Our Team (Main, Directors, Advisory Board, Coaches, Production Team)

Directors

Ultimate Peace was conceived and developed by it’s three directors. Each of them brings expertise and experience in different domains, but they all share a passion for promoting peace and understanding, the sport of Ultimate, and using play as a potent tool for change. David, Dori, and Linda are committed to building the organization into an entity that can be increasingly inclusive, adaptable, and relevant.

Dr. David Barkan lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the captain of Team U.P. (Ultimate Peace) and has led many teams over the course of his thirty-year career to compete at the highest national and international levels of the sport.

David has coached youth Ultimate for over 30 years on 4 continents, and worked with youth earlier in his career in the USA and Israel as a teacher, counselor, therapist, and program administrator. He has a national reputation as a group facilitator and consultant to organizations dedicated to social change, holds a Ph.D. in Clinical/Organizational Psychology, and consults to schools, non-profit organizations and community collaborations across the USA. David is called upon to navigate difficult and complex discussions and decisions in a wide variety of disciplines; he has dedicated his career to helping people and groups find creative solutions to the most challenging problems.

Dori Yaniv has been playing, teaching, and competing with a frisbee since 1993. Since the moment he discovered the flying disc he knew he had found his passion and yearned to spread the word worldwide. While Dori served in the academic reserve and IDF as an industrial and management engineer, he spent his free time teaching and promoting frisbee in Israel. During that period, he also competed and excelled in two World Flying Discs Championships in 1999 and 2001.

In 2003, after Dori finished his IDF service and MBA studies, he decided to dedicate his career to developing flying discs sports in Israel. He established FLOW-The Israeli Flying Discs Association, and created frisbee programs and certifications for physical education instructors at Wingate institute.

In addition to organizing events and developing programs for over 10,000 adults and children from all walks of life, Dori conceived, organized, and hosted Israel’s first international Ultimate tournament in 2005 (BULAFLOW), and co-coached the Israeli Junior National Ultimate team at the 2006 world championships.

Linda Sidorsky has dedicated many years to growing and promoting youth Ultimate on the east coast of the United States. She and her husband, Dr. Robert Sidorsky, ran a high school program for 10 years, developing and establishing their local high school program as one of the first varsity Ultimate teams in the country. Together founded a high school league in New England, working hard to establish Ultimate as a recognized competitive sport.

In 2006 she organized and ran the World Junior Ultimate Championships (WJUC2006) for youth teams throughout the world to compete. It was through this project that she met Dori Yaniv and David Barkan. Together they made it possible for an Israeli youth team to travel to the US to participate in the week-long event. She also worked tirelessly to bring youth from Columbia and South Africa to the event, countries that did not have sufficient support or resources.