How I Started Fighting Greediocy
I went to a small bible college more than 20 years ago as an aviation student and spent part of a summer flying in and out of communities in southern Mexico. I came to understand that communities' needs are related to culture and systems that I didn't understand, so I earned a master's degree in international community while serving in workforce development during the Great Recession.
I joined the Peace Corps as an economic development specialist and served for three years in the Dominican Republic with my wife, supporting local entrepreneurs, setting up financing options for new businesses, and helping reinforce the cacao industry and labor market.
I returned to the United States and turned to strategic leadership, building aspirational cross sector initiatives to address big challenges. I built training programs for employers that cost nothing because I used local partners who were already there, waiting to be called upon. I created a financial literacy initiative when I discovered the gap and partnered with a credit union to craft five financial products for my clients. I trained leaders in areas such as early childhood development, youth mental health, domestic violence survivors, healthcare, church ministry, and philanthropy to think strategically, develop partnerships, and increase impact and sustainability.
Wanting to grow and be challenged, I earned a doctorate in semiotics (the study of signs and symbols related to culture) where I crafted the economic peacemaking language. After becoming director and chair of the School of Global Studies at Northwest University where I built the new MA in Community Economic Development, I published my book "The Wages of Peace" with Herald Press and earned my PhD researching servant leadership in executives in the nonprofit sector.
Now I direct graduate programs in community development, serve as an elder at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Tacoma, and chair the Economic Development and Land Use Committee for East Tacoma's Neighborhood Advisory Council. I work directly on the housing and wage issues I write about. I started doing more coaching, training, and speaking with practitioners who wanted the same frameworks I was teaching graduate students, so I built the Center for Economic Peacemaking to make that training accessible to anyone ready to do this work.
