COPA Getting Involved

COPA COORDINATING COUNCIL

The Culture of Peace Alliance (COPA) Coordinating Council is currently composed of members who worked together for a year to develop the vision, mission, purpose, and structure of this organization. Throughout this collaboration process, the council members deepened their capacity to synergistically learn from one another, to personally practice peace in their coordinating council endeavors, and to have fun in the process. Brief introductions to members follow.

Phyllis Grimes
Phyllis Grimes recognized in 1985, during her first trip to the Soviet Union for a Peace Conference, that her life purpose was to help bring peace to our world. After five years and eighteen more trips with the Center for Soviet-American Dialogue and MIR Corporation, Phyllis was looking for her next involvement. That came after she and her husband moved to Tucson in 1992. Here she became a Practitioner in the Church of Religious Science after six years of course study. She continues to work with COPA as an outlet for her commitment to Peace.

Del Jones
Del Jones holds a BS in Education and an MS in Urban Planning and has been in management for more than thirty years. She was the Founding Director of WELCOT, the Wellness Council of Tucson and is now Director Emeritus. Del founded the Partnership Way Center, International Partnership Network and was Executive Director of the Center for Partnership Studies Educational Foundation. She initiated the COPA projects, Peace Circles and Elder Circles. She is on the Advisory Board of the Wellness Council of Arizona (WELCOAZ), Board of Directors of the Pima Council on Aging (PCOA), and Tucson Green Magazine. She is married and has three sons and nine grandchildren.

Sat Bir Kaur Khalsa
Sat Bir is a foster parent in Tucson. She arrived here in the mid-80s. As a Sikh, she strongly upholds the human rights of all people to live, love, and share peacefully. She volunteers with several community groups and organizations in Tucson as an expression of her faith. Sat Bir states, "I am grateful for my experience with the COPA Coordinating Council. We have practiced nonviolent communication with one another, as well as consensus in our decision-making. I welcome your interest in COPA. I welcome those who will partner with us, even if just by visiting this web site."

Anton Schmalz
Anton Schmalz has helped evolve, implement, and evaluate comprehensive goals and strategies in a variety of subject areas for both private sector and government organizations for five decades. He served as a consultant for four USA presidents and prepared major goals policies and statements dealing with peace conflict resolution , national security energy conservation, and environmental issues. Collaborating with the "Father" of Earth Day, he helped organize the International "Sun Day" to encourage the maximum use of natural resources.
He served as President of the Los Angeles United Nations Association and organized and chaired several international conferences for the "World Future Society" and others.
He offered numerous papers and several books including "Energy: Today's Choices, Tomorrow's Opportunities and Outcomes" and "Insights Into The Changing Government Market Place", which was widely distributed by Presidents Johnson and Nixon as the "Primer As to How Government Works". In order to enhance a spiritual influence in the evolution of peace he has been a life long student of metaphysics and world religions.

Rev. Gerry Straatemeier
Gerry Straatemeier, MSW, is a retired clinical social worker and an independent New Thought minister. Having received her Masters in Social Work at UC Berkeley in 1967, it might not be a surprise to find she is a lifelong peace activist. Gerry has been the co-chair of the Gandhi/King Season for NonViolence in Southern Arizona (SNV) since 2000. She is also a hobby political and spiritual writer and a committed progressive movement activist. She believes nonviolent practices taught by Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are more relevant than ever in an age of "terrorism", that stems from a culture of dominance and fear.

Jack Strasburg
Jack Strasburg is currently a Tucson Peace Center Board member. He was a founding member of local, state and national Green Parties, served on the national Green Council for three years, and ran for local office twice. He also worked with Diné (Navajo) and Hopi on the Big Mountain relocation issue for twelve years. Jack also facilitated an indigenous permaculture group on the Navajo reservation for eight years. He has been active in peace, justice, and environmental issues for over twelve years. His primary interest is focus on alternative economics and permaculture/sustainability as a way to build infrastructure for a new peaceful paradigm.

Ann Yellott
Ann Yellott, Ph.D., has been working for over thirty years in Arizona with local, statewide, and national coalitions focused on issues such as: domestic violence and sexual assault prevention; cultural diversity; peacemaking, conflict resolution, and social justice. She now divides her time between the desert and the ocean, going back and forth between Tucson—where she has her own mediation and facilitation business and serves on the COPA Coordinating Council—and Laguna Beach—where she is co-creating an Academy for World Peace and World Prosperity and involved as Executive Director with the Center for Prosperous Living (a Science of Mind spiritual center; www.lagunabeach-cpl.org).
Calling attention to peacebuilding projects happening in thousands of communities across the United States and around the world, Ann remains hopeful about the conscious evolution of humankind to create a world that works for all. She reminds us that we create peace every day by listening compassionately to others, appreciating the abundant and profound beauty of the earth, connecting with Spirit, and following our own unique calling.