Reneé Marie

Founder of Peace Poles for Schools 

“Peace is my focus because peace work is joyful productivity for a more sustainable and joyful world family.”

“My primary initiative has been Peace Poles For Schools.  With this commitment I feel that I am casting seeds of hope, cross-cultural empathy, connection allowing for the impact of exponentially developing a love for peaceful leadership in our youth with a domino affect beyond our ability to fully calculate.  I honor Masahisa Goi, author of the Universal Message of Hope, “May Peace Prevail On Earth.”

Rudy Westervelt

Founder of Rotary E-Club of World Peace

“Peace is possible through Rotary. Our Rotary E-club of World Peace members are peace building experts, who are open to learning more about the difficult issues of the day, so that they can help apply creative solutions to resolve conflict. Each week our members discover new solutions on which they can collaborate to create peace.”

Our Peace Conferences provide solutions to create peace in your personal life, home, community and the world.

Odette Habinomana

Country Director for Burundi Friends International

“Peace is my focus because development cannot be sustainable without peace. My work as a social entrepreneur and women empowerment activist are always associated with peacebuilding through social inclusion, resolving conflicts, teamwork, and non-violence as a tool to achieving sustainable peace and development for all Burundians.”

“The Women empowerment initiatives have demonstrated a great impact in building peace, from the households, to the local communities, and beyond. During conflicts, women take the lead to stop their sons (youth) from committing crimes, women take children away of violence. And after conflict, women take actions for quick recovery including group farming, group business, promoting at the same time economic recovery and social cohesion. Most women testify that they now handle community conflicts and have become peace mediators thanks to the women empowerment sessions. My peacebuilding initiatives have impacted more than 7000 families up to date. “

Marsha Lane

Chair, Anti-Racism Committee / Rotary Club of Ann Arbor

“My concern is for all of Rotary’s pillars and related causes.  Without an end to poverty and discrimination, without access to health care, safe drinking water, without so many things we value, there can be no real peace.  I think of the words of Frederick Douglas in 1859:  “There can be no virtue without freedom, and no peace without justice.'”

“In our Club’s Peace and AntiRacism Committees we’re working to become better informed personally, as we also learn what organizations we can support that are doing the most to address injustice and take action for change.”

Fred Ptucha

Founder of Climbers for Peace

“Working for PEACE by connecting people via adventures that inspire and heal as acts of atonement to heal the moral injury and PTSD I suffer from four tours in the Vietnam War.”

“From climbing mountains for PEACE around the world,  to dedicating Peace Poles at schools, I try to overcome political and cultural differences and inspire people to work together in a spirit of friendship, cooperation, mutual trust, and respect to create lasting PEACE.”

Ramanathan Thurairajoo

Founding Director of Enviro Peace

“Peace is the cornerstone of development for me as an individual, within families, communities and the wider society to embrace diversity and to support one another to the best you can.”

“[Enviro Peace] stabilizes one’s inner being by making a difference to another being, which bridges the disconnection that humanity has with one another and the natural environment. When a condition of peace can be achieved within, it inspires others to give random acts of kindness a try, and in turn has a ripple effect. That’s how our initiatives build peace. ”

Prabha Sankaranarayan

President and CEO of Mediators Beyond Borders

“She is a conflict transformation practitioner who has mediated, facilitated and trained in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the USA. Her public and private sector work includes conflict analysis for public/private partnerships, consultation & assessment for industrial development zones, design and implementation of trainings for multinational corporations; interfaith dialogues as well as facilitation of multi-stakeholder mediations .Prabha is actively involved in regional, national and international civic activities focused on civil liberties, sexual violence prevention, conflict mitigation & mediation and the recovery & rehabilitation of trauma survivors.”

Ellen Moore

Distinguished Rotarian, Boulder Rotary Club

“Ellen is proof that dedication and commitment can make a difference. After many years of letter–writing, meeting with legislators and educating the public with the Coloradans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, they achieved the successful abolition of the death penalty in March of this year in Colorado.”

“Not only does Ellen understand the big picture of creating peace by recognizing, calling out and taking action to prevent violence, she also understands the importance of inner peace and positive peace by creating community.”

Devankar Mukhi

Rotaractor, Co-Founder of Peace on the Streets

Rotary District 6400 Co-Founding member of Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee

Board Member of Wheels of Hope, Rotaractor at the Wayne State University Rotaract Club. Co-Founder of the annual Peace on the Street Conference.

Ximena Murillo

Peace Fellow, CEO of United4Change Center

“Ximena is a Rotary Peace Fellow (Class 24 – the University of Chulalongkorn in Bangkok, Thailand). She is a Paul Harris Fellow. She and U4C were recognized by President Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU).”

“Ximena is a gifted, self-sacrificing, and tireless advocate for human welfare and dignity while pursuing sustainable peace.  She is the embodiment of what Peace Fellows should strive to be and her efforts are genuinely nested in the spirit of service above self rather than personal accolades.  She routinely deflects personal credit for her hard work, preferring instead to extend recognition to those around her in the many humanitarian projects in which she is engaged.”

Steve Killelea

Founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace

“For Steve, peace is far more than the absence of war; it is the first fundamental human right that makes all other  rights possible. In a singular fashion, he has forged a coherent and far-reaching method to disclose ‘Positive  Peace’ – the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies.” 

“Through the Institute for Economics and Peace, Steve has set out to do on the global level what he labors to do  on the village level: create more resilient societies able to adapt to our constantly changing environments. By  identifying how societies—including entire nations—can really develop and unfold inherent potentials”

Gary Kahn

Rotarian at the Boulder Rotary Club

“Gary has worked tirelessly as a member of the Boulder Rotary Peacebuilding Committee.  He took a lead in our Infinite Walk of Peace (IWP) project for our Centennial year in 2019  and continues to the present in working with the complicated City of Boulder bureaucracy to install a Rotary donated peace sculpture and bench.  His recently demonstrated his continued passion and commitment to the IWP by organizing a silent meditation in memory of the 10 people killed in Boulder in a mass shooting on the one month anniversary which was also Earth Day. “

Ravi Vadlamani

District Governor

“[Ravi Vadlamani] took social service like a duck to taking water.” Under the Water is Life Program, he has facilitated the installation of 6,000 hand wells installed in a few thousands villages, impacting over 1.5 million people. 

“Save our Schools program that made him focus on upgrading the infrastructure of schools by providing more than 125,000 school-desks benefitting millions of children.”

“Project HEAL (Health for All), a Rotary program, was leveraged to distribute more than 10,000 tricycles to the physically-challenged persons, help organise 10,000 cataract operations, provide medical equipment and ambulances to hospitals.“