Giandomenico Picco, M.A.

Senior Faculty Fellow







Profile
A former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Giandomenico Picco has also served the UN as Personal Representative of Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the United Nations Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations. Mr. Picco is currently CEO and founder of GDP Associates, Inc. in New York City, and President of the non-governmental Peace Strategies Project in Geneva, Switzerland.

During his accomplished twenty year career at the United Nations, Mr. Picco served as Assistant-Secretary-General for Political Affairs. Notable achievements during this time included the United Nations efforts leading to the release of the Western hostages in Lebanon and the negotiations which led to the cease fire between Iran and Iraq. He represented the Secretary-General in the negotiations of the Geneva Accords (1998) on Afghanistan and in the Rainbow Warrior arbitration.

Mr. Picco holds a Masters of Arts in International Relations and Comparative Politics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a diploma in European Integration Studies from the University of Amsterdam. He completed his undergraduate studies in political science from the University of Padua.

Juan Cobarrubias, Ph.D.

Faculty Fellow

cobarrju@shu.edu





Profile
Juan Cobarrubias is a Professor of Educational Studies and serves as the Director of Bilingual and Bicultural Education in the College of Education and Human Services. He is a founding member of the School of Diplomacy.

Dr. Cobarrubias received a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Buenos Aires, a M.Phil. from Columbia University, and a M.A. from the University of Michigan.

Gisela Webb, Ph.D.

Faculty Fellow

webbgise@shu.edu





Profile
Gisela Webb is Director of Seton Hall University’s Honors Program and a founding member of the School of Diplomacy. Dr. Webb teaches courses on Islam, world religions, women’s issues and human rights.

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and raised in the southwestern United States, she obtained a Ph.D. at Temple University in 1989, with doctoral work on Medieval Islamic Thought. Throughout her career, Dr. Webb has been a ground-breaking activist and contemporary scholar on inter-religious dialogue and peace-and-justice work.

Dr. Webb has completed several publications on both classical and contemporary Islam. Most recently, as editor of the highly acclaimed Windows of Faith: Muslim Women Scholar-Activists in North America, a collection of essays by leading Muslim women scholars on the subject of Muslim women’s rights. This book is currently being translated into Arabic for dissemination in the Middle East.

Monsignor Robert J. Wister, D.Eccl. History

Faculty Fellow

wisterro@shu.edu





Profile
Monsignor Robert J. Wister is Associate Professor of Church History in the School of Theology and a founding member of the School of Diplomacy.

Monsignor Wister has published widely in the United States Catholic Historian, the Catholic Historical Review, Theological Studies, Theological Education, Thought, and Momentum. His most recent publications include a book chapter dealing with AIDS ministry and a 150-year history of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

For over two decades Monsignor Wister has served as a consultant to CBS News, including as co-anchor with Winston Burdett in Rome during the death of Pope John Paul I. He currently contributes on matters concerning Catholicism and the Vatican.

Monsignor Wister earned a Doctorate in Ecclesiastical History summa cum laude from the Jesuit Gregorian University in Rome, with his dissertation was on “The Establishment of the Apostolic Delegation in the United States: The Satolli Mission.

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