Malika Cox is a longtime peacebuilder and restorative justice leader with over 20 years of experience working in nonprofits and grassroots movements around the world. She holds graduate degrees in International Law and Diplomacy, Conflict Resolution, and Practical Theology, and has studied at places such as Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Trinity College Dublin, Regent University, and Harvard Divinity School. Her work brings together deep academic knowledge and lived, hands-on wisdom.
Malika has been involved in peace and justice practices in Northern Ireland, Oklahoma and Jerusalem—places that have taught her the power of healing after conflict. Her research on digital peacebuilding earned her the James Haire Dissertation Award. She’s also worked with organizations such as The Spero Project, which supports new neighbors in Oklahoma City in refugee resettlement, and The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies.
In response to years of community work and a deep calling for restorative justice, Malika founded MEND, a nonprofit in Oklahoma City focused on peacemaking and community repair through dialogue, healing, and spiritual connection.
In Spring 2025, she served as the Activist-in-Residence at the University of Oklahoma’s Center for Social Justice, where she led workshops and taught about peacebuilding and justice.
Malika is also a skilled facilitator who leads workshops on transformational leadership, spiritual growth, and community healing. She consults with organizations and justice systems, helping them move toward truth, repair, and compassion.
Professional Background
Consultant - Consult for Organizations around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging: Oklahoma Women’s Coalition - Pipeline to Politics, Lilyfield - Americorps Participants, Churches, and CityCare OKC
Flourish OKC, Restorative Justice Platform Lead - Flourish fosters collaboration among community builders, peacemakers, and culture creators in Oklahoma City. Together, we're reshaping the landscape of creative partnership.
The Oklahomans For Grace Campaign, Project Manager - The Oklahomans For Grace Campaign stands with faith leaders, community advocates, and change agents to champion a moratorium on the death penalty in Oklahoma. We're committed to implementing the recommendations of the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, ensuring fairness, innocence, and humane treatment.
Flourish OKC’s Restorative Justice Fellowship Administrator - a 9-month transformative journey that connects restorative justice practitioners to one another and integrates them within the Flourish OKC community. Together, we're fostering sustainability and readiness for future endeavors in restorative justice.
On Being’s Social Healing Fellowship, Fellow - The fellowship accompanies a small cohort of ten leaders who are initiating and fostering social healing efforts in their local communities — with attention to those devoted to facets of social healing work that address deep fractures in our public life, particularly in terms of engaging racial healing work and/or addressing rural/urban divides.
2017 The Clonard Monastery Peace and Reconciliation Mission - The mission is to awaken the Church and the world to the call of God to bring peace to the Earth, respecting the dignity of each person, enabling them to contribute to the common good and enhancing in our society the longed for culture of encounter, bonding and partnership. The location of Clonard Monastery on the "borderline" between the Catholic Falls and the Protestant Shankill placed it at the centre of the deep-seated historical conflict. The Clonard Peace and Reconciliation Mission continues to work and pray for the reconciliation and unity of all Christ’s disciples.
Educational Background
Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy at Fletcher School of Global Affairs at Tufts University in December of 2023, focusing on Global Governance and International Organizations. Fletcher facilitated a course at Harvard Divinity School - Reparation as a Spiritual Practice.
Master of Philosophy in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation at Trinity College Dublin, Irish School of Ecumenics, in 2017
Master of Arts in Practical Theology at Regent University in 2016
Bachelor of Arts, the University of Oklahoma, Administrative Leadership 2010
Introduction to Conflict Mediation Trinity College Dublin, March 2017
Join the Mend the World Movement
Malika is the founder of Mend, which is a community of peacemakers and restorative justice practitioners engaging Oklahoma City in seeking truth, restorative justice, healing, and the common good.
Mend envisions a world where truth-telling, empathy, and restorative justice guide us back to ourselves as interconnected, and beloved, and called to the sacred work of repair and peace. A world where all flourish.
MEND cultivates spaces of healing and transformation through restorative justice, community care, and embodied peacemaking. We face the truth with courage, hold space for lament, and walk with communities toward repair—so that justice is not retributive but restorative, not imposed but co-created.
Malika offers compassionate and strategic consulting for individuals, organizations, teams, and corporate HR departments seeking to transform leadership styles and co-create healthier work cultures. Through the lens of restorative justice, she guides individual teams toward deeper listening, honest dialogue, and authentic connection. Her approach fosters trust, accountability, and renewal—transforming conflict into opportunity and leadership into a practice of presence, truth, and collective flourishing.
