Importance of dignity in conflict resolution explored by bestselling author, BBC cohost

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Dr. Donna Hicks

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (10/24/2014)(readMedia)-- The motivating forces behind most human interaction – from interpersonal to global -- are dignity and respect. When a person's dignity is violated, the response often is vengeful, aggressive and hate-filled. The upheaval following the Ferguson shooting incident is a vivid example. As is the Iraq-ISIS conflict, civil wars and the backlash and bad blood of bullying.

Dr. Donna Hicks, conflict facilitator and author of the bestselling book "Dignity: The Essential Role It Plays in Resolving Conflict," visits Elizabethtown College at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, for a free discussion, "A Matter of Dignity: The Role it Plays in Resolving Conflict."

Hicks' talk, a part of the Leffler Memorial Lecture series, takes place in the College's Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. The dynamic and thought-provoking speaker brings insights on dignity and conflict resolution to her award-winning presentations – including several TED Talks – and introduces the audience to the basic elements of dignity and how to put them into practice in everyday life.

Hicks' bestselling book, published by Yale University Press, boasts a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. With the Archbishop, she cohosted the BBC show "Facing the Truth," a three-part television series that brought victims and perpetrators of the Northern Ireland conflict together to find resolution.

Dignity, according to Hicks, is an unspoken human yearning at the heart of all conflict. When dignity is violated, the human connection is the first thing to go. When treated with dignity, however, the parties involved feel their worth is recognized. This creates lasting and meaningful relationships among coworkers, family members and heads of nations.

Surprisingly, Hicks notes, most people have little understanding of dignity. While the desire to maintain it is universal, knowing how to honor it in ourselves and others is not.

With 20 years of experience as a facilitator during international conflicts in the Middle East, Sri Lanka, Columbia, Cuba, Northern Ireland and the United States, her unique focus has been on dignity and the essential role it plays. She has transformed work environments for the world's most prominent companies, non-profits and governmental agencies -- past clients are the World Bank, United Nations, the U.S. Navy and the Senate of Columbia.

Hicks presently is an associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and has educated the nation's brightest minds at Harvard, Clark and Columbia universities.

She was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University Department of Psychology from 1991 to 1993 and, at University of Wisconsin-Madison, she earned her doctoral degree in psychology in 1991, her master's degree in social work in 1988, her master's degree in human development in 1987 and her bachelor's degree in 1983.

Hicks is a visiting professor at Columbia University and a consultant and speaker.

Contact: 717-361-4757 or lectureseries@etown.edu

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Elizabethtown College, located in historic Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a private coed institution offering more than four dozen liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education degrees. Learn more: http://www.etown.edu/about/

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