Leadership Council

Katrina Taylor Hankins has been working with The Peace Alliance since 2016. She has worked with the staff and public to keep communication running smoothly and efficiently.

With strong organizational skills and discipline, Katrina has used office automation and logistics management skills to manage a Board Retreat and national Peace Alliance Conference. Her professional client service demeanor has positively impacted multiple Peace Alliance work projects and supported team members.

Kathy Kidd is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker living in Houston, Texas. She has had multiple careers including managing a campaign for a U.S House of Representatives candidate, and is currently working as a trauma-informed therapist. She began working with The Peace Alliance in late 2002 when world-wide protests began to prevent the war in Iraq. She began looking for peace organizations to volunteer with, and found the campaign to establish a US Department of Peace, now known as the Department of Peacebuilding. She was blown away by its all-encompassing reach and started volunteering for the Peace Alliance, accepting a staff position at the time until 2009.

After being inspired by the numerous volunteers and social workers that fueled the U.S. Department of Peace Campaign, Kathy returned to school and obtained a Master’s Degree in Social Work. She became a social worker to deepen her commitment to social justice and racial equity. She is grateful for the life-changing impact of the years she spent with The Peace Alliance previously, and now feels it's time to give back to the organization that gave her so much by serving as the National Field Coordinator for a second time.

Formerly the Program Director of the non-profit Full Circle Restorative Justice (FCRJ) based in Salida, Colorado, Ms. LaTaille’s professional background revolves around Social Justice and Communications in various venues. She is the Lead Facilitator and Trainer for Victim-Offender conferencing, as well as serving as a Professional Mediator (Keeping The Peace, LLC) privately, and within the Judicial system. Ms. LaTaille is a professional Meeting Facilitator and an international speaker on methods of Non Violent Communication (NVC). Her experience as a Rotary Peace Fellow, in Bangkok, Thailand in 2015, was a pivotal point in her career as an International Peace Professional.

Ms. LaTaille holds a graduate degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She was employed by IBM in Boulder, CO, as a Communications Architect. Ms. LaTaille has a number of published works and photos in corporate and media publications, regional newspapers and magazines, and in Chicken Soup for the Working Woman’s Soul. She has published her book "Paws 4 Peace" and is currently looking to publish her children’s book “No Bears for Patty.”

Ms. LaTaille enjoys spending active time outdoors and with young people. In prior years, she worked and played at being a ski/snowboard instructor and a white water river guide. She has more than twenty-two years of experience in working with high‐risk adolescents, in addition to founding and managing a number of sustainable youth programs.

She was born and lived in Long Island, New York, and has now resided in the Colorado mountains with her furry family members for 23 years. You can find her on FB, Linked In, fullcirclerj.org

Nancy Merritt is a CA State Coordinator for the Peace Alliance/ Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peacebuilding (DoP/ HR 1111), and a member of the National and CA DoP Committees. She has been involved with peace and justice issues – including issues relating to the American Indian Movement and Tibet – for many years and has worked with the Peace Alliance since 2004. Nancy has coordinated the work of the DoP groups with Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s (CA) office to introduce and promote a cabinet-level Department of Peacebuilding. She has also worked as part of the mighty CA DoP team to secure endorsement by the CA Democratic Party (CDP) of DoP legislation, inclusion of peacebuilding ideals in CDP Platforms and passage of peacebuilding-related resolutions.

She particularly focuses on building a peaceful world for generations to come, including for her four amazing sons and their partners and her completely awesome grandchildren.

Jelena Popovic is experienced in beginnings, grounded in mindfulness practice, open to learning from all beings, and deeply passionate about community and igniting its enormous transformative power. She aspires to educate, advocate, and mobilize others in co-creating a culture of peace. As a school psychologist by training and a peacebuilder by heart, Jelena’s passion is holding space for facilitated dialogues that are grounded in mindful awareness and empathy. She is driven by a belief that education is a continuous journey of getting intimate with and exploring the depths and layers of our purpose while uncovering curiosity, biases, joy, and wholeness along the way. Jelena is dedicated to peace education, mindful educational leadership and healing centered pedagogy as a path that supports a shift toward a culture of belonging for all.

Jelena spends most of her time in circle with educators and students and is a facilitation trainer for Soliya where she guides others in facilitating virtual cross-cultural exchange dialogues. She serves on the advisory board for the Peace of Mind, Cities4Peace, is a Program Facilitator at Mindful Schools, and in addition to being Practicing Peace in Schools Leadership Council lead she also co-host Hope Story Circles for the Peace Alliance. She guides mindfulness retreats for educators, leads international At Home In the World family retreats, and is a co-founder of Design to Connect, LLC, an educational consulting organization, that assists schools in their efforts in skillful, integrated, and sustainable schoolwide implementation of mindfulness and peace education practices.

Jelena’s guiding principle is summed up in saying “Peace begins with me.” Her daily peacebuilding practice consists of moments of silence and self-reflection and everyday gratitude for small, seemingly ordinary yet extraordinary things. Jelena is especially grateful for her loving family and friends and is honored to serve on the Peace Alliance Leadership Council.

J’s career is dedicated to creating collaborative spaces across an intersection of networks, fostering relationships, and maintaining a vision to increase the capacity of those working toward equitable social and transformational justice until freedom dreams are reality. J amplifies Indigenous methodologies as a tool to shift the pervasive violence prevalent in our social, economic and political practices by centering our most vulnerable community members to benefit all.

J contributes 30 years expertise as an Executive Management Consultant who earned a Master of Public Administration from New York University, Wagner School of Public Service, and an undergraduate degree in psychology from Columbia University.