Board of Directors

In former lives, Board Chair Paddy Moore designed and directed state programs for low income women and children—providing day care, parent education, job training, and health services. She worked for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health developing community programs for the mentally ill and retarded. She was Assistant Commissioner of Massachusetts Department of Social Services, managing the state's services to families of abused and neglected children, foster care, and adoption. She loves teaching and has taught at the Radcliffe Institute and the Kennedy School, designed negotiation and mediation curricula at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, and currently teaches mediation workshops at the University of Connecticut and Quinnipiac University Law School. She is well known as a mediator and facilitator—working at the community level with non-profit Boards and staff, and at the national and state levels in public policy issues such as health care coverage for the uninsured, and eldercare workforce shortages.

Norma Akamatsu, MSW, is a psychotherapist in Northampton, MA. specializing in family therapy. She has taught clinical courses at the Smith School for Social Work as well as the required class on U.S. Racism. She has been involved in many local social justice and anti-war organizations and, for the past decade, facilitated various community dialogues for faith communities, schools, and the public on the Impact of 9/11, War in Iraq, Responding to Torture, Anti Racism work, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, and other local issues.

David Blair, M.A., directs the Mariposa Museum in Peterborough, NH, a museum of folk art that celebrates the diversity and commonalities of the human family. David spent six years in Asia with his family during the 1980s and 1990s: first working with Southeast Asian refugee children and their Filipino teachers at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center, then as co-director with his wife, Linda, of the American Friends Service Committee's rural development program in Vietnam. David has facilitated Karuna trainings in Macedonia, Kosovo, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Senegal.

Elise Collins Shields is former Board Chair and Executive Director of OPUS Archives & Research Center, Inc., located on the campuses of Pacifica Graduate Institute, holding collections including Joseph Campbell, James HIllman, Marija Gimbutas, Marion Woodman and others. Prior to her position with OPUS, she led leadership training for young Arab women at Zayed University in the Middle East with a hybrid seminar/on-line curriculum developed specific to the areas’ cultural norms. She served as consultant for the mentoring and cultural training for Afghanistan women entrepreneurs for Thunderbird School for Global Management’s “Artemis Program.” Holding two M.A. degrees and a Ph.D. in cross-cultural mythology & depth psychology, Elise is currently completing a certification in Conflict Transformation Across Cultures,including mediation and peacebuilding. A cross-cultural consultant, she also serves on the international boards of the Joseph Campbell Foundation and Quantum Leaps, an international women’s economic empowerment initiative, in addition to serving as CEO of CommonWell Institute International, Inc., dedicated to peace through education and support of women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan and other conflict/post-conflict areas.

Barbara Guth is Founder of Sagesse Holdings, LLC, a private consulting firm that provides coaching, strategic advisory services, and access to private capital markets for paradigm-shifting business/social models and technologies. Following 20 years in the healthcare, surgical, and finance industries where she funded various companies with Viscogliosi Bros, LLC, including Spine Solutions, Inc., Barbara launched Sagesse Holdings to support exclusively entrepreneurial ventures. Barbara currently consults for Massively Parallel Technologies (MPT), KIdzera, and is Managing Director for C2, a structured investment fund providing venture capitalists with innovative models designed to transform the current venture capital industry. Barbara received her BA in Economics from Penn State University, Masters training in Contemplative Psychotherapy from Naropa University, and is currently finalizing a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation/International Peacemaking. Barbara is a certified Newfield Executive Coach and IMP Transformational Coach. She has established global networks in the healthcare, finance and peacemaking fields, and has strong interests in the global social change arena. Barbara currently serves on the Board of Directors of Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, MPT, and Youth Intermedia Foundation. Barbara is passionately dedicated to the re-empowerment of humanity through the conception of new systems and structures that serve the whole of humanity. Her deepest desire is to assist and inspire the creation and evolution of systems that ultimately reflect the true capacity of human consciousness, thus leading to a truly sustainable, peaceful reality.

Doug Hammond is a founding partner of Burns & Hammond, an integrative CSR and sustainability consultancy focusing on sustainability strategies, systems and reporting utilizing the GRI framework. The firm has served clients in a wide range of industries, sectors, and communities and has been globally recognized for designing systems to help solve the world's most challenging problems. He was also a co-founder of ALIVE Communities, a social enterprise whose mission is to integrate ancient wisdom with modern technologies to create new economies. The organization served as the lead orchestration partner of HaitiOnward, a collaborative design platform focused on the sustainable reconstruction of Haiti. A pioneer for more than 30 years in corporate social responsibility, social enterprise and local living economy movements, he has served in key development and leadership roles for such organizations as Business for Social Responsibility, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and the American Sustainable Business Council. He began his entrepreneurial career in corporate social responsibility and social enterprise at age 23 when he founded Relief Resources, the first company in the US dedicated to meeting the personnel needs of the not for profit/social service sector. 

Jonathan Hilton, Clerk, is the Executive Director of Creative Alternatives of New York (CANY), a not-for-profit organization providing drama therapy programs to children and adults impacted by violence, trauma and mental health challenges. CANY partners with over 18 of New York City's leading social service and mental health care providers. Mr. Hilton began his career as an actor in New York City before discovering the field of therapeutic drama. He led programs at Mount Sinai Hospital Psychiatric Department and at the NYU-Cornell Medical Center in White Plains, NY, using theatre with chronic schizophrenics, borderline personality disordered adults, and psychiatrically disabled youth. He eventually founded his own non-profit organization to continue this work with high risk teens in upstate New York. He also has worked in nonprofit management for over 20 years additionally serving as Managing Director and President of the New York Branch of the Anthroposophical Society and as Managing Director of The Actors' Ensemble, an innovative theatre ensemble based on the work of the actor Michael Chekhov. He is passionate about sustainable local agriculture, founding the first urban CSA in New York City in 1990 and assisting in designing an innovative land use model that keeps farmland available for farmers.

