Keynote Speaker

Jayne Seminare Docherty

Jayne Seminare Docherty grew up in a career military family. Her father went to Vietnam when she was eleven and returned when she was twelve years old. By then, Jayne had joined the anti-war movement and begun her life’s journey advocating for justice and peace. Along the way, she earned her undergraduate degree from Brown University and a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University. She also studied theology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Her dissertation research, published by Syracuse University Press as Learning Lessons from Waco: When Parties Bring Their Gods to the Negotiation Table, reflects her longstanding interest in problem-solving negotiation as a necessary yet inadequate tool for addressing deeply rooted, intractable conflicts. Jayne joined the faculty at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in 2001. After twenty-one years teaching and learning alongside colleagues and with inspiring peace and justice practitioners from around the world, she retired as the Executive Director in 2022. Between 2008 and 2013, she worked with graduates from Myanmar on efforts to transition that country from a repressive military dictatorship to democratic governance. Not surprisingly, changing sixty years of repression is a long journey with many setbacks. Yet, the work continues.
While Jayne did not have “resisting an authoritarian movement and protecting democracy in the United States” on her bingo card for retirement, that is now her life focus. It involves supporting resistance and noncooperation activities in her community as well as promoting political change. Jayne has worked on several political campaigns in a part of Virginia that has been solidly Republican for forty-five years. She is currently working with a congressional candidate preparing for the mid-term election in 2026. The only way to win that seat is to build a broad coalition of people who identify as Republican, Independent, Libertarian, and Democrat, along with thousands who have given up on politics and no longer vote. Everything she is doing is informed by what she learned from the peacebuilders who studied at CJP.

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once: How Do We Build Justice and Peace When Systems are Collapsing?

Since taking office in January 2025, the current US administration has upended long-standing international trade and security systems, while also dismantling significant portions of the governance systems that US residents rely on for safety, security, and well-being. They are also well on the way to building a national secret police state. Their actions impact everyone across the planet and the earth itself, as they roll back all efforts to combat climate change. How are we supposed to promote justice and build peace amid this chaos?

The chaos creates a sense of urgency that makes it hard to know where to start. We need to do everything, everywhere, all at once. But no one person or organization needs to do it all. So, how do you identify your calling and role right now and trust that others are doing the rest?

Just as important, how do you decide when to encourage the disruption of systems that need to be dismantled, even if we didn’t envision this particular way of reaching that goal? How do you decide when to defend systems and traditional norms? Is protecting the rule of law and norms of civility enough? Are we just trying to restore order? Or can we use this moment of chaos to advance substantial, long-needed changes in our social, economic, and political systems?

Let’s start with the assumption that our goal is to harvest opportunities for changing old systems of injustice, oppression, and violence while simultaneously resisting tyranny. To do that, we need guiding principles and questions to inform our daily decisions about peace and justice work in this chaotic time. Let’s explore those questions and identify some principles together.