NH Peace Action and Ed Fund Boards of Directors

Amy Antonucci, Chair has been involved in activism, agriculture, and the arts in Seacoast NH for 30 years.  After receiving her B.A. in Women’s Studies at UNH Durham, she has worked on issues of environmental health, sustainable agriculture, human rights and peace. 

Amy has been on the board of NHPA for several years, especially helping with their Events Committee, American Friends of Combatants for Peace partnerships and FCNL (Friends Committee on National Legislation) local lobbying efforts.  Amy is co-owner of Living Land Permaculture Homestead in Barrington, NH, where she tends plants, animals, and insects.  She helps organize the Seacoast Permaculture Group and the True Tales Live storytelling program in Portsmouth NH, teaches Sacred Circle Dance and Frame Drumming, and believes in the power of people and stories to transform the world. (Term: 2022-2024)

Curtis Smith, Co-Chair is a retired college faculty member (English) and administrator.  Political activism began with work with the Congress of Racial Equality Syracuse, NY, in 1963; arrested for protesting “Negro Removal” at a construction site. Active in protesting the Vietnam War; chaired the Albany NY Peace Center in the late 1960’s. In that capacity acquired an FBI file when I led a Peace Center sit down in the Albany Selective Service Center in 1969.  Active in United Farm Workers grape and lettuce boycott.  Participated in May 1970 student strike following Kent State and was denied tenure at SUNY Albany in 1972, arguably at least in part because of my political activism. At the University of Houston-Clear Lake in the 1970’s became active in various leftist causes.  Arrested in 1986 for civil disobedience related to the Contra war on Nicaragua.  I regard my accomplishments as modest. (Term: 2022-2024)

William Maddocks, Treasurer. Bill has been involved in community economic development work for the past thirty years most recently at the Carsey School of Public Policy at UNH. Bill has also worked as a hard rock gold miner, electronics and mining industry health organizer and United Farmworkers Union boycott organizer. He has been active in peace, civil rights, environmental justice, anti-war and labor movement struggles.

For thirteen years Bill worked in Sub-Saharan Africa running a large micro-savings training program to promote economic empowerment for women at the grassroots level.  Bill also works as facilitator for New Hampshire Listens and serves as a co-facilitator in the NH Endowment for Health’s Race and Equity Series. Bill is married to Lin Illingworth and is the dog dad of a wonderful rescue dog named Liddy.  (Term: 2021-2023)

Jonie LaBombard, Secretary.  Jonie was born, raised, and went to college in Hanover, NH. She is a former kindergarten teacher, stay-at-home-parent of four, volunteer EMT, and a 21-year Girl Scout leader and trainer.

Somewhere back in the 80’s she was the editor of the Nashua Peace Center newsletter, The Drinking Gourd.  Jonie got into peace activism while attending Hanover Friends Meeting and is now a member of Concord Friends Meeting.  She is also currently a library trustee and serves on the boards of several non-profits.  (Term: 2021-2023)

Sandra Yarne is a licensed clinical psychologist in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Her private practice in Portsmouth, NH helps people develop their relational and mindfulness skills. She has taught psychology courses as adjunct faculty at Austin Community College, Austin, Texas, Granite State College, and the University of New Hampshire. 

Dr. Yarne received her doctorate degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation studied individual and organizational factors which affect professional burnout. 

As a peace activist Sandra served as an organizer for Beyond War and Move On.  Sandra serves as the representative from the Palestine Education Network (which she co-founded), a special project of NH Peace Action.  She actively participated in the creation of NENJP, the New England Network for Justice for Palestine, a five state coalition advocating for Palestinian human rights.

In the past two years her peace efforts have centered around the Back from the Brink campaign to abolish nuclear weapons.  Sandra refers to herself as a war abolitionist and views the effort to abolish war not unlike that to abolish slavery. (Term: 2022-2024)

Chris Hansen. Repelled by the insanity of the Vietnam War, and compelled to avoid taking a role in it, I avoided the draft with student and occupational deferments, and became active in peace demonstrations and the  alternative “national service” of VISTA, part of the “War on Poverty”.  Much of my working life involved community organizing and human services jobs in support of community mental health and services for the elderly and people with disabilities; then I spent my last paid years as a carpenter before retiring in 2010.

Over the years, while my wife and I raised our two now-grown children, I have been active with campaigns and organizations in solidarity with Central Americans whose challenges have often mirrored the years of the Vietnam war and the unjust involvement of the USA.  My continuing dismay with the Gulf War, the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War, and US support and sponsorship of conflict elsewhere have kept me on my toes and frequently demonstrating in Keene’s Central Square.  I have also been a volunteer with local efforts:  repealing NH’s death penalty, Habitat for Humanity, Literacy Volunteers, town budget and recycling committees, Cub Scouts, and community theater groups.  (Term: 2022-2024)

Janet Zeller Co-Co Chair.  Janet has long been an advocate for building a culture of peace. Her degrees are in education and library science with certifications in mediation. After working in elementary schools, she was recruited by the U.S. Forest Service. After 28 years as a mediator and national program manager in recreation, Janet retired from that agency in 2018. She was then able to invest more time working for peace, joining the Board that year.