Reviews
"Malika Cox is the perfect storm of impeccable brilliance, passion, and praxis. Her transformational leadership style inspires any audience to believe in what is possible when head and heart come together for global impact." - Cece Jones Davis, Justice for Julius and Sing For Change
“Malika is bold, articulate, and self-aware. She manages to expertly weave knowledge plus compassion into every project. She speaks truth but displays grace. She leads with conviction. She's a phenomenal teacher who speaks from a place that she has wrestled with and walked out. Malika is the real deal and makes every individual, team, and community around her better, stronger, and more whole.” - Chad Jordan, CEO LM Workforce
"Malika engaged our fellowship cohort with remarkable purpose, clarity, honesty, and care. I think of her as a healing and courageous presence in a hurting world, who sees the humanity and light within everyone and bridges identities and worlds through soulful action." - Eddie Gonzales, On Being Project, Director of Engagement
“Malika has the most remarkable ability to inform, educate, and articulate concepts in a way that causes her audience to experience deep reflection, challenge long-held beliefs, and resolve to move toward a more just society. The insight she has gained through both experience and study is life-changing, and any community, city, institution, or individual will be a better version of itself for engaging her work.” Kim Bandy, Director, and Co-Founder of The Spero Project
“It has been a privilege getting to know Malika over these past number of months during which she has so graciously served in our Peace and Reconciliation Mission in Clonard. She has made a significant impact on our work and vision as we continue to strive to bring healing and reconciliation to Northern Ireland.” - Ed Peterson, Coordinator, Clonard Peace and Reconciliation Mission, Clonard Monastery
Malika offers workshops inviting reflection and action rooted in restorative justice, truth and healing, and human flourishing. Drawing from her expertise in international law, transitional justice, and restorative practices, she creates learning spaces where participants explore global frameworks for peace alongside practical tools for local transformation. Her workshops cover compassionate communication, community flourishing, and trauma-informed justice—equipping individuals and teams to lead with integrity, empathy, and courage.
Malika Cox is a speaker who brings depth, presence, and clarity to every platform she steps on to. She has spoken at the University of Oklahoma, in conferences, on panels, and in intimate workshop settings, offering insights on restorative justice, digital peacebuilding, compassionate communication, confidence, and authentic leadership. Whether addressing a room of global changemakers or guiding a community circle, Malika weaves together lived experience, academic expertise, and wisdom—inviting audiences into more profound truth, connection, and collective flourishing. To book Malika for your next conference, workshop, or panel, please get in touch below.
Past speaking engagements:
The University of Oklahoma, WGS Activist in Residence Spring 2025.
Mend Flourish 2024, Oklahoma - Peacemaker Cohort Speaker Series and Restorative Justice Fellowship
Flourish OKC, Rest Cohort on Divine Rest
Mend Chrysalis Retreat 2024, Oklahoma - Speaker on Justice and Divine Rest
Flourish OKC Restorative, 2022, Sante Fe, New Mexico, Anti-Death Penalty Retreat
Flourish OKC 2022, Oklahoma - Restorative Justice Faith Symposium
The Table OKC Church 2018-2021
Simplicity Church 2021, Oklahoma
The Zarrow Symposium 2020, Oklahoma - Workshop - Peace and Technology
Confidence Con - 2019, Oklahoma - Panel Speaker
The Spero Project 2017, Oklahoma- Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding
The Ireland Peacemaker trip is a transformative journey to Northern Ireland that takes you back to the era known as 'The Troubles,' which unfolded between 1969 and 1998 and shaped history in this beautiful region. Together, we explore the roots of 'The Troubles,' delve into the complex history, and witness the remarkable transformation that led to the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998. Learn about key players in the peace process, hear their stories, and gain insights into their challenges. The itinerary includes visits to museums dedicated to preserving the history and memory of 'The Troubles,' offering a comprehensive view of the events that unfolded during those turbulent years, as well as tours and reconciliation centers. Peacemaker isn't merely a journey; it presents a chance to acquire profound insights into Northern Ireland's distinctive conflict and peace dynamics while identifying similarities that intertwine with struggles for peace and conflict resolution worldwide.
Check out Malika’s career and educational background on her LinkedIn Profile.
Malika Cox is a compelling podcast guest whose voice conveys clarity and depth. She has shared her insights on Flourish OKC and The Mental Health Download (Restorative Justice and Criminal Justice Reform), Foundations for Liberating Minds (Restorative Justice), and The Divine Purpose Podcast (Flourishing). With a rare blend of academic rigor and soulful wisdom, Malika speaks on transformational leadership, restorative justice, peacemaking, international law, theology, conflict resolution, transitional justice, truth-telling, and human and planetary flourishing. To invite Malika into your conversation, please contact us @malika@mendokc.com.
I had the incredible opportunity to serve as the Activist in Residence at the University of Oklahoma’s WGS Center for Social Justice for the Spring of 2025. I had a fantastic time, spending powerful and deeply meaningful engagement with students, faculty, and community members committed to restorative justice and transformation.
