Joyce Neu

By Dan Bennett

Photo by Brevin Blach

ANY TIME IS A GOOD TIME FOR PEACE. That’s the view of Joyce Neu, executive director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice, a learning center and conflict-solving organization on the campus of the University of San Diego. “Whether it’s the late 1960s, today or anytime in between, we’ve seen there is always a need for people to think strongly about peace, and take action to get there,” Neu says. “Ultimately, it’s the only logical recourse.” When Joan Kroc died last October, she left a $50 million endowment for the institute.

The principal amount will remain permanently invested and the interest used to finance the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, based at the institute, where graduate students train in peace and conflict methods.

“Mrs. Kroc was very aware of what was going on in Iraq, and very distressed,” Neu says. “She was determined that the next generation have a better understanding of the tools that can be used to achieve peace.”

Neu has dedicated most of her adult life to seeking and negotiating peace in war-torn and injustice-ravaged countries around the world.

The former linguist spent several years at The Carter Center as a close colleague of former President Jimmy Carter, honing her negotiating skills, before taking over the Kroc Institute when it opened in 2001.

At The Carter Center, Neu played a major role in peace-seeking missions in Bosnia, the Sudan, the Congo, Ethiopia and Mali. In recent years she has steered the Kroc Institute’s efforts in two primary global directions, looking to find and maintain peace in troubled Uganda and Nepal.

“These processes have gone on quietly,” Neu says. “We’ve had more attention internationally than we’ve had in San Diego, where we’ve had modest visibility. San Diego has been very supportive of our efforts, though, especially in our lecture series.”

High-level speakers from around the world visit the institute regularly and give talks to capacity audiences, telling of their peace-negotiating experiences worldwide. Neu organizes these events, continuing a passion that began for her when she realized she could use her linguist skills to help people better understand the viewpoints of a political or military opponent.

“I like the idea of being engaged, of allowing ideas to get started, evolve and flourish,” Neu says. “I still maintain that hokey idea that everyone can get along, no matter how impractical. The challenge is in establishing the route to ending the conflict, and all the many factors that must be considered.”

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