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Meet Our Lead Trainers

Bernard LaFayette, Jr. EdD

Bernard LaFayette, Jr. has been a Civil Rights activist and luminary for over fifty years, beginning as a co-founding leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Nashville Lunch Counter Sit-ins, a Freedom Rider, and an associate of Dr. King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and national coordinator of Poor People's Campaign. He previously served as distinguished scholar and director at the Center for Nonviolence
Bernard LaFayette, Jr. has been a Civil Rights activist and luminary for over fifty years, beginning as a co-founding leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Nashville Lunch Counter Sit-ins, a Freedom Rider, and an associate of Dr. King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and national coordinator of Poor People’s Campaign. He previously served as distinguished scholar and director at the Center for Nonviolence & Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island and at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Dr. LaFayette’s books include, In Peace & Freedom: My Two Year Journey in Selma and The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North. He is a recognized global authority in the field of nonviolence training and education.

Thupten Tendhar, PhD.

Thupten Tendhar, is a Level III Kingian Nonviolence trainer. Born of Tibetan parents, he joined a monastery in India at age 12 where he studied for 20 years, earning a doctoral level Geshe degree in Buddhist Philosophy. He recently completed a PhD at URI in Education focusing on inner peace and compassion training. A spokesperson for the Mystical Arts of Tibet Tour, he has traveled widely across the US. He conducts workshops and programs and teaches an honors course at URI on Tibetan Buddhism: Journey to Nirvana. He coordinates the Center's Inner Peace Healthy Minds Program and the annual International Nonviolence Summer Institute. His book Peace, Rhythm of My Heart is a published collection of his poetry and photography.
Thupten Tendhar, is a Level III Kingian Nonviolence trainer. Born of Tibetan parents, he joined a monastery in India at age 12 where he studied for 20 years, earning a doctoral level Geshe degree in Buddhist Philosophy. He recently completed a PhD at URI in Education focusing on inner peace and compassion training. A spokesperson for the Mystical Arts of Tibet Tour, he has traveled widely across the US. He conducts workshops and programs and teaches an honors course at URI on Tibetan Buddhism: Journey to Nirvana. He coordinates the Center’s Inner Peace Healthy Minds Program and the annual International Nonviolence Summer Institute. His book Peace, Rhythm of My Heart is a published collection of his poetry and photography.

Roberta C. Opara, Esq.

An International Teaching Scholar and a certified Level II trainer in Kingian Nonviolence, Roberta holds a LLB/JD degree and a Masters in Communications. She has training experiences in courses such as Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation, Peace Psychology, and Nonviolence
An International Teaching Scholar and a certified Level II trainer in Kingian Nonviolence, Roberta holds a LLB/JD degree and a Masters in Communications. She has training experiences in courses such as Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation, Peace Psychology, and Nonviolence & Global Peace Studies. Before joining our Center, Roberta was engaged in legal study and practice in Nigeria and served in the judicial office of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Since joining the Beloved Community at URI, she has been active in the interdisciplinary fields of Communications, Organizational Behavior, Labor Relations and Human Resources.

Paul Bueno de Mesquita, PhD

Paul has served as director of the URI Center for Nonviolence
Paul has served as director of the URI Center for Nonviolence & Peace studies and the summer institute for the past twelve years, and is a Level III Kingian Nonviolence trainer. For more than thirty years Paul has worked as a professor, a psychologist, and advocate for positive mental health. Focused on violence prevention and positive psychological development, particularly in under-represented and underserved low-income communities and schools serving predominantly Afro-American and Latino populations. He has been instrumental in the development of a global nonviolence trainers network across the US, Asia, Africa, and South America. His book, Kingian Nonviolence: Applications for International and Institutional Change documents the implementation and effectiveness of a principles-based approach to nonviolence.
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