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.

Rick Brown, Ph.D., Treasurer, is President of TerraVerde Renewable Partners in Larkspur, California, a solar development company. Prior to that, Dr. Brown was an Organizational and Management Consultant providing consultation on issues such as managing change, strategic planning, organizational redesign, conflict resolution, team-building, improving service delivery, labor management and other forms of interest-based negotiations. Both as an external consultant to public sector, non-profit and small business organizations and as an internal consultant with large companies such as Kaiser-Permanente and 3Com Corporation, Rick has specialized in helping individuals, groups and organizations manage the turbulence of changing external environments, with a specific focus on balancing the demand for innovation with the need for stability. More recently he has participated in international peacebuilding work through involvement in CONTACT (Conflict Transformation Across Cultures) and has helped form the CONTACT Africa Network, an association of peacebuilders in 18 countries across Africa. He was past president and a two-term member of the Twin Hills School District Board of Trustees in Sebastopol, CA.

Elise Collins Shields

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 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. He is now co-founder and president of ALIVE Communities, a social enterprise whose mission is to integrate ancient wisdom with modern technologies to create new economies. It is the lead orchestration partner of HaitiOnward, which Doug co-directs. HaitiOnward delivers collaborative solutions for the citizens of Haiti that maximize efficiency and focus on the intersections of innovation, reconstruction and sustainability. Doug has served in key leadership roles in the socially responsibility business and sustainable economic development movements including Business for Social Responsibility, Social Venture Network, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and the American Sustainable Business Council. Doug blends his extensive business experience with a deep commitment to core social, environmental and economic issues that enhance the common good. His passion is to develop and deliver collaborative design platforms which utilize anthropologically based principles and yield sustainable community operating systems.

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. Dr. Sebarenzi worked as a high school teacher in Rwanda; worked as an executive in non-governmental organizations in Rwanda, Burundi, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and served as speaker of the Rwanda Parliament from 1997 to 2000. As Speaker, he was referred to by many as an independent politician bent on denouncing abuses and enhancing the independence and role of the parliament. 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 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 daring escape after he learned the plot to assassinate him in 2000; 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.

Judith Thompson, Ph.D., is a peace practitioner, scholar, organizational leader, and public speaker with a successful twenty-five year track record in developing and managing programs dedicated to respecting difference and celebrating common ground between diverse groups. Judith co-founded and directed the celebrated international youth peace organization, Children of War, Inc., has organized international peace practitioner learning communities, and has received the Peace Fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies.