Ashok Panikkar, Executive Director
MCD’s Founder and Executive Director, Ashok returned to India after ten years in the United States where he worked as a conflict management consultant, mediator, dialogue facilitator and trainer. As Lead Mediator and Director of an organizational conflict resolution program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Ashok successfully mediated several community and organizational disputes. He also worked to facilitate Dialogue between polarized groups in both the corporate and public sectors. He has conducted hundreds of workshops throughout the U.S. and Europe in communication, conflict resolution, critical and creative thinking and cross-cultural diversity. Ashok has worked with a range of organizations, including Fortune 500 and mid-size companies, educational institutions, government and non-governmental organizations. Prior to his work in the field of Conflict Resolution, Ashok directed an Indian communication consulting firm and a non-profit education center offering workshops in critical and creative thinking. He has an M.A. in Critical and Creative Thinking from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and advanced training in Conflict Resolution from leading institutes in the U.S. In 2004-05, he served as an elected board member of the New England Association of Conflict Resolution (NE-ACR).

Beth Fascitelli
Beth is a senior manager coordinating the consulting activities of Meta-Culture. She is an accomplished trainer and facilitator who has worked with some of the most reputed Indian and transnational companies. Also a trained mediator, she specializes in dialogue facilitation and consensus building. Previously, she worked as a Program Coordinator in the Washington, D.C. office of the Keystone Center, an organization which uses consensus-building strategies to help decision-makers effectively address challenging societal issues. Beth completed a Masters of International Affairs at Columbia University's School for International and Public Affairs (SIPA), concentrating in "Human Rights, Conflict and Corporate Development." While at SIPA, she studied the issue of oil-related conflict in Nigeria's Delta region and spent a summer in Port Harcourt as a consultant and researcher for the Center for Corporate and Social Responsibility. Beth also worked as a community organizer in central Florida where she spearheaded a multi-stakeholder public health campaign and involved Spanish-speaking immigrants in the organization's initiatives. With a passion for travel, Beth has worked or studied in Nigeria, Thailand, Mexico and Costa Rica.

Gayathri Chakkangal, Mediator, Project Manager
Gayathri currently coordinates Meta-Culture's Mediation Services and is the project manager for the Police Capacity Building Program in conflict Management. Before taking on this responsibility she managed our corporate training division and our administration team. Gayathri was instrumental in launching Peer Mediation for the first time in schools in India and has extensive experience conducting diagnostics for corporate education programs and community projects. She is part of the core team that established Meta-Culture and is a lifetime trustee of our non-profit organization, Meta-Culture Dialogics. Gayathri is a certified mediator, trainer, and facilitator and has a degree in Psychology from Christ College in Bangalore. In her free time, Gayathri conducts workshops on yoga and stress management.

        

Rachel Burks
Rachel is responsible for developing our corporate education relationships and managing our training programs.  She has a Masters in Conflict Resolution from Bradford University, U.K.  Rachel is a trained mediator has worked with diverse communities in the UK with Community Accord Mediation Services.  She has worked as a facilitator in the Czech Republic for the Institute for International Mediation and Conflict Resolution (IIMCR) based in Washington, D.C. and studied in their Latin American Symposium in Mexico. Rachel also spent two years working in Bangladesh as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer as a teacher and has traveled extensively in South Asia. 


Michael McCormick - Senior Consultant and Trainer
Over the last twenty-plus years, Michael has provided restorative justice, mediation, conflict resolution, dialogue, diagnostic, and training services to a wide variety of people, organizations, and communities which have included youth, lawyers, police, community activists, public officials, non-profits, senior corporate management, schools and teachers, health care professionals, and union officials. He has mediated divorce and custody, business, employment, discrimination, large group, organizational, and community disputes. He founded and directed two university programs - the Mediation Clinic at the University of Washington School of Law and the Center for Conflict Resolution at Salisbury State University, both in the U.S. He taught at both institutions as well as provided mediation, training, intervention, and organizational consultation in their surrounding communities. He also taught a course on public democratic dialogue at Portland State University in the U.S. Most of his dialogue work was done as Program Director at the Study Circles Resource Center (now Everyday Democracy) where he worked with communities throughout the U.S. providing consultation and training in dialogue on social and political issues including race, education, police/community relations, immigration, growth and development, youth issues, and public budgets. His work has involved continuous diagnostic and intervention design. More recently he put together a culturally relevant conflict resolution training program for people involved in youth sports. Throughout his career, from serving in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua to using conflict resolution to address issues of race, gender, and other differences, Michael has focused on cross-cultural issues. Michael is a Senior Consultant and Trainer at Meta-Culture.

Elvira Klein, Coordinator- Mediation Centre
Elvira is a professional Mediator and has undergone training in International Conflict Transformation conducted by the Forum Civil Peace Service for the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in Germany. A German national, Elvira has been living in India on and off for a total of 12 years, mainly in the International Township of Auroville. Before joining Meta Culture as a volunteer, she was project-manager for the Auroville Coastal Development Center - coordinating various projects providing relief and rehabilitation services to the fishing communities of coastal Tamil Nadu after Tsunami of 2004. Elvira has been active as a freelance mediator for the last three years.

