m. in the University Center Chattanooga Rooms. The public is invited to attend.
Turner is one of four Conflict Prevention Officers in the US Government supporting the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS). He facilitates the application of the Interagency Conflict Assessment Framework and leads the creation of integrated conflict prevention doctrine at a strategic level. During this past year, he led interagency assessments on Yemen and Liberia and deployed to Afghanistan to support the development of integrated civilian-military plans at the provincial, task force, regional command, and national levels.
Earlier, Turner oversaw 1207 projects in Georgia, Haiti, Colombia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia, deploying to Georgia following the invasion to contribute to program design discussions and to help coordinate the civilian response. In Washington, he supported the Reconstruction and Stabilization Interagency Policy Committee by focusing on processes and tools related to intelligence and analysis, assessment, planning, readiness, and training, activities and tracks operations, knowledge management, budgetary and other issues for the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization.
In Turner’s previous position of Manager and Acting Director, oversaw projects and initiatives valued at over $1 billion. These projects focused on Fragile States, Democracy and Governance, and Natural Resource Management and were implemented by Chemonics International Inc., a leading development firm of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) projects. He has a diverse background working with non-profit, multi-lateral, faith-based, private, and government projects in the US, Europe, Eurasia, Africa, and Latin America with consultancies in humanitarian response, participatory planning, environmental impact assessments, eco-tourism, civil society peace building, legislative advocacy, election campaigns, grassroots mobilization, product marketing, community reconciliation, institution building, livelihoods assessments, election monitoring, and educational programming.
He received his B.A. in Humanities and B.S. in Political Science from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Honors Program, with a minor in Spanish and Economics. Later, he completed an M.A. in International Studies with a focus on Peace and Conflict from Universidad Jaume I in Spain and the European University Centre for Peace Studies in Austria, graduate diplomas in Mediation and Negotiation from Erasmus University in The Netherlands and in Environmental Science and Policy from the Central European University in Hungary and completed graduate work in Economic Development and Social Change from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, Health and Conflict from American University in Washington, DC, and Faith and Conflict and Conflict Theory from the United States Institute for Peace in Washington, DC.
For a complete listing of Perspectives 2010 events, click here.
