Madeline is temporarily taking up the reins as the Friends Relations Associate.  Prior to AFSC, Madeline researched alternative economies in Philadelphia and worked with people returning from prison to organize against employment discrimination.  A lifelong Friend, Madeline is excited to rise with a new generation of Quaker social activists.

Mati Gomis-Perez served as AFSC's Country Representative for Israel and Palestine based in East Jerusalem.  Before she joined the AFSC in 2013, she worked for a number of non-governmental organizations in Spain and the occupied Palestinian territory, for UN Women in New York and Jordan, and the Spanish Agency for Development Cooperation in Jerusalem during the Second Intifada.

Note: Mati Gomis-Perez is AFSC's Country Representative for Israel and Palestine. Last week she went into Gaza after Operation Protective Edge and speaks about the impacts of the bombardment and occupation, and what's next. This is the most recent is a series of posts on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory by AFSC staff. You can read all of them here. - Lucy

In this interview, the Healing Justice Program Director Laura Magnani discusses the book she co-authored called Beyond Prisons: A New Interfaith Paradigm for Our Failed Prison System.

Note: This year Laura Magnani gave the final plenary address at the FGC Gathering. She focused her remarks on her long years working within and outside the criminal justice system, grappling with a system which she believes embodies and carries out evil.  In her talk she spoke about the power of nonviolence and love to upend both the racism out of which mass incarceration has arisen and the system itself and to find a way to a “new normal” based on transformative justice.