Who We Are

Interfaith Peace-Builders was founded in 2001 and became an independent organization in 2006. Interfaith Peace-Builders is not affiliated with any government, political party, or special interest group. It is funded through individual donations and foundations.

Board of Directors

Ilise Cohen  is a Sephardic Jewish Scholar-Activist and has been a Middle East peace and justice activist for 20 years, including seven years as director of a Middle East Peace Education Program. She is a PhD candidate in Anthropology focused on equity issues of marginalized Mizrahi and Palestinian populations in Israel. In the 1990’s, she lived and worked with Palestinians and Jews in Israel, facilitating inter-community workshops. She has led Middle East delegations to Israel and Palestine. She serves on the Colombia Committee of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and was former co-vice chair of the National Council of the FOR. Ilise has led many IFPB delegations, most recently in fall 2010. She lives in Atlanta with her family.

Hanan Idilbi (not pictured) is a Palestinian-American attorney.  Currently living in Washington, DC, Hanan resided in her parents' hometown of Akka (in Palestine/Israel) for five years and spent a year in Egypt at the American University in Cairo where she studied Arabic literature.  She is currently a federal employment law attorney and was previously a litigator with a civil rights firm in DC.  Hanan served on the coordinating committee of the US Palestine Community Network (USPCN) from 2007-2009 and was a member of the DC Dabkeh Troupe, which promoted Palestinian culture through traditional folkloric dance.  She graduated summa cum laude from the American University Washington College of Law where she was a Public Interest/Public Service Scholar, participated in the International Human Rights Law Clinic, and co-chaired the Immigrants' Rights Coalition.  

Mark C. Johnson, Ph.D., is the executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation/USA.  Mark has spent most of his professional career in the YMCA and as a volunteer in environmental, arts, and peace and social justice organizations.  Mark was president of the Lake George Land Conservancy for eight years and a trustee with the Adirondack Nature Conservancy and Adirondack Land Trust for nine years. He did his alternative service as a conscientious objector in Lebanon, living and teaching in Beirut for six years. From 2002-2007 he was active with the emergent Alliance for Middle East Peace and has supported the development of leadership and training programs for young adults at the Jerusalem International YMCA as a member of the staff of the YMCA of the USA.

Darryl Jordan (not pictured) has been an organizer for more than 30 years, working on issues of hunger and food security, neighborhood security, voter education, peace, justice, apartheid, immigration, union/labor, health and political empowerment.  Darryl lives and works in Philadelphia where he is employed with the American Friends Service Committee’s Third World Coalition, focusing on issues of concern for people and communities of color in the US and internationally.  During his organizing life, Darryl has had the benefit of learning from many activists, community leaders and organizers, and tries to incorporate all that he has learned in his work.   Prior to joining the Board of Directors, Darryl co-led the people of color delegation IFPB co-sponsored with the Third World Coalition in 2008 and served on the ad-hoc organizing committee for the African Heritage Delegation in 2011.

Douglas Kerr is a professor of pediatrics at CWRU School of Medicine, specializing in endocrinology and inherited metabolic disorders.  He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, where his parents were faculty members at the American University of Beirut.  His brother, Malcolm Kerr was later president of AUB, until he was assassinated by terrorists in 1984 during the civil war.  Doug’s interest in peace issues started during high school and college education at Quaker schools.  More recently, he has been involved in Case for Peace, Cleveland Peace Action, and Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP). 

Mary Ann Kerr is a clinical social worker who focused on parenting, family violence and health until her retirement in 2003.  She and Doug have traveled to the Middle East several times, most recently in 2006 with a CMEP delegation, in 2007 with IFBP, and in 2008-2009 with their two adult children and their partners.  The Kerr's could not resist sharing with their family the life changing experiences they encountered with IFBP.   Mary Ann is active in the Northern Ohio Hemophilia Foundation, Churches for Middle East Peace, and is a Palestinian Fair Trade "ambassador", with Ruth Tracy, another IFBP traveler.

Scott Kennedy has served as Chair of the National Council of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and was a founder and Chair of the FOR Middle East Task Force. Scott is a co-founder and staff member of the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz, California. He has traveled to the Middle East more than 40 times and has led co-led three dozen delegations to the region, as early as the 1970’s and as recently as Fall 2011.

