Peter Frantz is a lifelong artist, entrepreneur, advocate and educator with a deep commitment in art, education and collaborative technology to reignite confidence and amplify self-assurance in vulnerable youth. His belief in the innate creativity, imagination and ingenuity of every human mind is absolute.

 As Founder and CEO, Peter combined more than 20 years of experience in art programming and curriculum, creative social justice and change initiatives, business entrepreneurship, high caliber mentor ship and multicultural collaboration into the development of FragilePeace (fragilepeace.org). FragilePeace empowers intuitive and collective leadership in the development of innovative, community driven solutions.

 He is the co founder of Panzi Foundation USA (panzifoundation.org), and served as the Executive Director from its initiation in 2009 until 2015. Peter holds an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, a BA in Design and Social Ecology from Goddard College after starting his studies in engineering at the University of Notre Dame.  He is an Artist in Education for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

 His personal art and research is centered around the narrative as it defines identity and self-hood; its sustainability and healing effects in conflict areas and the retention of personal identity for survivors of sexual violence.  He has exhibited nationally and internationally.

Kim has worked in the social sector for over 17 years. She has worked with a variety of organizations at various levels of development as well as founding/co-founding 2 NPOs focused on indigenous issues and traditions.  She has been involved with the NPO community as an Executive Director, Event Producer and Strategic Development Consultant.  She brings with her experience in Fundraising, Corporate and Foundation Relations, Leadership and Board Development, International Relations and Protocols, Financial Management, Grant Writing, Marketing and Partnerships.

She has produced events in a variety of locations, both internationally and domestically including the lobby of the World Bank in Washington, D.C., an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Haiti, a homeless shelter in downtown Los Angeles, a 55,000 square foot estate in Beverly Hills and most recently, on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan.

Prior to her experience in the NPO sector, she spent over 20 years in the music industry as a Marketing and Promotion Executive.  Kim currently resides in Santa Fe, NM.

I am 22 years old. I speak French, English, Swahili and Lingala fluently. I have been working at Panzi Hospital (Panzi District, near Bukavu, Kivu) as a translator for 5 years, being officially employed by Panzi hospital since October 2012. In addition to my translator profession, I work as a research assistant at International Center for Advanced Research and Training (iCART) at Panzi Hospital, and as Project Manager for a Panzi Foundation USA project sponsored by Equal Exchange, headquartered in Boston, MA.

I became interested in learning English with hope to become a Congolese translator and make friends and contacts from the outside world. However, I did not have any resources or means to learn English. I could not afford a book or classes. A Congolese friend borrowed a book for me containing 1500 English words and 300 frequently used expressions. However, the book was loaned to me just for 3 days, so I needed to handwrite the entire book and give it back to its owner on time.

Six months later, I was able to speak English fluently enough to begin giving classes to my peers in exchange for a small amount of tuition, which enable me to buy a radio and listen to the British Broadcasting Corporation on a regular basis and expand my English as well as learn new things. Thanks to my keen listening to BBC, I learned and dramatically improved my English, a skill I now sell as a proficient translator.

Subsequently I went to Institut Superieure Pédagique de Bukavu where I graduated in Linguistcs in July 2013. Unfortunately, in the DRC, education has been in ruin for more than two decades, so many universities offer extremely poor quality education. To improve my education on my own, I read many books and use the internet in order to further my education. I am also looking forward to studying journalism and conflict management in the upcoming years.

In 2016 I attended L’Université Évangélique en Afrique (UEA) and studied Peace Building and Development

My name is Jeremiah Star, I’m from the pueblos of Jemez and Santo Domingo.

I spent a lot of my childhood in Jemez Pueblo: playing and helping in the agricultural fields, hunting in the forest with my cousins and participating in our traditional dances. I’m very fortunate to have grown up in an environment where people still had a close relationship with mother earth and the sacred. I still participate in our traditional practices and speak my indigenous language. I also intend to pass on this knowledge to my 3-year-old son as a way of preservation, so we don’t lose our identity.

Since becoming a father my mentality has shifted, not only did I have to figure out what I wanted to do in my life, but also, how am I going to make this world a better place for my son and the next generations to come. I was attending the University of New Mexico when I had my son, going to school for religion studies. I didn’t feel like religious studies was going to take me any further in my life. So, I transferred to the American Indian Art Institute in Santa Fe and studied ethnobotany, looking at different traditional plant medicines used by the indigenous of the south west. I took all the classes that IAIA had to offer in ethnobotany and I still didn’t feel I was contributing to mother earth in any special or helpful way, so I left and transferred to the Santa Fe Community College. There is where I finally found the direction I wanted my life to go. I’m currently attending the Santa Fe Community College: double majoring in Greenhouse Management and Sustainable Technology’s with a focus in biofuels.

When I’m not working on school work in the summer, I work with an archeologist, a professor from Harvard University.  We go out on the mesa tops and go to Jemez ancestral sites where I learned to identify different pottery shards and do source analyses on obsidian. We also try and figure out when the sites were occupied and what other tribes the people were trading with. Archeology is another one of my passions because it’s important to know where you come from and your history. I believe that is what is giving me the strength as I move forward in my life. I always remember to give thanks to my ancestors for my life because without their sacrifices I would not be here today.