Ev Meade is Director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego, where he leads certificate programs in peace building and human rights in the areas of Mexico most affected by the drug war, and directs the Trans-Border Opportunities Certificate Program, a field-based introduction to the politics, places, people, and products that define the U.S.-Mexico border. Before coming to USD in 2014, Dr. Meade was a professor in the History Department and co-founder of the Human Rights Program at UC San Diego. Dr. Meade served as an expert witness in immigration courts across the country, in dozens of asylum cases involving Mexican nationals fleeing the current wave of violence. He regularly briefs U.S. law enforcement and foreign service officers on country conditions in Mexico and he is a frequent Op-Ed contributor on related issues. He delivered a highly charged and motivational talk about the peace building process in violence ridden states of Mexico.
His childhood roots are from the Mexican state of Sinaloa (the place of notorious El Chappo), which ranks 30 out of 31 with regards to violence. He says that there is a huge gap between the positive and negative peace factor. According to Ev, foreigners are not targeted in these places. Executions are usually tied to gang-related or to extract information or to keep some secrets silent.
He promotes and teaches the "I Am Somebody" principles that was originally started by Jesse Jackson back in 1972. The key principles are, Recognition, Positive Support and Integration. He encourages people to visit Mexico since it is one of the financial powerhouses for the Spanish world and is one of the 15th wealthiest countries. Every other week he takes 10-15 students into one of these problematic states so that his students can experience first-hand process of peace building.
He is on the board of 7 different organizations, such as, one that prevents violence in agricultural communities, another one that collects testimonies & narratives of life in contemporary Culiacán, one for developing secure and effective mechanisms to document and report abuses of power, etc. In the end stand-in President Jan Parsons presented Ev with the Joshua School donation certificate that represents donation of school supplies to schools in Malawi in the name of the speaker.
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