Heidi Shoup

Heidi Shoup became President of the World Affairs Council of Washington in October 2006 after two decades in non-profit management. She previously served as founding executive director of the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, the Mosaic Foundation, and the Jerusalem Fund for Education and community Development. She is a Middle East area specialist who has lived and worked in the region and is originally from Portland, Oregon.

Jerri Bird

Jerrine Bird, our President and Founder, established Partners for Peace in 1989 and initiated the "Jerusalem Women Speak Tour" that annually brings 3-women teams from Israel and Palestine to the United States to speak directly to American audiences at the grassroots level, and via the media to an even wider audience. The JWS Tours have reached an estimated audience of more than 4 million over the past decade. "Jerri" has written and advocated tirelessly on behalf of peace and the advancement of the status of women in the Middle East. Now 82 years young, she holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Oregon and certificates from graduate programs of the University of Stockholm, Sweden and Georgetown University, Washington, DC. In addition to a busy career as a homemaker and mother of four, she has worked as a social welfare caseworker, teacher, financial officer, communication specialist, systems administrator, and currently serves on several boards in addition to guiding the activities of Partners for Peace. She is much in demand as a commentator on international affairs and developments in the Middle East, particularly in relation to Israel and Palestine. Over the course of the past 60 years she has lived and worked abroad in Sweden, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, India, and Egypt and traveled extensively in the Middle East.  Her published works include the investigation and documentation of cases establishing that the Israel IDF has and continues to practice routinely the torture of both men and women whom they have taken into custody and detained -- some for decades -- and against whom they have routinely filed no charges prior to detention and torture.

Ellie Wegender

Ellie Wegener, a graduate of Columbia University, New York, has worked as script editor at NBC, Rockefeller Center, and as a free-lance writer.  She met the man who was to become her husband, Bill, a Lutheran pastor, in London, when she interviewed him.  She ended up staying in the United Kingdom for seven years. They returned in 1964 with a daughter, Diane, and Kathryn on the way.

Ellie has served her community in many capacities.  In 1972, Ellie created the first neighborhood crime prevention program in West Philadelphia, and started similar programs in other states as Executive Director of the Citizens Local Alliance for a Safer Philadelphia (CLASP).  In 1980, Ellie worked as the Project Director in Washington, D.C. of a two-year program, which taught neighborhood-based technologies in twelve cities.  In l982, worked as the Director of the National Unemployment Clearinghouse for the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs (NCUEA) to deal with unemployment issues nationwide.  In 1984, she founded and worked as the Executive Director of The Employment Support Center (ESC).  ESC organizes job clubs to provide the unemployed and under-employed jobs, contacts, job-search skills, motivation, support, and friends.  Ellie and her husband led six tours to Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, partly with the Pax World Foundation.  Ellie has been a board member of Partners for Peace for six years.

Alma Abdul Hadi Jadallah, Ph.D. 

Dr. Abdul Hadi Jadallah is President and Managing Director of Kommon Denominator, Inc.

She advised and worked on strategic projects related to conflict prevention and mitigation, training and education, and capacity building on the national and international levels. She has participated in a number of global conferences on Conflict Resolution, International Women’s Leadership Development, and has been a speaker and participant at various forums including: U.S. Institute of Peace, Harvard University, Howard University, American University Women and Politics Institute, Meridian International Center, Association for Conflict Resolution, and Jordan’s Securities Exchange Commission. 

Dr. Abdul-Hadi Jadallah serves her community through active board participation. She is a board member (Past Chair) of Partners for Peace, Washington, DC, the Advisory Board of the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, the Board of Directors of Northern Virginia Mediation Services (Past President), a member of the original advisory board for Peace x Peace, and member of Board of Directors, Institute for Victims of Trauma, McLean, VA. She is also a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution and Virginia Mediation Network.

Joan Walters Drake

A committed activist working for social justice in many spheres, Joan W. Drake notably served in 1964-65 on the 16-member National Action Council of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) representing the Southeastern US. An active member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) since 1985, she served on the national board of WILPF’s US Section 1986 to 1993. During that time she designed and initiated WILPF's Anti-Racism Program and served as national Program Chair. She participated in WILPF's first official US delegation to Cuba 1987 and was sent by WILPF to present testimony at the UN High Commission on Human Rights Global Conversation on Racism at United Nations Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, 1991. With WILPF member Kay Camp she
was sent by US WILPF to Baghdad, Iraq, January 8 to 15, 1991 as WILPF’s representative on the 7-member Women's Global Peace Initiative led by Margarita Papandreou.

She served on Congressman Dennis Kucinich's working group 1999-2000 to help draft the language of his bill, H.R. 808, to establish a US Department of Peace and Nonviolence. She was a recipient in December 2004 of the United Nations Association of the National Capitol Area’s Annual Human Rights Award. She holds a BA from Franklin and Marshall College and a Master Degree in Public Health in Maternal & Child Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Linda Heaney

Linda Heaney has extensive experience and expertise in the field of international education. Early in her career she lived and volunteered as a teacher of English as a Second Language in India, Haiti and Korea. She is a life-time member of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, a member of the American Association of Foreign Service Women. She is also on the Advisory Board of AMIDEAST’s Advising Quarterly, and recently served as a board member of Educational Credential Evaluators.

Linda has conducted cross-cultural workshops for Fulbright scholars and Fulbright Commission staff and worked with the Malaysian Government to establish guidelines for the official recognition of US degrees. When the Director of the Educational Information Center within the Malaysian-American Commission on Educational Exchange (MACEE), she advised Malaysian students about US higher education. Linda has formally worked as an admissions officer for the American University and as coordinator of student placement for AMIDEAST. In 1982, while living in Singapore, she founded Linden Education Services to help U.S. university representatives recruit international students in a professional, ethical manner that would serve the best interests of the universities and the prospective students. Linda was awarded the Marita Houlihan Award in 2003 for her work in setting the standards for the professional recruitment of international students.

Malinda Thompson

Melinda Thomson Melinda Thompson, a former foreign language teacher and real estate and corporate lawyer, received her Master of Divinity degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in May 2007., after which she completed chaplaincy internships at Sibley Memorial Hospital and Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. Melinda has held leadership positions in her local community, academic communities, and church community, and is a graduate of the 1998 class of Leadership Howard County (MD). She is certified to accept a call by the National Capital Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and is a member of the NC Presbytery Middle East Concerns Team, Peace Action Montgomery County, and the Network of Spiritual Progressives. An avid traveler, Melinda has lived in Europe and the Far East, and has traveled to all continents except Antarctica. She recently returned from a trip to Palestine/Israel as a member of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.