Jenifer McKenna is a family therapist in Amherst, MA, where she investigates the nature of human conflict and its resolution every day. She served on the core group of 20/20 Vision, a national organization supporting citizen involvement in protecting the environment and promoting a nuclear weapons freeze.

Joseph Sebarenzi, Ph.D. is an author, peace activist, and lecturer. He has a bachelor's degree in sociology, a master's degree in international and intercultural management, and Ph.D. in law. He specializes in international human rights and in conflict management. Dr. Sebarenzi served as Speaker of the Rwanda Parliament from 1997 to 2000. As Speaker, he was known as a fair, non-partisan politician focused on enhancing the independent role of the parliament and upholding Rwanda's post-genocide constitution. Sebarenzi serves on the faculty of CONTACT at the School for International Training/Graduate institute; speaks about reconciliation, forgiveness, and conflict management at colleges, universities, and events in the United States; and regularly appears and speaks on radio and TV including NPR, BBC and Voice of America. In his book God Sleeps in Rwanda: A Journey of Transformation, Dr. Sebarenzi shares his dramatic stories of survival as a child during Rwanda's tragedies; his practical insights on how to resolve and prevent ethnic conflicts; and his wisdom on why individuals should remain positive and kind despite the sufferings they endure.

Betsy Spears is an artist and gardener living in Western Massachusetts. Born in Cisco, Texas she has a BFA from Stephens College, Columbia, MO, a degree in Registered Nursing from Grayson College, Sherman, TX, and a MFA in sculpture from Texas Women's University in Denton, TX. She has sat on local theater, hospice, and bank boards. After moving to Massachusetts in 2000, she has spent most of her time gardening but maintains an active interest in local and global sustainable culture and agriculture, as well as in new way of thinking about peace, justice, and human rights issues.

International Advisory Board

Professor Kevin P. Clements is a world-renowned scholar and Foundation Director of The Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies in Australia. As Secretary General of International Alert, he worked with European governments on conflict prevention and resolution, and supervised field programs in the Great Lakes region of Africa, West Africa, the Caucasus, Asia and Latin America. He has been an advisor to the New Zealand, Australian and British governments on policies of nuclear disarmament, defense, and security.  He is the author of many books and articles including, Back from the Brink: The Creation of a Nuclear Free New Zealand; Building International Community and Peace and Security in the Asia Pacific Region: Post Cold War Problems and Prospects.

Richard Deats served the US Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) in many capacities, including Executive Secretary and Fellowship editor, from 1972 until his retirement.  He worked with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Tunisia, liberation groups in Burma and indigenous movements in Ecuador.  Richard led nonviolence trainings in many countries, such as South Africa, Bangladesh, the Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Haiti, Kenya, Lithuania, Russia, Colombia, Palestine and Israel.  Nationalism and Christianity in the Philippines is one of his important books.    

Hildegard Goss Mayr of Austria is one of the world's premier nonviolence activists.  She is the honorary president of International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR).  She has devoted her life to resisting social injustice and promoting nonviolent alternatives to violence. Hildegard and her late husband Jean Goss conducted nonviolence trainings that contributed to the peaceable overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines.  Among her books, How Enemies Become Friend was published in German, Italian and French. 

Joanna Macy, Ph.D., is a pioneer eco-philosopher in the United States.  A scholar on Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology, she is also a social activist for peace, justice and sustainability.  Over the past twenty years, she has led workshops for personal and social change with her unique psychological and spiritual methodology in North America, Europe Asia and Australia.  Her major publications include Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World and World as Lover, World as Self.

Gregory Prince Jr. is a prominent educator in the United States.  He was President of Hampshire College from 1989 to 2005.  At Hampshire, he promoted courses on conflict resolution and historical analysis.  As President, he provided moral leadership and developed the college’s core values for social justice by focusing on the higher educational institution’s responsibility for society.  He established the Hampshire College Cultural Village to draw on academic and cultural resources for community development.  He was also Vice-chair of the Council on Racial and Ethnic Justice of the American Bar Association.  He is currently writing a book for Continuum Press tentatively titled “Challenging Authority: The Lost Purpose of Liberal Education”.

Sulak Sivaraksa, is a leading social critic in Thailand. He is the founder of The Sanithirakoses-Nagapateepa Foundation (SNF), which is a platform of five organizations for sustainable social change, including the International Network of Engaged Buddhists. He has committed himself to social justice and peace with ecological vision and spirituality. His Socially Engaged Buddhism is internationally recognized among his many publications.

Christopher Titmuss, a former Buddhist monk in Thailand and India, teaches Awakening and Insight Meditation around the world.  He is the founder and director of the Dharma Facilitators Programme and the Living Dharma programme, an online mentor programme for Dharma practitioners. He gives
retreats, participates in pilgrimages (yatras) and leads Dharma gatherings.  A senior Dharma teacher in the West, he is the author of numerous books including Light on Enlightenment, An Awakened Life and Transforming Our Terror. A campaigner for peace and other global issues, Christopher is the co-founder of Gaia House, an international retreat centre in Devon, England. He lives in Totnes, Devon, England.

In Memory: Former Advisory Board member Elise Boulding, Ph.D. (July 6, 1920 – June 24, 2010), was a respected Quaker peace activist in the United States, engaged with the issues of her day since World War II. She dedicated herself to conflict transformation studies and peacebuilding, founding the Peace Studies program at Dartmouth College and serving as past President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the International Peace Research Institute.  She authored many books on peace studies including Cultures of Peace: The Hidden Side of History and Building a Global Civic Culture.