Mara Kronenfeld joined the IFPB board when the organization first became independent in 2006. During business hours, Mara works on Middle East partnership development in the Work Center at the International Youth Foundation. Mara has worked on projects in and related to the MENA region for over ten years. Before joining IYF, Mara worked at AMIDEAST, coordinating the organization's corporate, foundation, and individual fund-raising efforts. Mara was a U.S. Fulbright grantee to Syria  2001 and while in Syria, managed UNRWA’s English Language Club for Palestinian vocational students. She has also worked for the American University in Cairo. Mara speaks Arabic and holds a Masters Degree in Near Eastern Studies from New York University and a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology from Stanford University.

Gerald Lenoir is the director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) founded in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area in 2006 to support fair and just immigration reform and to bring African Americans together with immigrant communities to fight for social and economic justice. He is also a board member of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. He is co-founder of the Priority Africa Network, which advocates for progressive U.S. policies toward Africa and organizes dialogues between African Americans and black immigrants. He is the former executive director of the Black Coalition on AIDS in San Francisco and co-founder/board chair of the HIV Education and Prevention Project of Alameda County in Oakland, California. He was a member of the editorial board of War Times, an anti-Iraq war newspaper and a long time leader in the racial justice and antiapartheid movements. He has also served as a strategic planning consultant for racial justice, immigrant rights, and health-related organizations. Gerald was a member of the People of Color Delegation IFPB co-sponsored with the American Friends Service Committee's Third World Coalition in 2008 and he led IFPB's first African Heritage Delegation in 2011.

The Reverend Sandra R Mackie (not pictured) of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, worked for more than 20 years as an Registered Nurse in intensive care and as a psychiatric nurse.  She is a master level counselor, an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is trained to name and resolve congregational conflicts, and serves as a Spiritual Director to other pastors. She is also trained to work with survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Sandra chairs the Middle East Justice and Peace Group of South Central Pennsylvania and is a member of various NGO’s including the Lutheran Peace Fellowship. Her passion is peacemaking in the tradition of the teachings of Jesus and other great religious leaders. She traveled to Israel in 1996, participated in an Fellowship of Reconciliation Civilian Diplomacy Delegation to Iran 2007, and the IFPB Olive Harvest Delegation to Israel/Palestine in 2009. She is scheduled to co-lead the  FOR delegation to Iran in 2011. Sandra is an advocate for a just foreign policy, building support for Palestinian Fair Trade and educating about a just peace between Israel and Palestine.

Richard Moss has co-lead an ongoing Arab/Jewish Dialogue Group in Monterey, California for the last 5 years. He established and lead a grassroots organization for 6 years as they provided alternative information regarding the portrayal of the conflict in the Middle East. He is a Jewish-American who has traveled to Israel/Palestine four times over eight years with IFPB. He served in the US Army from 1967 to 1969 as a medic with one year in Vietnam. He has worked as a registered nurse in critical care units. Also, for the last 13 years he has worked with the National Coalition Building Institute in local high schools to increase diversity awareness and understanding. This work has included training agency and community leaders. Currently he sits on the board of a nonprofit organization that provides violence reduction work in local middle schools. He holds a B.A. in Biology from the University of California.

Rami Natsheh (not pictured) is a financial analyst originally from the city of Hebron in Palestine.  Rami received his BA from Hebron University in 2001 and his Masters in Business Administration in Global Finance from Alaska Pacific University in 2006.  Between 2002 and 2003, he volunteered with the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz, California and the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Nyack, New York. Rami returned to Palestine in 2003 where he worked for the United Nations as a driver and interpreter in the West Bank.  He currently works for an investment company in Anchorage, Alaska.  Rami has delivered seminars on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and taught Arabic courses at Alaska Pacific University.  He has also assisted several Interfaith Peace-Builders delegations in arranging home stays in the West Bank. 

Allie Perry (not pictured) is a pastoral counselor and adjunct faculty in Pastoral Care at Yale Divinity School and Andover Newton Theological School.  She has taught nonviolence and, over the years, has been engaged with a variety of peace and justice issues, including nuclear disarmament, Central American solidarity work, and most recently anti-torture work.  A former co-vice chair of the National Council of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, she is currently the vice-president of the Board of the National Campaign Against Torture.  She has traveled on peace delegations to Colombia, Iran, Cuba, and Nicaragua, and in the fall of 2008, for her first time, traveled to the Middle East with a Rabbis for Human Rights’ delegation, and looks forward to returning soon on an IFPB delegation.

