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Maralise Hood Quan Named 2023 Greater Tacoma Peace Prize Laureate
In May, Executive Director Maralise Hood Quan was selected as the Greater Tacoma Peace Prize awardee for 2023.
Modeled after the Nobel Prize for Peace, which is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the Greater Tacoma Peace Prize was established by a committee of members from the three largest Norwegian American institutions in Pierce County: Sons of Norway, Daughters of Norway, and Pacific Lutheran University. The first Greater Tacoma Peace Prize was awarded on May 17, 2005, on Norwegian Constitution Day, and has been awarded annually since.
“Maralise Hood Quan is guided by a key principle: every human has the right to exist with respect. She dedicates her life to ensuring others understand and honor that principle,” said Chris Gleason, who nominated Maralise for the prestigious award.
Working on farms in NW Washington in her late teens, Maralise recognized how international dynamics impacted migrant farmworkers. She saw second generation Mexican American migrants replaced by refugees of wars in Southeast Asia and Central America. She observed the shift between economic motivation and political motivation, which flamed her curiosity. That curiosity took her to San Francisco, where she mediated interracial conflicts between gangs and studied international relations.
Hired to coordinate the Conflict Resolution Program at the United Nations University of Peace in Costa Rica, Maralise set a goal to identify what it takes to transform a region in war to prepare to build peace. That experience further defined Maralise’s approach as a mediator, facilitator, and leader in conflict resolution. While working for the United Nations, she developed an integrated curriculum so students from pre-K through college could study peace in every discipline from math, science, to history and art. Six countries adopted the curriculum.
At the end of a 36-year civil war, Maralise collaborated to create a plan to fund and coordinate the 108 initiatives embedded in the set of 14 Peace Accords in Guatemala. Maralise was privileged to collaborate with similar efforts in Central America, South and Central Africa and the Middle East. Maralise facilitated truth and reconciliation efforts and shared learned experiences to recuperate peace.
Upon return to the U.S., Maralise earned a juris doctorate degree to learn how to support the creation of new agreements within the scope of rule of law. She became Chief of Staff to State Representative Dennis Flannigan, serving the people of the 27th Legislative District for five years. Those many years of training in war zones and the state legislature prepared Maralise for her current job as Executive Director of the Center For Dialog & Resolution (CDR), where she has served for 16 years, and where moving from conflict to peace happens every day.
“Imagine the day when every small group or community identifies who their peacemaker is, and those peacemakers get training at CDR, and then come together when our community has a need. That means every PTA, soccer team, classroom, church, synagogue, walking group, book club, cultural center, and large apartment complex would have a designated peace maker.”
- Maralise Hood Quan
The trees are talking. Are you listening?
By Maralise Hood Quan
Have you tuned in to Refresh Friday: The Space Between? In 2022 and early 2023, as many Fridays as was practical, someone from the community joined me in dialog for 10 minutes on Facebook Live. We explored ideas that challenge you to listen, think and act.
A Refresh discussion with my friend Robin focused on the space between nature’s living experience and science. The trees are talking. Are you listening?
Trees tell us spring is coming with their new buds. They guide us into fall by shedding their summer coat. The soil where they live and nurture one another gives life. They communicate their distress through their leaves, bark and roots. Yet, to recognize they may be in trouble requires us to take the time to observe and understand what they’re saying.
The same is true with people.
Think about how many of us are walking around feeling and showing distress. How many of us have experienced prolonged periods without being physically or emotionally fed and watered? How many of lack the nurturing needed to thrive? The answer is most of us.
It doesn’t take a botany degree to identify an unhealthy tree, yet some knowledge of the plant world helps. Humans, of course, are even more complex.
Listening is an act of service to another. Our society encourages us to hear, sometimes we hear what we expect the other to say. Yet our daily interactions often do not support us to listen, to listen in a way that allows us to learn from the point of view of the other.
Join me in gratitude to those our community who choose to connect with the Center to sharpen their listening skills, in addition they learn the skill to listen with impartiality. This April we appreciate each and everyone of our Mediators and Facilitators in our community. Thank you for your service.
Our mediator corps, every person who has taken our 40-hour Basic Mediation Training, as well as those who have participated in our 16-hour Tough Conversations Training have learned the art and science of listening. And you can, too.
When we look around at a society rife with conflict and division, I believe the best gift we can give ourselves and others is the ability AND willingness to listen.
