ABOUT US
Peace and Reconciliation Charities of America was incorporated in the state of Maryland in 2006. A tax exempt organization ourselves, we are governed by a volunteer board of directors and supported by an advisory committee.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Brendan Walsh – President
Brendan Walsh has been active in the community for decades. Professionally, he began as a classroom teacher in the Salem MA school system, teaching history and serving as a career education specialist for 17 years. For the next 20 years, Dr. Walsh served as the Salem school system’s director of the U.S. government’s Title 1 program. During this period he served two terms as President of the Massachusetts Council of Administrators of Compensatory Education and as a national delegate to the National Association of Federal Program Administrators.
While Title 1 director, Dr. Walsh inaugurated publicly funded Early Childhood Education in Salem, first by establishing a pre-school for 4 year olds. He subsequently began the Parent-Child Home Program, which teaches parents of two and three year olds how to increase their child’s readiness for school via verbal communication. Now retired from the school system, Dr. Walsh has continued to educate parents on the importance of reading aloud to children through his company, “The Wonders of Reading Aloud.” In 2006, he was elected to the Salem School Committee.
Among his other community activities, Brendan has served on the boards of a number of not-for-profit organizations. Currently a member of the Massachusetts Advisory Committee for the Parent-Child Home Program, he has for more than a decade been a trustee of the Plummer Home for Boys in Salem, serving twice as chair. For six years he was a member of the Board of Directors of My Brother’s Table, a soup kitchen in Lynn MA, serving as the group’s second president. An active member of the Voice of The Faithful, he is also a member of the Board of directors of Axis Mundi, a newly founded not-for-profit organization active in Washington DC and Brazil.
Brendan earned his bachelor’s degree at Merrimack College, his masters at Salem State College and his doctorate in Educational Administration at Boston College. He lives in Salem with Katherine, his wife of 36 years who is a Nurse Practitioner.
Michael Washburn – Vice President
Dr. Michael Washburn is President of Washburn Consulting – a practice dedicated to assisting progressive companies and not-for-profits to meet their missions through strategy development, research, and education. He is the former Vice President of Brand Management for the U.S. office of the Forest Stewardship Council. Dr Washburn was previously the director of the Program on Forest Certification and a Research Scholar at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He has served as an advisor to the USDA Forest Service, and he is the former national coordinator of the Sustainable Forestry Partnership.
Washburn, who is legally blind, founded the Learning Enhancement Organization at the State University of New York College at Oneonta. This group, now nearly 20 years old, provides mentoring and support for disabled students. Washburn has served on university committees addressing accessibility issues at both Oneonta and at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University. He has mentored countless students and individuals with physical and other disabilities for two decades.
Washburn received a BS in environmental studies and an MS in forest resource management from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. in forest resources from Penn State. His research includes work on forest recreation in the Adirondack Forest Preserve in New York, and doctoral research on private forest landowners in the US. He is widely published on topics of forest certification and forest management in the US and globally.
For several years, Washburn served as a board member and officer of Human and Civil Rights Organizations of America, a CFC federation operating since 1994. He is currently president of the Disabilities Fund of America, another CFC federation.
Don Gay – Secretary/Treasurer
Donald Gay is a principal in and managing director of Pinnacle Financial, a firm specializing in residential financial services based in Vienna VA. He has been active in placing such loans for more than a decade. The Pinnacle Financial group in Vienna was founded in 2003. It has grown rapidly and now arranges approximately $250 million in loans each year.
Mr. Gay has been a supporter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) for over 7 years and is an advisor and major supporter of The Julie Duggan Memorial Fund, a Massachusetts 501c3 organization. The Julie Duggan Memorial fund was established in 2002 and seeks to raise donations to help find a cure for CF, and to support the education of children with CF. Mr. Gay is a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston and currently resides in Arlington, VA.
Marshall Strauss – Director
Marshall Strauss has been active in human rights and the charity field for most of three decades. He is currently president and a member of the board of directors of Human & Civil Rights Organizations of America, a tax exempt organization authorized by the Federal government to admit charities to the U.S. Combined Federal Campaign. He sits on the boards of two other CFC federations as well: the Israel Fund, and the Latin America Fund.
In 2002 and again in 2003, Strauss was elected Chair of the National Combined Federal Campaign Committee, a coordinating body whose members includes CFC federations, local Federal volunteers from around the country, and local CFC administrators. Representatives of the U.S. Office of CFC Operations, in Washington DC, also participate in the work of the committee.
From 1993-1995, Strauss was executive director and board member of Freedom Channel, an organization of Russian political activists and American supporters he helped establish in 1993. Freedom Channel worked with Russian journalists, pollsters, and politicians to use television in support of democratic reforms. Prior to his involvement in Russia, Strauss was deeply involved in efforts to foster democratic change in China. From 1989-1993, he was the founding executive director and board member of the Democracy for China Fund, an organization of Chinese political activists and American supporters established in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Strauss organized and participated in the 1991 Human Rights Delegation to China led by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. In 1992, he was denied entry to China due to his human rights work.
