Forging
Peace

Todd Deatherage

Todd Deatherage spent sixteen years in senior positions in the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government before co-founding the Telos Group, an organization devoted to forming communities of peacemakers and equipping them to reconcile seemingly intractable conflicts across lines of difference. Prior to co-founding Telos, he was Chief of Staff in the Secretary of State’s Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department. He also spent two years as Senior Advisor in the Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, where he specialized in religious freedom in the Middle East. He is a native Arkansan and a graduate of the University of Arkansas.

Jenny Yang

Jenny Yang is the Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Policy at World Relief where she provides oversight for all advocacy initiatives and policy positions for the organization and leads the organization’s public relations efforts. In this position, she coordinates and leads the marketing, programs, and strategic engagement division teams on media relations, public engagement and brand elevation strategies. She also represents the organization’s advocacy priorities to the U.S. government and leads mobilization efforts for churches on advocacy campaigns. She has worked over a decade in refugee protection, immigration policy, and human rights and was on an active deployment roster for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Previous to World Relief, she worked at one of the largest political consulting companies in Maryland. Jenny is co-author of “Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion and Truth in the Immigration Debate" and contributing author to three other books. Jenny was named one of the “50 Women to Watch” by Christianity Today.

Diana Oestreich

Soldier turned Peacemaker Diana Oestreich heard God’s call to love her enemies in the most unlikely place: on the battlefield of the Iraq war. Diana is an activist, veteran, sexual assault nurse, and relentless practitioner of Peace. Speaking across the country, she empowers us to identify our own rural, urban, political or religious divides to cross our own “enemy lines” in order to remake the world and heal all that’s tearing us apart. She’s appeared on multiple podcasts, including For the Love with Jen Hatmaker discussing Justice, faith, peacemaking, refugees, activism with kids and how her posture of love shapes how she parents and shows up for her neighbors.

Her first book, coming Sept 1, 2020 from Broadleaf Press, Waging Peace exposes the false divide between loving our country and living out our faith's call to love our enemies--whether we perceive our enemy as the neighbor with an opposing political viewpoint, the clerk wearing a head-covering, or the refugee from a war-torn country. By showing that us-versus-them is a false choice, this book will inspire each of us to choose love over fear.

Diana, her partner Jake and their two sons, Bridger and Zelalem live along the shores of Lake Superior on Ojibwe land. They are an Ethiopian-American family woven together through adoption and a shared love for bad jokes and competitive card games.

Dr. Jeff McGee

Dr. Jeff McGee is a published author and thought leader in using an asset-based approach to understand cross-cultural and leadership competencies. He is passionate about equipping leaders with strategies and approaches to lead tomorrow’s organizations. He has studied and witnessed barriers between diverse groups where issues of trust, decision-making and roles are misunderstood. Dr. McGee has successfully led many organizations through trainings/consultations that have positively impacted organizational culture and relationship building efforts.

His interactive approach to engagement empowers leaders to think differently and challenge norms. Dr. McGee has over 10 years of experience as a speaker, educator and trainer for K-12 schools, higher education institutions, businesses, city governments and nonprofit organizations including churches. His continued work and research seek to dismantle cross-cultural and leadership misunderstandings through education, practice, and policy making.

Dr. McGee serves on several local board of trustees, community groups and dissertation committees. He holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Geneva College and a Doctorate in Education in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University.

Jamie & Donna Winship

Jamie and Donna Winship have decades of experience bringing peaceful solutions to some of the world’s highest conflict areas.

After a distinguished career in law enforcement in the metro Washington DC area, Jamie earned an MA in English and with his wife, Donna developed a unique process of identity transformation that is the key to resolving inner conflict and acquiring new levels of learning and creativity. His unconventional efforts to bring about societal and racial reconciliation led him to Indonesia, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Israel, and now Seattle.

Donna has a background in education and is the author of Knowing Rediscovered, a series that unlocks the transformative power of learning to “know” the way Jesus did.

Jamie & Donna have worked with leaders in professional sports, business, education, law enforcement, government, non-profit and other sectors. They are co-founders of Identity Exchange and its corporate arm, Identity Method, providing training and consulting in the transformative power of living fearlessly in their true identity.