The Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island (URI) congratulates attorney Roberta Ralph-Opara as the winner of our Nonviolence Trainer of the Month Award for March 2022. Roberta expresses her gratitude for getting her nonviolence training and certifications from the past and present faculty at the URI Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies. She skillfully applies the tenets of Kingian Nonviolence into her heart, career, education, and spirituality. She also shares her reflections and understanding on the applicable practice of Nonviolence in contemporary times through teaching and publications.
Roberta carries the nonviolence principles into her workshops on Nonviolent Communication offered to Graduate Students through the URI Diversity and Inclusion Badge Program. She has taught the nonviolence principles to many High School students in Massachusetts and community groups across the Wickford and Kingston locales in Rhode Island.
During the 2022 International Women’s Day celebration at the University of Rhode Island, Roberta further incorporated the nonviolence principles in her speech to women and all groups. Her recent presentation on the Principles of Nonviolence at a Parish Church in Kingston, Rhode Island, was well received by many catholic practitioners.
Roberta introduced a reflection series and publication titled “The Spiritual Phases of Nonviolence,” which focuses on the deeper personal aspects of living with a commitment to Nonviolence. She believes the reflection piece may serve the higher mission of compassion challenging individuals to reflect, review, and recommit to better selves, hearts, and relationships.
Her ultimate goal remains improving the human journey of connection, interior peace, and peaceful collaborations among the diversity. Roberta believes that all positive change must begin with self. She shares her insights into the universal human struggle to commitment and Nonviolence through print and electronic media. You may like to tune into her bi-weekly audio cast Nonviolence with Roberta, available freely on YouTube.