From 1986-89, Strauss served as associate director of the Child Welfare League of America, the leading association for state agencies and charities dealing with the care and treatment of children. From 1984-86, he was associate director of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). PSR shared in the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for its work in educating the public and political leaders as to the dangers of nuclear weapons. Prior to 1980, Strauss held various positions including special assistant to Massachusetts Governor Francis Sargent and special assistant to U.S. Senator John Durkin.
Strauss was a research associate at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy from 1994-96, and was an adjunct member of the faculty of Emerson College in 1995. Here and overseas, he has been interviewed extensively on issues of human rights by, among others, the Associated Press, UPI, New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, ABC News, Actuel (Paris), BBC, and Russian National Television.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Judi Holley
Judi Holley is president of the Latin America Fund which acts as a CFC federation for U.S. organizations active in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. For several years in the 1990s and early 2000s, she was a board members and the president of Do Unto Others (DUO) – another federation representing international emergency relief, development and humanitarian charities.
A retired federal employee, Ms Holley has been involved in the Combined Federal Campaign for nearly 30 years. In addition to her extensive work with CFC federations, she has been a CFC donor and a local CFC volunteer. During her tenure as DUO's president, she participated in the National CFC Committee as the designated representative of her federation
Ms. Holley is a long-time participant in nonprofit organizations in her home state of Washington. These activities include: The Governor's Advisory Council for Vocational Rehabilitation, the Criminal Justice Training Commission, South Puget Sound Cultural Diversity Coalition, and the Pierce County Sheriffs Advisory Board and Jail Citing Task Force. She is currently leading a Pierce County pilot program for community involvement sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Elaine Gerdine
Elaine Gerdine is president of the Arts Federation, a CFC federation representing numerous museums, performing companies and other cultural institutions across the United States.
A classically-trained pianist, Ms Gerdine has penned several librettos, including those for a set of short operas based on folk tales, which have received numerous productions. "Chicken Little," first in the set, was commissioned by Texas Opera Theater (the touring unit of Houston Grand Opera), which toured it extensively. The second, "The Ugly Duckling," premiered in New York City as part of Golden Fleece Ltd's Square One series. For many years, she taught piano and worked as a performing musician – vocal accompanist, church organist and rock-and-roll pianist.
Ms Gerdine's involvement in the arts also includes several years as a consultant for the New York State Council on the Arts and the Brooklyn Arts Council, where she participated in the evaluation of grant applicants. Her articles on the arts and artists have appeared in New York and Texas publications, including Houston Business Journal, for which she wrote a column on classical music events. Gerdine holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Texas A & I at Corpus Christi and did graduate work at the University of Houston.
Ms Gerdine is a writer of marketing communications for a major technology company. For nearly a decade she has planned and implemented marketing and other communications campaigns, written extensively on a variety of business and technology topics, and managed content for a web site that markets the company's services to the Federal government.
Edward Novak
A Federal employee for 30 years, Edward Novak has been actively involved in the Combined Federal Campaign - as donor, loaned executive, community campaign leader, and national volunteer. A member of the National CFC Committee, Mr. Novak is also a member of the campaign's National Advisory Council, which includes senior volunteers from around the nation.
Since 1997, Mr. Novak has been helping to direct the Baltimore area campaign, one of the largest segments of the CFC in the nation. He chairs that campaign which, under his leadership, has expanded substantially, both in money raised and percent of the workforce participating.
During his federal career, Mr. Novak has managed operations and policy staffs involved in the administration of a national labor management relations program. In addition, he was directly involved with the development and implementation of an alternative dispute resolution program aimed at addressing and resolving workplace conflict in non-adversarial ways.
Mr. Novak is a practicing attorney in Maryland, serves as an ad hoc hearing examiner for a local Board of Education and is an arbitrator with Better Business Bureau. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Maryland State Bar association and the Association for Conflict Resolution.
Richard O’Connor
Richard O’Connor has been in private practice as an attorney for 15 years, with an emphasis on civil, not for profit and environmental law. A partner in the Rockville, MD firm of Shure, Perez and O’Connor, he is admitted to practice law in Maryland and the District of Columbia at both the state and federal level.
Mr. O’Connor has advised numerous not for profit organizations, and in several instances served as a member of the board of directors. He is a director of the CFC federation, Human & Civil Rights Organizations of America, having served as both treasurer and secretary. Before entering private practice, he spent 9 years in federal service, with NOAA’s Office of Coastal Management. Mr. O’Connor was the incorporator of the federation.