Are you ready? Join us, we are here to help.
Meet Board Member Shakisha Ross
Shakisha Ross works for Puget Sound Energy as their Senior Community Representative for Pierce County. She manages a wide range of community issues including energy, land use, environment, equity, diversity and inclusion. Shakisha also builds relationships and coalitions to help move meaningful community initiatives forward.
Shakisa grew up in the Tacoma area. She and her husband of 27 years, Dean, raised their three children in Pierce County. Their oldest son Dean Jr. is married and serving in the United States Air Force. Their middle daughter Tarisa, is a graduate of Howard University and is currently pursuing a PhD in Science at Virginia Tech, and their youngest daughter Alexis received an art degree and is working at a renowned art gallery in Beverly Hills, California.
After being a stay-at-home mom, Shakisa wento work for Horizon Air, then went back to school. She finished her Associate of Arts at Pierce College and her Bachelor of Arts at Seattle Pacific University, pursuing two degrees: Interior design and Political Science. Upon graduation, Shakisha worked with a first-time candidate in the 2012 election. The candidate didn’t win, but she learned how to steer volunteers and work within the community.
After that election, Shakisa began to work for Congressman Adam Smith (WA-09) in many capacities as an Administrator, Grants Coordinator, Event Planner, Casework Manager and Field Representative. After leaving Rep Smith’s office, Shakisha was hired at the City of Tacoma. Her focus was on youth and apprenticeship workforce development programs, such as Summer Jobs 253 and other certificated programs that would benefit the youth of Tacoma Public Schools. Shakisha also worked to advance goals relating to equity in contracting and access in contracting to support minority and women-owned businesses in the City of Tacoma. She has worked with many community partners and nonprofits in the workforce development and contracting spaces in the City of Tacoma.
Why did you join CDR’s Board?
I know the important work that the Center for Dialog & Resolution does for the community. I learned of the Center while working for Congressman Adam Smith.
During the 2008 housing crisis, CDR was instrumental in keeping people in their homes. I saw first hand the commitment that this organization had for the community then and now. I am proud member of Pierce County and it is an honor to serve our community in various ways.
Who are the peacemakers in your life?
In our social history, the people closest to those in conflict played a key role in peacemaking. Perhaps it was an elder, an aunt, a close friend, or a spiritual guide who would step in to help resolve conflicts. A trusted ally brought people together to talk and see the other side of the issue.
Those days are long behind us.
From those without a home to neighbors arguing about a property line – rarely do we, as a society, work together to overcome those challenges. Instead, we resist the challenge to be vulnerable. We keep to ourselves. We need new guides to aid us in coming together. And that is what makes the Center for Dialog & Resolution such a critical asset in our community.
In 2022, more than 20,000 people requested the Center’s services to avoid going to court, to improve communication with people in their lives, to end small claims challenges – to engage in dialog and find resolution. Now, consider how many more than those 20,000 people reap the benefits of conflict resolution from the Center.
When conflict exists, those around the people in conflict suffer too. The children caught in the middle of their parents’ disagreements, the family and friends whose loved ones have stopped returning calls because they feel ashamed of not being able to pay their rent – these individuals are also impacted by conflict. In 2023 we expect more conflicts will arise with the end of pandemic-related assistance programs.
Can you imagine how much effort it takes to serve the community? The cost to conduct mediation still outweighs the amount of people able to pay to receive services. From an equity perspective, the Center’s goal is access to services for everyone who needs them.
The Center also relies heavily on volunteer mediators to do our work and it is the Center’s responsibility to ensure each mediator has the tools, knowledge, and expertise to resolve thousands of conflicts each year. That worthwhile investment costs a lot of money and resources.
Wouldn’t it be incredible if our society valued conflict resolution enough that it once again became part of our ethos – where more people had the tools, knowledge, and skills to resolve conflicts, which in turn brought peace to our everyday lives?
The Center for Dialog & Resolution is asking you to support the vision of a Pierce County that values peace, which is the ability to navigate productively through conflict. Our partner foundations have committed to match dollar-for-dollar every new donor or donor who pledges to increase their past donation amounts. By increasing your donation, you are supporting the parents who seek our services to develop parenting plans, landlords and tenants coming together to find solutions, and community members who are willing to mediate conflicts. You are honoring every mediator who donates many hours of their time to make our community more peaceful.
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