Peace House Contributing Writers Biographies

Jim Phillips, Ph.D. has been visiting, research, and writing about Central America since 1974.
He spent several years during the 1980s in Honduras and Nicaragua during the Contra War, and visited refugee camps in Honduras.
He has lived in peasant villages, sugar plantations, and Honduran cities where gang violence is high.
He provides expert witness in asylum hearings involving Honduran nationals in U.S. immigration courts.
He has written many articles and chapters about refugee populations, human rights, and social change in Central America.
His recent book is: Honduras in Dangerous Times: Resistance and Resilience (Lexington Books, 2015, 2017).
He is an Affiliate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology (Ret.) at Southern Oregon University, where he taught for 20 years.
Jim is presently the Chair of Peace House.

Elizabeth Hallett
Executive Director

Board and Staff presence since 2016; Executive Director from 1993 to 1996 and Co-Director with Ruth Coulthard from 1996-1997.

Elizabeth V. Hallett is a long-time member of Peace House and the Ashland community.She coordinated the Uncle Food’s Diner Project from 1993-1995. She returned to Peace House as a Board member in 2016 and became the Program Manager in 2017. She believes that teaching and practicing nonviolent communication is essential and has been involved for many years as a peace activist, from the days of the Vietnam War to the Central American wars in the 1970’s and 80’s to present time.Having lived in Brazil as a child, she developed a great love for multicultural communities early-on. A former Doula and Childbirth Educator with a passion for health-care advocacy, Elizabeth also served as the Communications Director for the California Association of Midwives in the mid-1980’s. From 1999 to 2009, Elizabeth was the Director of the Ashland Community Hospital Day Respite Center for those with Alzheimer’s and related dementias. She is the owner of Elizabeth Hallett Consulting, specializing in health-care advocacy, support groups, consulting and integrated care options for families living with dementia and long-term illness. She is currently a student of Spiritual Direction with the Interfaith Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley, CA. Her BA is in American Studies from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio and she speaks Portuguese, Spanish and French.

Andy Seles
Adviser

Board Tenure: 2016-2018

Since relocating to Ashland in 2008, Andrew has been active with Oregon Action, Ashland Homeless shelter, Occupy Ashland, Move to Amend Jackson County, Americans for Amendment, and Rogue Conversations, and has served as the neighborhood coordinator for the Ashland Food Project. Andy attended college in Connecticut and earned an M.A. in English at the University of Rhode Island. He taught English to grades 6-8 for 22 years. During his time as an educator he also ran peer counseling and diversity groups in addition to teaching evening courses at Eastern Connecticut State College. After retiring in 2002 he continued to teach for 5 years at the college level in New York. He often writes op-eds in The Ashland Tidings. His ongoing concern is with citizen education on polarizing issues.

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