Staff Bios

Elisabeth Hoffman, Founder and President

Libby Hoffman is the Founder and President of Catalyst for Peace, which she established in 2003.  Libby has been active in conflict resolution and peacebuilding for nearly 20 years as a professor, trainer, practitioner, and funder.  After teaching Political Science at Principia College, she left academia to focus on practice and program development.  She has developed and led conflict resolution training programs in corporate, educational, and community settings.  She has designed, convened and facilitated backchannel Middle East peacemaking initiatives, and worked to bring grassroots peacemakers together with American policymakers.  She is a co-founder and former Executive Director of Peace Discovery Initiatives, which pioneered in positive approaches to peacebuilding, as well as in mobilizing religious resources for peace.

Libby holds an MALD from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a BA in Political Science from Williams College. She lives in Maine with her husband and three children. She is active in her church, currently serving as First Reader (conducting services) of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Portland, Maine.

Robert Roche, Field Program Officer

Robert is a Field Program Officer for Catalyst for Peace and serving as a Technical Advisor for the Fambul Tok project. He recently received his MA in Conflict Transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. Robert brings to Catalyst 16 years of experience living and working in Africa. His primary focus has been in emergency or post conflict environments. He wants to continue promoting traditional methods of reconciliation and peacbuilding in environments where those practices have been eroded due to conflict.

Robert holds a BA in Exercise Science from McDaniel College. He is an active individual who loves sports, adventures, and the challenges of life.   

Sara Terry, Communications and Program Development

A former staff correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and magazine freelance writer, Sara Terry made a mid-career transition into photojournalism and documentary photography in the late 1990s. Her long-term project about the aftermath of war in Bosnia — Aftermath: Bosnia’s Long Road to Peace — was published in September 2005 by Channel Photographics. Her work has been widely exhibited, at such venues as the United Nations, the Museum of Photography in Antwerp, and the Moving Walls exhibition at the Open Society Institute in New York. Her photographs are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and in many private collections. In 2005, she received a prestigious Alicia Patterson Fellowship for her work in Bosnia. She is also the founder of The Aftermath Project, a non-profit grant program which helps photographers cover the aftermath of conflict. She resides in Los Angeles.

Associate Bios

Amy Potter, Fambul Tok Program Officer

Amy is providing program officer and peacebuilding services for Fambul Tok as a consultant from Eastern Mennonite University's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, where she is the Associate Director for the Practice Institute. Amy brings 10 years of experience in peacebuilding training, practice and program management. Her primary area of interest is in Reconciliation processes from recent and historical events. She has a BA from Principia College and an MA in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University.

Claire Putzeys, Voice to Vision Research Fellow

Learn more about Claire Putzeys at the Voice to Vision profiles page.

Heather Woodman, Program Support

Heather is providing program support and organizational consulting for Catalyst for Peace from her base as the owner of Inner Voice Consulting, a home and office organizing business.