The MCD Team
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 thinking and cross-cultural diversity. Ashok has worked with a range of organizations, including Fortune 500 and mid-size companies, educational institutions, government agencies 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).
Gayathri Chakkangal, Mediator and Trustee
As MCD’s first employee, Gayathri has been integral in helping establish the organization. Apart from being a Trustee, her involvement at MCD includes management and administration, mediation and facilitation. She mediates cases in MCD’s Family Mediation program and is currently working to establish MCD’s first Community Mediation Centre in Bangalore. She has a B.A. in Psychology from Christ College in Bangalore and worked as a Human Resources consultant before joining MCD. In her spare time she conducts workshops on yoga and stress management.
Beth Fascitelli, Senior Manager
Having recently joined MCD as a Project Manager, Beth specializes in facilitating Dialogue and Consensus Building with multiple stakeholders. Previously, she worked as a Program Coordinator in the Washington, D.C. office of the Keystone Center, which uses consensus-building to help decision-makers address challenging societal issues. Beth completed a Masters of International Affairs at Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in New York City, 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 worked briefly 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 directed a multi-stakeholder public health campaign and involved Spanish-speaking immigrants in the organization’s initiatives. Beth has worked or studied in the U.S., Nigeria, Thailand, Mexico and Costa Rica. She is a trained mediator and holds a B.A. in anthropology and English from Amherst College.
Kaori Suzuki, Outreach Fellow
As MCD’s Outreach Fellow from Japan, Kaori assists with our Outreach and fundraising initiatives. Prior to joining MCD, she completed a documentation internship with India Development Service (International), a non-profit organization in Dharwad, Karnataka working for social and economic development of the rural poor. Also in Dharwad, she conducted a project evaluation for Jagruti, a Dalit human rights advocacy organization. Kaori has an M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from Arcadia University in Philadelphia. She also completed a semester of study in NGO project management at the Australian National University in Canberra.
Rafael Tyszblat, Senior Manager
An MCD staff member of two years, Rafael has managed several of MCD’s key projects, including the NGO Dialogue and the annual Film Festival. He also contributes to MCD as a mediator, mediation trainer and Dialogue facilitator. Rafael has practiced conflict management in France with the Centre de Médiation et de Formation a la Médiation (CMFM) where he mediated court-referred small crime cases. He also has experience with youth mediation in schools. In India, Rafael has consulted with both a major Indian IT firm and a private international school on strategies to resolve conflict and improve collaboration. Rafael has an M.A. in Political Science from the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences-po) in Paris, an M.Phil in International Relations from the University of Paris in Sorbonne and an M.A. in Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford in the U.K.
