Staff

Erik Gustafson

Executive Director (on sabbatical)
A veteran of the 1991 Gulf War, Erik spent eight months in Saudi Arabia with the 864th Engineer Battalion, building hospitals, roads and POW camps. In the mid-1990s, news of Iraq's humanitarian crisis under UN trade sanctions and the repressive regime of Saddam Hussein began to reach mainstream America. To better understand the ongoing legacy of the 1991 Gulf War, Erik traveled to Iraq with a humanitarian delegation in July 1997. Troubled by the intolerable suffering he witnessed, he moved to Washington in 1998 and founded the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, or EPIC: Promoting a Free & Secure Iraq, to improve humanitarian conditions and human rights in Iraq. Today Erik is a respected authority on Iraq and U.S. policy. He has testified at congressional briefings and delivered numerous lectures across North America. He is a frequent guest on the BBC World News, and has appeared on NBC Nightly News, the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, FoxNews, CNN, and other mainstream media outlets. His letters and opinion pieces have appeared in a dozen newspapers, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today.

Lauren Jenkins

National Coordinator
Lauren joined EPIC in March 2009. Lauren coordinates EPIC's work in Washington, DC, to further human rights and sustainable peace in Iraq. She comes to EPIC with experience advocating for human rights with Amnesty International USA, Oxfam America, and the Genocide Intervention Network. She also interned with Congresswoman Barbara Lee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Lauren has a Bachelor's degree from Howard University in African Studies.