Anastacia Dadashpour

Anastacia Dadashpour is the author of Love, A Manual for Humanity, a book written in response to the author’s long quest to answer the question: How does war end?She was raised in a multicultural and acutely political family, where she was introduced to a multitude of ideas about the functioning of society.Her first publication was a poem written in 1991, at 16 years old, in response to the first Gulf War.Influenced by the tragedy of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Anastacia wanted to understand how international policy is constructed and implemented.She completed her graduate work at the Korbel School of International Studies, looking at Human Rights and Conflict Resolution in the Middle East.As a former journalist who focused on documenting the stories of less privileged individuals and communities, she dedicated herself to examining power, privilege, and the human spirit.Anastacia worked in the non-profit sector for many years, supporting women in Central America through micro-loans and cross-cultural communication, education, and creative expression in diverse populations in the US.As a board member of the Denver Council on Foreign Relations, she established a series of educational events for young professionals in Colorado.Her ongoing interest in the Middle East led her to work with the Boulder Nablus Sister City Project to promote human-to-human diplomacy between Colorado and the West Bank of Palestine, where she has had the privilege of visiting twice.Over the last decade, Anastacia has been most interested in understanding others through the art of curiosity and communication.She has become a facilitator of Unitive Justice, a community dialogue process that de-escalates conflict.All the while, Dadashpour has sought to cultivate an ongoing investigation into the nature and potency of the human spirit. She has been influenced by Kundalini yoga, Vipassana meditation and ecstatic dance.She is a proud mother of two daughters, Azaria, who is in spirit, and Izabela, who is her greatest joy.She has traveled extensively, being profoundly impacted by the people, places, and cultures she has visited, and has remained committed to understanding the world through exploration.She currently splits her time between Denver, CO and Costa Rica.