Cathy Sultan (not pictured) lived in Beirut, Lebanon with her Lebanese husband and two children from 1969 to 1983.  In March 2002, Cathy traveled to Jerusalem and the West Bank to interview Palestinian refugees, scholars, Israeli soldiers, teenagers, teachers, businessmen and peace activists.  Those interviews compose the material for her first book: Israeli and Palestinian Voices: A Dialogue with Both Sides.  Cathy has also penned two books on Lebanon: A Beirut Heart: One Woman’s War and Tragedy in South Lebanon: The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006. She sits on the Executive Board of the National Peace Foundation where she coordinates programs designed to educate members about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Prior to joining the Board of Directors, Cathy led IFPB delegations in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Shakeel Syed (not pictured) is the Executive Director of the Islamic Shura Council, a federation of Mosques and Muslim organizations in Southern California. Syed speaks frequently and has also written and cited on issues related to Muslims and Islam. He traveled to Israel/Palestine with an Interfaith Peace-Builders delegation in 2007 and co-lead an IFPB delegation in 2009. Syed also serves the board of US Campaign Against Israeli Occupation; ACLU-Southern California and currently chairs Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice in Los Angeles.

Barbara Wien is the author of 15 articles and two books. She has helped to create 200 Peace Studies programs at colleges and universities around the world. She has taught alternatives to war and violence at Georgetown, Columbia and Catholic University. She led delegations of university presidents to El Salvador in the 1980s and traveled to Israel/Palestine with IFPB in 2002. Barbara served for five years as Director of Peace Brigades International (PBI), a highly-regarded human rights organization working in areas of conflict and repression to stop the killing of civilians. She has also worked as a trainer at the US Institute of Peace and with the playwright Eve Ensler to award over $7 million a year in royalties from her play, “The Vagina Monologues”, to end violence against women. Barbara also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Peace Action Education Fund.

 

Staff

Mike Daly is Program Coordinator at IFPB. He has worked with the organization since 2004. Before coming to IFPB, he studied in Damascus as a Fulbright Scholar, worked as a public relations consultant with the United Nations Development Programme in Ramallah, and completed a year of intensive Arabic at the American University in Cairo. Mike has co-led three IPFB delegations, presented at numerous conferences and workshops and taken on leadership roles in national, regional and local organizing initiatives and coalitions.

 

Joe Groves is Senior Fellow at IFPB. He has been working with IFPB since 2001, first as Coordinator for the program with FOR, then as Co-Director of IFPB in 2006-08. He has worked on Middle East issues for over 40 years, in the US, Israel and Palestine, and Iraq. He was Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Peace and Conflict Studies at Guilford College and is currently an Adjunct Professor in the International Peace and Conflict Resolution Program at American University. He draws on popular education methods and critical studies to actively involve students in the subjects he teaches. He is a frequent presenter and workshop leader on a variety of issues, including Middle East politics, US movements for justice, and the theory and practice of nonviolence.

Jacob Pace is Communications and Grants Coordinator at IFPB, and staffs the San Francisco office. Jake joined the organization in 2007 after first traveling to the region with an IFPB delegation in 2003. He previously worked with Partners for Peace, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz, California. He spent more than a year in Israel/Palestine between 2003 and 2005 working with the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem in Bethlehem and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in the Gaza Strip. His work experience has focused particularly on media advocacy and grassroots organizing. He co-led IFPB delegations in 2008 and 2010.

Emily Siegel is Delegations Coordinator at IFPB. Emily holds a Master's Degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from the School of International Service at American University and a BA in International Relations, with minors in Sociology and Jewish Studies, from the University of Delaware.   Her undergraduate studies included time abroad at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University, exploring Israeli society, politics, and Bedouin rights. The focus of Emily’s Masters’ Degree was on the intersection of justice and peace-building through education, including extensive research on identity formation in the Israeli school system and how peace education methods create social change. Emily has previously worked for Seeds of Peace, Partners for Peace, AMIDEAST, the US Institute of Peace, and as Assistant Director of Unity Programs at Abraham’s Vision.  She is a trained facilitator and has co-facilitated dialogues focusing on US-Islam relations and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  She co-led an IFPB delegation in 2009.