Staff
Please note: We are onboarding new employees. New staff members or new bios will be added over the coming months. Some staff who are community members wish not to include biographies, and we honor their request.
Cleis Abeni (tree turtle), Executive Director (she/her)
Sharon Williams, Senior Program Specialist & Lead Parent Peacemaker (she/her)
Jorge Santos, Visual Arts for Healing Educator (he/him)
Empress Lolita Thomas, Safety Specialist for Transportation & Security (she/her)
Ariel Green, Parent Peacemaker and Program Specialist (she/her)
Julius Thomas, Parent Peacemaker & Office Aide (he/him)
Magic Eddie (Edward Kurland), Magician in Residence (he/him)
Parent Peacemakers
The Parent Peacemakers are a group of leading, grassroots mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and grandfathers who work to cultivate peace in East Baltimore as trained Community Health Workers (CHWs).
They receive monthly stipends for creating and implementing policies and practices for peacemaking and wellness in their community. Their grassroots abolitionist community-organizing and leadership is responsible for many milestones that have reduced violence, provided alternatives to mass incarceration, and uplifted wellness in East Baltimore. Some of these peacemakers appear in videos on the impact page of our website.
Anti-violence programming often involves managing stigma and censure towards community members involved in peacemaking and protecting people who have been impacted by the criminal justice system. Consequently, we adhere to HIPAA, FERPA, and MPIPA law and keep most Peacemakers' identities confidential. Individuals depicted on this website agreed to the release of their images.
There are four Parent Peacemakers groups: the women's group, the men's group, the domestic violence survivors' group, and the SB group. (SB refers to the group for those diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder.) Community members enroll willingly into these groups with full informed consent after a careful intake process and they receive ongoing case management as they process through their work as Peacemakers.
Given the seriousness of many community members' disabilities, in tandem with participating in our programming, enrollees are encouraged to receive outpatient medical care and/or psychiatric rehabilitation in hospitals and clinics for their infirmities, and we help enrollees select culturally-competent providers based on word-of-mouth testimonies.
Youth Peacemakers
The Youth Peacemakers are a group of grassroots youth leaders between the ages of 14 and 24 who work to uplift nonviolence and peacemaking in East Baltimore, receiving stipends for their work as trained junior Community Health Workers (CHWs). Some of these youth appear in videos on the impact page of our website and we adhere to HIPAA, FERPA, and MPIPA law. The youth featured here gave us permission to share themselves on our website. Youth Peacemakers receive pre-career/pre-college mentoring and workforce development training as well as ongoing education in trauma-informed care, conflict resolution, restorative justice, de-escalation, Social and Emotional Learning, and peer/community counseling. They spread the good news of peacemaking within their homes, schools, and neighborhoods within targeted campaigns by word-of-mouth and by video. Several youth are integrated into the Parent Peacemakers' SB group.