She is deeply committed to demilitarization, reallocation of pentagon spending to support human needs and confronting the imminent threat posed by nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation. Janet also chairs the Peace with Justice Advocates of the NH Conference of the UCC.    (Term: 2022-2024)

Martin Toe is an organizer, musician, and author of the book America Calls To Me: The Story of a Refugee Boy’s Journey. He is currently an organizer at the Granite State Organizing Project. Born in Ivory Coast, Martin and his mother and sister relocated to Concord, NH in 2003 through the refugee resettlement program. Martin recently joined the Peace and Action Board in 2022 as a way of fighting for peace and educating his community in N.H. He enjoys a good books as well as spending quality time with family and friends.  (Term: 2022-2024)

Garrett Walker is a community organizer and educator. He has worked on issues regarding youth education with Granite State Organizing Project, money in politics with Open Democracy and community empowerment with the Party for Socialism & Liberation. Professionally, he will soon acquire a Masters of Secondary Education Degree from Southern New Hampshire University and an NH state certification to teach 6th to 12th grade Social Studies. He joined the Peace Action Board in early 2022 as a way of contributing to the movement for peace and diplomacy in NH and globally. In his free time, he enjoys reading Sci-Fi and taking care of houseplants.  (Term: 2022-2024)

Scott Dickman is a long-time advocate for peace and social justice, lived in Israel for several years during the 1970’s and returned with the Compassionate Listening Project in 2016 – and participated in a CLP Journey to Alabama in 2020. He also served on the Board of Building a Culture of Peace for several years and is currently a member of NH Friends of Combatants for Peace and J Street – organizations committed to reconciliation, extending compassion to The Other and bridging differences peacefully. He is currently semi-retired, enjoying family and the company of his new grandson, while fulfilling his passion for the outdoors by partnering with conservancies in the establishment of conservation easements.  (Term: 2022-2024)

NH Peace Action Board of Directors

Janet Simmon.   Janet’s initiation into activism was with a college group called Stop Atomic Bombs.  Another early experience, teaching and creating adaptations for people with disabilities, has always been woven into her professional and volunteer activities.  Janet worked with DC group Partners for Peace, led church studies for peace, taught classes on Palestine/Israel and participated in her first major peace rally in DC in 1988.   

When she moved to NH she joined Gunstock Adaptive Sports. Eager to better understand other cultures, she worked with Bhutanese refugees, chaired the Laconia Multicultural Festival, and traveled to Pine Ridge, Palestine/Israel, Bangladesh, Jordan and Kenya. 

Currently Janet is a member of the NH UCC Peace with Justice Advocates.  She has been a member of NHPA and PEN since she moved to Laconia ten years ago.  (Term: 2021-2023)

Jehann El-Bisi, Ed. D. Dr. Jehann El-Bisi, is an artist/activist/educator/poet: dedicated to Non-Violence, indigenous sovereignty, water/land and human rights.  She believes achieving world peace is possible by reallocating resources through divestment from the military industrial complex and shifting away from a fossil fuel based economy.   She has an earned doctorate in Language, Literacy and Culture, from the University of Massachusetts, at Amherst. She was ordained in 2009, as a minister with the Christ Life Church.   She has over 25 years of experience, as an activist, and has walked over 1000 miles with interfaith groups, and world peace organizations, for nuclear disarmament, non- proliferation, indigenous sovereignty and related issues. 

She currently serves as an independent consultant, public speaker, and documentary film maker. She is currently working on her third film, related to world peace and shared security.  (Term: 2022-2024)

Sara Smith.  Growing up in Oak Ridge Tennessee, I remember elementary nuclear drills with older kids being driven to neighboring states. Even at six years old, I knew we were not likely to survive a nuclear attack. By my teens I was joining anti war and civil rights marches in Washington DC. After a student, who recently graduated from my suburban Maryland HS, was shot and killed at Kent State, my interest in music led me to join a production of a newly written opera about that incident, which gave a performance at Kent State on the anniversary. Protests and marches on the Pentagon followed and included at least one arrest. I have been protesting wars since. After meeting my now wife Jennifer Smith I discovered that the Quakers were the best fit for me, including their emphasis on removing the seeds of war from my life. After retiring from teaching elementary reading and math, I helped form one of the initial Advocacy Teams for the Friends Committee on National Legislation in New Hampshire. I have found our collaboration with NH Peace Action to be the perfect fit for our peace work. I also work on immigration issues as well as tutor a refugee in literacy and citizenship. I am in the group presenting an apology from Quakers to Indigenous people in what we call New England and continue to work on building a right relationship with the Indigenous people. As I join this board, I complete a ten year term on the Permanent Board of New England Yearly Meeting (Quakers).  (Term: 2022-2024)

William Maddocks, Treasurer.  See above, Bill is also Treasurer of the NH Peace Action Education Fund Board  (Term: 2022-2024)

Curtis Smith See above, Curt is also a member of the NH Peace Action Education Fund Board  (Term: 2021-2023)