Dr. Marcelle E. DuPraw (“Marci”) is a facilitator and mediator specializing in cross-cultural environmental challenges, landscape-scale collaboration, and collaborative capacity-building. She holds a PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution, as well as a Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies from UCSC and a Master’s in Natural Resource Policy, Economics, and Management from the University of Michigan. She works for a federal agency and also does occasional facilitation and mediation work on the side through her one-woman LLC called Collaborative Choices.
The Santa Cruz County United for Safe and Inclusive Communities project she initiated (SCCUSIC) is a pro bono passion project she took on as a tribute to her nephew, Taliesin Namkai-Meche, who was killed in a horrific hate crime in 2017. SCCUSIC is currently focused on spurring County-wide participation in United Against Hate Week, which is Nov. 14-20 this year. (Note that Patrice O’Neill’s Oakland-based NGO, Not In Our Town, started United Against Hate Week, which is now a national phenomenon.)
Marci has worked with many federal agencies, Tribes, states, NGOs, and corporations, as well as overseas in Russia, China, Estonia, Cyprus, and Denmark. Dr. DuPraw has played leadership roles in the Native Network, the Environment and Public Policy Sector of the Association for Conflict Resolution, and the University Network for Collaborative Governance. She is a recipient of the Sharon M. Pickett award for achievements in
environmental protection through alternative dispute resolution.
Patrice O’Neill is a filmmaker and CEO of the Oakland-based non-profit strategic media company, The Working Group and leader of Not In Our Town, a movement of people across the country working to build safe, inclusive communities for all. Her film Not In Our Town began as a half-hour PBS special and turned into a dynamic movement that thrives in communities across the U.S. and around the world.
For the past 20 years, O’Neill has collaborated with hate crime victims, activists, civic leaders and law enforcement to develop the NIOT model for hate crime response and prevention. As a nationally recognized leader in the anti-hate movement she has led action campaigns, counseled countless communities and individuals and presented her films and the Not In Our Town model across the U.S, in Europe, Russia and Ukraine.
O’Neill is co-director of United Against Hate Week, a civic action program launched by Bay Area city and civic leaders, educators and activists to raise awareness and spark action to stop hate and bias. Not In Our Town is working with city leaders to plan events for United Against Hate Week activities across California in 2019-2020.
Recognized as a pioneer in impact media producing, she served as a Sundance Media Advisor at the Skoll World Forum. O’Neill’s films include Light in the Darkness, Waking in Oak Creek about the transformation of a community after hate crime killings at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Camden’s Turn and A Prosecutor’s Stand, which are both part of a Not In Our Town series about local leaders and law enforcement working together to prevent hate crimes and build safe, inclusive communities. O’Neill is currently in production on Stories from the Tree of Life, a documentary focused on Pittsburgh area community actions to counter hate and anti-Semitism in the aftermath of hate crime killing of eleven Jewish people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in October 2018.
