Professor David Weissbrodt (Co-Director) weiss001@tc.umn.edu

Professor David Weissbrodt attended Columbia University and the London School of Economics. He received his J.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall), where he was Note and Comment Editor of the California Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. After graduation, he clerked for Justice Mathew O. Tobriner of the California Supreme Court and practiced law with Covington Burling. He joined the University of Minnesota Law School faculty in 1975 and has been a visiting professor at the Universite Jean Moulin in Lyon, France. Since joining the law faculty, he has written several books and numerous articles on international human rights law, immigration law, and other subjects. He is co-author of International Human Rights: Law, Policy, and Process (3d ed. 2001).

Professor Weissbrodt's Law School Biography Page. Biogragraphy also in traditional and modern Chinese.

Kristi Rudelius-Palmer (Co-Director) krp@umn.edu

Kristi Rudelius-Palmer is a human rights educator, activist, and idealist. Kristi has been involved in the field of Human Rights Education (HRE) since 1986 in various capacities. She founded a campus Amnesty International group, facilitated prejudice reduction workshops for teachers, taught decision groups and parenting classes for fathers in prison and for mothers on the outside, and developed a self-esteem class for young children with parents in prison. Kristi edited the first report for Article 19, a freedom of expression organization, in London and assisted economically disadvantaged individuals obtain legal assistance with the Minnesota Justice Foundation for two years. In 1989, Kristi became a founding Co-Director of the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota. She organized three community-wide HRE series from 1989 to 1992, including a mock trial of Christopher Columbus, which was carried in newspapers throughout the world. In 1997, Kristi was a founding member of Human Rights USA and creator of the national Human Rights Resource Center and Web Site, which services the nation with resources and training for building a human rights movement in this country. Kristi directs the publishing of The Human Rights Education Series, produced by the Human Rights Resource Center with diverse organizational partners.

Kevin Chin is currently a Canada-U.S. Fulbright Fellow based at the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center until June, 2006. During this time he will be collecting data for a comparative study of Canadian and American teachers’ perspectives of HRE. He is also a doctoral candidate in McGill University’s Educational Psychology rogram, focusing his research efforts on the field of human rights education (HRE), with a specific emphasis on educators’ personal beliefs and professional practices in both formal and non-formal educational contexts. Before returning to academia full-time, Kevin worked as an Education Specialist with the Canadian Human Rights Foundation (CHRF) designing, developing, and evaluating HRE training programs. Kevin holds a Master's
degree in Educational Technology from Concordia University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from McGill University.

Patrick graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in Global Studies and minors in French and History in May 2005. His responsibilites at the Center include maintaining the online events calendar and field opportunities page, responding to inquiries, drafting and editing documents, co-coordinating the Human Rights Center Film Series, helping to maintain the Resource Center, and French-English document translation. His interests include politics, music, reading, and writing.

Ben is the Technical Coordinator for the Human Rights Center. His responsibilites include programming, development, and maintenance for all Center sponsored websites. He assists the department with technology plans and purchasing, provides user support, and is involved in other Human Rights Center multimedia projects such as video presentations and CD/DVDs distributed through the Center. Ben received his B.A. in Linguistics and French from Macalester College and has pursued further education and professional IT/web-related certification. He joined the staff of the Human Rights Center in June 2004. Ben's interests include reading, cooking, gardening, and exploring the outdoors by hiking, biking, and canoeing with his wife and two dogs.

Michelle Horton is the Development Coordinator for the Human Rights Center. She received her B.A. from the Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature Department at the University of Minnesota in 2003, and is currently enjoying using those critical thinking skills with her grant-writing duties. Michelle joined the Center in August 2005, and looks forward to successfully completing the annual grant-writing cycle. Michelle also enjoys making movies and taking classes about movies.

Meizani is a third year undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota pursuing a degree in Global Studies and Political Science. Born and raised in Indonesia, her interest in human rights has developed throughout her life. She joined the Human Rights Center staff in January 2004 and is responsible for the Human Rights Resource Center. She was a receipient of the Upper Midwest Human Rights Fellowship in 2005 and did her fellowship in Aceh, Indonesia for tsunami relief. She is now busy with school, work, volunteer, Aceh film project, and bike riding.

Kimberly Walsh hrfellow@umn.edu

Kimberly Walsh attended the University of Minnesota with a BA in International Relations. She joined the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center in 2002 following her Upper Midwest Human Rights Fellowship award with Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights in Seoul, South Korea. Since then, she has participated in the Trainer of Trainers in Human Rights Education and serves as the coordinator of the Upper Midwest Human Rights and Humphrey Fellowship Programs.

Leah Williams hrlib@umn.edu

Leah Williams joined the Human Rights Center staff team in March 2004. She is currently working on updating the English, Spanish and French versions of the Human Rights Library. Leah enjoys photography, reading, writing, and traveling.