Mubarak Awad, the founder and president, is an adjunct professor of nonviolent resistance at American University. He is affiliated with a number of renowned global nonviolent activists such as the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mairead McGuire. He was born in Jerusalem in 1943 and later chose Bluffton University over Yale University to pursue degrees in social work and psychology. He has since been influenced by Mennonite and Quaker pacifist ideologies. He obtained a master's degree from Saint Francis University and later a PhD in Psychology from Saint Louis University. In 1988, Awad was deported from Palestine for his leadership in helping spark the First Intifada; he is barred from all but short visits to his homeland.