Through workshops, dialogues, and shared learning, we explored restorative justice, peacemaking, and how to move toward collective repair and renewal. Witnessing the passion and insight of the next generation of changemakers was inspiring and reaffirmed my belief that transformation begins with courageous conversations and intentional action.
Malika Cox is a writer and curriculum designer whose work bridges restorative justice, peacemaking, and spiritual transformation. She is the author of Flourish OKC: Restorative Justice Learning Initiative, a hybrid video and written curriculum exploring Oklahoma’s incarceration and recidivism crisis through the lens of restorative justice—focusing on prevention, diversion, rehabilitation, and reintegration. Her current curriculum, Peacemaker: The Beatitudes as a Path to Inner and Societal Transformation, invites learners into a decolonized, justice-centered approach to Jesus’ teachings. Malika’s academic publications include two graduate dissertations: Holy Cyber Lands, an exploration of virtual peace dialogues between Palestinians and Israelis, and Five Case Studies on the Invocation of the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice, a legal and moral investigation into international responses to atrocity. She also writes reflections, essays, and blogs on peacemaking, Christian mysticism, and communal healing. Her forthcoming book, Peacemaker: Leaving Toxic Christianity and Finding Jesus’s Way of Being in the World, reimagines the words of Christ as a path of inner restoration and public repair—a return to Eden amid empire.
Malika is deeply committed to rest as a sacred act of resistance decolonization, and restoration. In a world driven by systems of oppression that glorify productivity, consumerism, and endless busyness, she embraces a decolonized way of being—rooted in presence, healing, and connection. Her vision of human and planetary flourishing includes rest, prayer, meditation, Ayurvedic practices, and somatic movement. She honors the Earth's rhythms, valuing joy, travel, friendship, time with loved ones, and slow moments with her beloved pup, Mr. Darcy. For Malika, life is not merely a career—it is communion: with the Earth, with Spirit, and with one another. Her work flows from a Christian mystical lens that reimagines leadership and restorative justice as pathways back to Eden, the new earth—where wholeness, stillness, and sacred connection guide the way home
Malika Cox is a steadfast advocate for human rights, nature rights and dedicating her voice and work to pressing global and local issues. In Oklahoma, she champions criminal justice reform and the abolition of the death penalty, addressing the state's high execution rates and advocating for equitable legal practices. She also focuses on improving women's health and wellness in Oklahoma, which presently is at #51 in the United States. Internationally, Malika calls for an end to the blockade in Gaza and supports the self-determination of the Palestinian people, which aligns with reports from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that highlight the apartheid and humanitarian crises in the region. She raises awareness about the exploitation of cobalt mining and other exploitative mining practices in the Democratic Republic of Congo, urging accountability for corporations benefiting from such practices like Tesla and diamond and resource extraction companies such as Dan Gertler International. Malika also brings attention to the ongoing civil war in Sudan, advocating for global recognition and a massive response to the humanitarian crisis. Her advocacy calls for accountability to states violating international law such as Myanmar against the Rohingya, Russia against the Ukrainians, China aginst the Uyghurs, and Israel against the Gazan people. She condemns gender apartheid in Afghanistan and the oppression of women and girls everywhere. Malika is especially steadfastly opposed to the current U.S. administration policies of unlawful deportation and incarceration of immigrants and migrants and the ongoing ethnic cleansing against Black Americans and the Indigenous people. She supports the LGBTQ community and opposes the scapegoating of trans people by the right in the U.S. Malika stands against the Trump administration close association to oligarchs such as Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk and their clear conflict of interest in ending democracy and in their exploitative and greedy practices. She opposes the U.S. Republican parties oppressive actions to rob women of their bodily autonomy and their hard-won economic rights. Through her work, Malika embodies a commitment to human rights, a flourishing planet and dignity, equality, equity and care for all living beings.
Follow Malika’s Substack for reflections on peacemaking, advocacy, Christian spirituality, human rights, restorative justice, and practicing the sacred work of becoming rooted in rest, truth-telling, and the way of Eden: https://substack.com/@malikancox
The Chrysalis Retreat is a sacred pause—a rest, reflection, and transformation space. Inspired by the butterfly's metamorphosis, this retreat invites participants to step away from the world's noise and enter a cocoon of healing, truth-telling, and gentle becoming. Rooted in contemplative practices, restorative circles, embodiment, and connection with nature, the Chrysalis Retreat offers a space to shed what no longer serves us and awaken to the wisdom within. It is a gathering for those on the edge of change—ready to listen, become, and emerge more whole. Find out more here.
Follow Malika on Instagram for a peek into her travel adventures, forest walks, gardening, yoga flows, Ayurvedic rituals, entertaining with love, conscious shopping, and sacred pauses at instagram - @malikacox.
