Make peace. Fight greediocy.

Economic peacemaking emerged over years of domestic and international work in workforce development, community empowerment, and economic development. One pattern became clear: we're all facing variations of the same problem while relying on organizations designed to solve yesterday's challenges.

In nearly every community, wages are low, good jobs are difficult to find, and the cost of living climbs relentlessly. Nonprofits established decades ago to provide food assistance or youth programming are now expected to address extreme wealth inequality. Churches running food drives find themselves responding to family homelessness and rent assistance requests from adults with full-time jobs. Elected officials respond to constituents distracted by AI-driven outrage on social media rather than addressing root causes. As we say in community development: who is going to stop pulling drowning people out of the water long enough to walk upstream and turn off the faucet?

I was trained in traditional peacemaking and community development practices decades ago. Over time, I had to think more about jobs, which led to living wages and financial literacy, then to economics, and ultimately back to community development and peacemaking. A living wage job that is productive and dignified is critical to achieve or sustain any other peacemaking or community effort. Without good jobs, communities face more crime, more hunger, less education, declining mental and physical health, and become unlivable even for wealthier residents.

Too few people do this work with excellence. Academics theorize, elected officials pay lip service, social media creates fictitious villains to blame, and many nonprofits write grants claiming to address these issues while funding legacy programs that don't. Meanwhile, a growing number of practitioners are working to fill this gap. As director and faculty for graduate programs in community economic development and international development, I've trained hundreds of these aspiring economic peacemakers. Some focus on advocacy and policy to expand living wage opportunities. Others work directly in community and economic development, partnering with employers and entrepreneurs to ensure residents are equipped for these opportunities. Still others recommit to existing work with clearer understanding of how they fit into collective peacemaking enhanced by a human-centered economic lens.

These practitioners are empathetic pragmatists: building relationships, making common sense connections between stakeholders, and prepared to persuade others to join the cause or implement high-impact projects when opportunities arise.

For years, I struggled with the reality that while I love teaching graduate students, many people see these same challenges in their communities and want to address them but lack the credentials or resources for graduate school. After realizing my career had become economic peacemaking and publishing a book on the topic, I committed to making this training accessible to aspiring economic peacemakers eager to fight for thriving, peaceful communities.

Welcome to the Center for Economic Peacemaking™. Whether you're a nonprofit seeking strategic guidance, a church leader wanting to address economic justice, or an aspiring practitioner ready to make real impact, you're in the right place.