Staff Bios

Elisabeth Hoffman, Founder and President

Ms. Hoffman has been active in peacebuilding for over 20 years in a variety of capacities – professor, trainer, facilitator, program director, consultant, and funder.  A former Political Science professor at Principia College, Ms. Hoffman left academia to focus on the practice of conflict resolution and peacebuilding.  She has developed and led conflict resolution training programs in corporate, congregational, educational and community settings.  She was a founder and Executive Director of Peace Discovery Initiatives, which pioneered in positive approaches to peacebuilding, as well as in mobilizing religious resources for peace.  She has designed, convened and facilitated backchannel Middle East peacemaking initiatives and worked to bring grassroots Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers together with American policymakers.  She advocated for religion to be used as a constructive element of this peacemaking process and pioneered in techniques for doing this, culminating in the establishment of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University.

Ms. Hoffman founded Catalyst for Peace in 2003, crafting a unique hybrid funder/practitioner role.  Her vision and leadership have fostered programming that is responsive to on-the-ground, real-time social and political realities by facilitating total community ownership and participation in the reconciliation process. Prior to dedicating its focus to Fambul Tok, Catalyst programs mobilized religious resources for peace in northern Uganda, Ethiopia, the Philippines, and India; mobilized and supported community reconciliation in post-conflict Africa; and developed cutting-edge storytelling and communications channels to support these two focus areas.

Ms. Hoffman co-founded Fambul Tok and has partnered in its implementation since its inception, first through Catalyst for Peace and currently as the President of Fambul Tok International.

From 2005-2008, Ms. Hoffman partnered with the United Religions Initiative (URI) and noted international peacebuilder John Paul Lederach in the design and implementation of a 2-year pilot training program in inter-religious peacebuilding.  She continues to consult on translating the learning from the pilot into an ongoing, sustainable training program for URI.  In support of this partnership, Catalyst produced 2 short films telling the story of the work of these grassroots interfaith peacebuilders,  We Unite and Faith Into Action.  Ms. Hoffman is producing a major documentary film on Fambul Tok, to be released in 2010.

Ms. Hoffman holds an M.A.L.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a BA in Political Science from Williams College.

Tammy Mazza, Executive Assistant

Associate Bios

Sara Terry, Director, Fambul Tok: The Film

Sara Terry led Voice to Vision field work and is currently directing and producing the Fambul Tok film. 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.