Hoda Mahmoudi has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Utah and is currently Research Professor and Bahá’í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland, as well as Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Women’s Studies. Before joining the University of Maryland faculty, Professor Mahmoudi served as the coordinator of the Research Department at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel from 2001 to 2012.  Prior to that, Dr. Mahmoudi was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northeastern Illinois University, where she was also a faculty member in the Department of Sociology. Her research interests include the exploration of the barriers to global peace through examination of structural racism and the roots of prejudice, empowerment of women and peace, global governance and leadership, human nature, and overcoming challenges in the globalization of the environment. Her recent publications include two volumes, Children and Globalization; Multidisciplinary Perspectives,  co-edited with Professor Steven Mintz of the University of Texas at Austin, and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Dignity and Human Rights, co-edited with Professor Michael Penn of Franklin and Marshall College. In 2016, Dr. Mahmoudi was the recipient of the University Honors Outstanding Faculty Award.