ACR Eighth Annual Conference

Rev. Mpho A. Tutu, an Episcopal priest and founder and executive director of the Tutu Institute for Prayer and Pilgrimage, has received the first Marvin E. Johnson Diversity and Equity Award from the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR). The award recognizes a sustained, outstanding contribution or a specific extraordinary achievement that has enhanced diversity and equity within an area of society. It honors the dedicated leadership, compassion and passionate advocacy of individuals who have successfully contributed to removing barriers or obstacles to full and equal participation at various levels of society.

Rev. Tutu was acknowledged specifically for her work at the Tutu Institute for Prayer and Pilgrimage. Like Marvin E. Johnson, for whom the award is named, Rev. Tutu was recognized for helping transform people and organizations, for her understanding of the interconnectedness of the world, and for her personal level of action from which great accomplishments can and do occur. Her global work provides an accurate portrayal of the positive impact many people of faith have on conflict prevention and peaceful resolution of conflict.

For several years prior to her ordination, Rev. Tutu was Director of the Discovery Program at All Saints Church, a weekday and summer ministry for children in the downtown Worcester, Massachusetts. She also worked as the Seminarian Associate at St. Michael's-on-the-Heights Church in Worcester.

Rev. Tutu studied and taught in Grahamstown, South Africa, at the College of the Transfiguration, the Provincial Episcopal seminary of Southern Africa. While at the College, she joined the Mother's Union, and worked in both Xhosa- and English-speaking congregations. With a grant from the Episcopal Evangelical Education Society, she initiated pastoral care ministry for a rape survivors and their families.

Rev. Tutu began her ordained ministry at Historic Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia. She now serves as Assisting Priest at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. She is an experienced public speaker and preacher having recently addressed groups and congregations as diverse as Trinity, Copley Square, Massachusetts, Mother Bethel AME church in Philadelphia, The University of Minnesota at Mankato and the Women’s Club of Richmond.

For five years, Rev. Tutu was Director of the Bishop Desmond Tutu Southern African Refugee Scholarship Fund of the Phelps Stokes Fund. That program provided full four-year college scholarships to refugees from South African and Namibia.

Rev. Mpho Tutu is the chairperson of the board of the Global AIDS Alliance and a member of the advisory board Reinvest in South Africa (RISA). Rev. Tutu holds a Master of Divinity Degree from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA.

The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) is a professional organization dedicated to enhancing the practice and public understanding of conflict resolution. ACR represents and serves a diverse national and international audience that includes more than 5,000 mediators, arbitrators, facilitators, educators, and others involved in the field of conflict resolution and collaborative decision-making. For more information about ACR and the annual conference, visit http://www.ACRnet.org.

Marvin E. Johnson is a nationally recognized mediator, arbitrator and trainer with 30 years of dispute resolution experience and extensive international experience. He is the founder and executive director of the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution whose mission is to promote and provide education and comprehensive approaches to dispute resolution constructively serving the needs of a culturally diverse society. The Center began as a self-sustaining entity and was the first and only Dispute Resolution Center at a Historically Black College or University.

Johnson’s background includes experience mediating and arbitrating with corporate, federal and state agencies, local government entities as well as facilitating, mediating and arbitrating employment and contract issues between and within organizations in both public and private sectors. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the Federal Service Impasses Panel, where he served from 1999 to 2002.

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