Sarah Bach
Interested in environmental ethics and politics, the effective communication of sustainability issues, and the foundations of environmental stewardship. As a Tobis Fellow at the Center, she will be interviewing 'Environmental Exemplars'-- people who give substantially of themselves to environmental causes through philanthropy, volunteerism, protest, endorsements, education, the arts, celebrity status, sustainable living, and more.

Andrada Costoiu

Andrada Costou obtained her Masters in Political Science in December 2008 and she is currently completing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago with a specialization in International Relations and Comparative Politics. Her thesis analyzes the deportation policy in United States. She is part of a social sciences evaluation team within the Executive Agency for Higher Education Research Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI). In this function she evaluated projects by research partners from three EFTA States (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and Romania. As a Tobis Fellow Andrada Costoiu is involved in a project developed by the Center of Ethics and Morality that centers on the psychological effects of war on people who were displaced as result of war. In the past two years she conducted fieldwork in Jordan where she interviewed Syrian war refuges.

Angeliki Kavanou

Her research interests are informed by her conviction that peace does not start when agreements are signed but only when conditions of structural violence are addressed and eliminated.

Lina Kreidie
Dr. Kreidie is a 2017-18 US Fulbright scholar in Jordan. Kreidie has been a lecturer of political psychology, Middle East politics, conflict management and resolution, peace studies since 2000. Kreidie's academic, professional and consultancy experience included but not limited to a political advisor to prime minister of Lebanon Mr. Najib Mikati 2010-2013. Director, Middle East Prospect Forum Beirut Lebanon 2010-2012, Director of Middle East Studies Student Initiative, UC Irvine: 2007-2011. Among Kreidie's publications Living with Ongoing Political Trauma: The Prevalence and Impact of PTSD among Syrian Refugees; The Role of non- Governmental Organizations in Tackling Sectarianism and Extremism in Lebanon: Track Two Diplomacy and Good Governance; The Rise of Iran: An Identity Fight to Challenge the Existing Power Establishment Contesting US Hegemony, Israeli, and Sunni Powers in the Middle East. [CV]

Ramona Martinez

Her interests include societal and political psychology, social representations (lay knowledge), empathetic development, issue framing and moral economy (collective normative ideas on responsibility, fairness, and social obligation). She holds a BA in Political Science with a minor in Sociology from Loyola Marymount University.

The Tobis Medal and the Jerome and Hazel Tobis Day

The UCI Ethics Center is pleased to announce the inauguration of an annual Jerome and Hazel Tobis Day and the Tobis Medal.

Tobis Day

The Jerome and Hazel Tobis Day will be held once a year to honor the life, achievements and contributions of Jerry and Hazel Tobis. We will coordinate the Tobis Day so it occurs on the day of the Annual Awards Banquet, usually held in early June. The precise details of the Tobis Day may shift over time but current plans are to:

Host a luncheon to honor the Tobis Fellows on the day of the Annual Awards Banquet;

Ask each past Fellow who can attend to do so and give a short presentation noting what the Fellow did while at UCI, what the Fellow is now doing, and suggesting how the participation in the Tobis Fellows program helped that person. Fellows who cannot attend will be asked to prepare and send a short video recording or Skype in to present their progress report. These reports will be available on the web and will be played at the Tobis luncheon. We will add to these each year;

Honor the new and current Tobis Fellows and ask them to attend the luncheon – with their families or guests if they so wish – to discuss what they plan on doing or what they have done as Tobis Fellows;

Foster the spirit of giving back to your community by encouraging – although certainly not requiring – Tobis Fellows to consider eventually making some kind of contribution to the Tobis Fellow Fund after they leave UCI and their time as a Fellow has ended.

The Tobis Medal

Each year we will select one – five people who have lived their lives in the spirit of Jerry Tobis, by achieving in their field but also by giving back to their society in some way – and giving these people the Tobis Medal at the Awards Banquet. We will use the afternoon of the Tobis Day to have the current Tobis Fellows and the Director – plus whatever Center faculty and friends wish to attend – participate in oral histories of the lives of the Tobis Medalist honorees. These oral histories will be filmed and transcribed for safekeeping in the Center’s Vaughn Archives. Each Tobis Medalist will be given a copy of the oral history. Eventually some of these oral histories might be published in a book whose theme would be how one person can make a difference in the world.