Malini Bhattacharya
Malini has a Masters and an M.Phil in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She is presently an approved PhD candidate at JNU. Prior to this she has worked for The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, South Asia Regional Delegation in New Delhi. She has also worked as a Project Fellow for a UGC Major Research Project in JNU and interned for a month in the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in Delhi. During the course of her studies, she has also been involved in short term projects with UNIFEM and Plan International. She has twice represented South Asia in an Erasmus Mundus sponsored project organized by the Baltic Sea School Berlin/ Department for Northern European Studies at Humboldt University, in 2006. She also presented and published a paper in Humboldt University in the same year. Her research interests include Communal Politics, Hindu Nationalism and the Politics of Disaster Management. Malini is a Research Associate at Meta-Culture.

Rahul Pande, Administration Manager
Rahul has a Masters Degree in Human Resource Management from MDIS Singapore and a Bachelors Degree in Financial Accounting from India and is currently heading the Administration Department. Prior to Meta-culture, Rahul has worked with a Consulting firm, Anthroplace Consulting Ltd. and also interned at Tata Steel. His interests lie in the field of Change & Knowledge Management, HR consulting and Training and Development.

Jo Rodrigues
Jo brings a combination of comprehensive corporate business and international relations experience. In Canada, she worked for companies including Bell Canada's commercial satellite company and Brookfield Properties in the areas of customer service, revenue and retention. Jo graduated with an M.A. in Peace Studies with a focus on Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford. Her dissertation analyzed the root causes of conflict between India and Pakistan and explored the idea of establishing a security community in South Asia. Jo has worked previously in India and Bangladesh on women's human rights implementation and at the United Nations as a human rights monitor. She has also facilitated for a live, online course which brings together students from North America, Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia to discuss Arab-West-Islamic relations using a conflict resolution-based approach. Her conflict resolution experience includes facilitating workshops on negotiation in England and conflict management in Canada. Jo Rodrigues is Meta-Culture's Business Development Associate.

Sushmita Patel, Community & Corporate Outreach
Sushmita is a part of the Meta-Culture Mediation team. Since January 2009 she has been working towards setting up the Community Mediation Centre. Her key areas of work are marketing and promoting the Community mediation centre, networking and educating various Social organizations, NGOs, Women's groups, Religious groups about Mediation. From May 2009 she will be managing Meta-Culture's Corporate Community Engagement Project. Sushmita is a Mediator trained by the ADR chambers, UK.

Mihika Tewari, Program Associate, Consulting Services
Mihika is a graduate from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and World History. Her primary focus in college was the study of Developing Areas and International Relations. Her interest in Conflict Resolution was peaked through Peacebuilding classes she took in college which led her to Meta-Culture. She had previously interned at a think tank, Global India Foundation, and other NGO's in Kolkata, India. Mihika is involved in project management, research and diagnostic activities in our consulting division.

Samuel Chiranjivi, Manager, Facilities & Services
Sam has twenty years experience in the areas of hospitality, sales, and administration. Prior to Meta-Culture, he served with Ionidea, Inc., a software development and recruitment company, where he did business development with international clients and assisted with administration. Sam has an undergraduate degree in Political Science and a diploma in hotel management.

 

Lilly Roslin
Lilly Roslin is our Administrative Assistant.  She has a Diploma in Nursing and worked at a hospital before joining our team in early 2008. Lilly oversees all the office administration and has made our lives at Meta-Culture much easier!

INTERNS

Adalgiso Montinari
Adalgiso is an educator with experience in diversity and cross-cultural issues. His present specialized area of interest and research concerns the field of conflict and education, looking at the contribution of education to peace and war in different international contexts, in stable, conflict and post-conflict societies.
He has a Master in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and a BA in "Social science for cooperation, development and peace" from University of Pisa, Italy, with a thesis on community mediation and urban development in the San Salvario area, Turin, Italy. He is also a certified language teacher for Italian and German. He has recently resumed his studies because he wishes to work in a social, political and cultural context that is different from his own and is with Meta-Culture to further develop his professional growth in the field of mediation, training and education. He is currently at Meta-Culture as an intern in the research department.

 

Support Staff

P. Mugilan
Mugi, Meta-Culture’s chauffeur, is one of our most valued and oldest team members. He has been with us for 4 years and is always punctual if not early for every appointment. Ashok often calls him Meta-Culture’s most professional employee. When asked what was his secret to being so reliable Mugi says that he learned his disciplined ways from playing football with army officers who placed a high premium on punctuality and consistency. We salute them for training him

Bhavani
Bhavani, who helps clean the office, has been with us for a year and a half now. Mornings are incomplete without her cheerful “Good Morning!” to every single member.

Swarupa
Swarupa, our lunch lady, is the newest member of the team and possibly one the most important. Quick and efficient, hot lunch is always ready at 1 pm. She also speaks Tamil, Hindi and English.