Board of Directors
Board of Directors
June Kirk
June has been a member of the Board of Directors of The Interfaith Peace Project since 2008 and was elected President of the Board in 2022. June is the docent for the Interfaith Peace Center and Library in Antioch, CA. “We are what you need us to be” is the philosophy that welcomes everyone who visits the Center.
June is a Mother, Grandmother, and Great Grandmother. June holds a Master’s in Pastoral Ministry and Certification as a Spiritual Director. Her work has included Parish Leadership, Children’s Education, Retreat Work, and Organization and Consulting. June’s first career was in Banking.
“Early in my involvement with The Interfaith Peace Project the Board members were asked to consider this question: “Do you want your work to be part of The Interfaith Peace Project and do you want The Interfaith Peace Project to be part of your work?” My answer in 2007 was “Yes”. All these years later my Life is part of The Interfaith Peace Project and The Interfaith Peace Project is a very important part of my Life. This has been my great honor and privilege.
Patricia Black
Patricia Black is the Treasurer of The Interfaith Peace Project. Since 1992, Pat Black, has been a Detention Minister, most recently at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, CA. She is a retired Director of Adult Faith Formation at St. Isidore’s Catholic Church in Danville, CA. Pat is a former Vice-President of Operations of Bay Area Rentals and has held various management and bookkeeping positions.
Susan Batterton
Susan Batterton is the Secretary of the Board of Directors. She graduated from Urbandale High School in Urbandale, Iowa, in 1969 and Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1974. She worked for 38 years as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist, retiring in 2012 as the Clinical Lab Manager of Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez, California. Susan became involved in Interfaith work after attending The Interfaith Peace Project’s September 21, 2009, celebration of the International Day of Peace at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church. It was there she met people of other faiths one on one and was able to hear their personal faith stories and realize their stories were as valid as her own. Susan began to volunteer at the Interfaith Peace Project in 2009 and eventually took over the responsibility of keeping the website up to date and sending out our emails to over 700 recipients. She was elected to the Board of Directors and Secretary of the Board in 2022.
Rev. Patrick Davis
Rev. Patrick Davis is a retired United Methodist Pastor after serving 30 years in the United Methodist Church in the North Alabama, Tennessee, and California Nevada Conferences. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Bay Area Alliance for Youth and Family Services, Inc., a short-term residential therapeutic program providing mental health and residential services to youth in need of out-of-home care.
He received his Ordination from the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church in Sacramento, California. Rev. Davis holds a Master of Divinity from the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the author of “Creating Caring Communities” an ecumenical educational program sponsored by the California Council of Churches.
In addition to his pastoral training, Rev. Davis has extensive experience working with ecumenical and interfaith agencies as a Christian Educator with a focus on faith development and youth ministry. As a professional and as a volunteer, he serves with other professionals on the South Valley Interfaith Clergy Association and the Interfaith CommUNITY Council of Santa Clara. He has provided innovative training structures for the California Department of Social Services for Administrators seeking State Certification as Administrators in Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Programs in California. He was one of the founding organizers of the South County Interfaith Clergy Association known for its active leadership for interfaith activities and social justice. Rev. Davis can be reached by email: [email protected]
Melissa Granchi
Melissa Granchi lives at a small retreat center in the Sierra Nevada Foothills with her husband and works at a small local mental health office. She believes in the human capacity that enables people to tap into a deep source of inner wisdom.
Rev. Leah Grace Maxwell-Styles
Leah has been an interfaith seminary student at the Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley, California, and will be ordained in 2017. She attributes her life long interest in Interfaith Studies to an early childhood teaching from her paternal grandmother (a reverend in a Christian metaphysical church), who said, “There are many paths to God, the important thing is to choose one.” Leah found her path in Religious Science, also called Science of Mind, a New Thought philosophy founded by Ernest Holmes. Since childhood, Leah’s spiritual path included the study of all scriptures, philosophies, and theologies, as well as science and the application of Universal Principals in her life. She knows that the integration of these principles, ideas, and practices helps her to understand her neighbors and gives her hope that world peace is possible. Leah believes in her heart the words of Mother Teresa, “If there is no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to one another.” Inspired by those seeking to create peace, Leah began to volunteer with the Interfaith Peace Project in January 2016 and can frequently be seen greeting guests during the Center’s weekly open house. Leah has also been an active member of Interfaith Interconnect of the Tri-Valley since 2014 and serves on their leadership committee. Interfaith Interconnect hosts monthly Religion Chats and periodic larger events with the mission “to enrich, inform, and educate ourselves and others about the great diversity of faiths and cultures in the Tri-Valley”. http://interfaithinterconnect.weebly.com. Leah earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of California at Irvine in 1995, and recently left a 20+ year career in pharmaceutical research to pursue her dream of seeing world peace in her lifetime. Her outreach, Warm Embrace with Grace, involves promoting religious literacy by cultivating an atmosphere of mutual respect, tolerance and mercy, through compassion and deep self-knowing. Leah is passionate about her study of traditional Hawaiian dance, Hawaiian culture and Indigenous spirituality. She has been a hospice volunteer since 2014. She enjoys developing relationships with interfaith youth group leaders and advocating for the sick, the elderly and their caregivers. Leah lives in Livermore, California, with her wife and their fifth Bassett Hound, Happy.
Past Board Members
Rev. Andrea Goodman
In Memoriam
August 30, 1950 – December 31, 2021
was the Co-founder and President of the Board of Directors of The Interfaith Peace Project. Andrea was an interfaith spiritual director from 2002 until her death in 2021. She was ordained an Interfaith Minister in 2009 from the Interfaith Chaplaincy Institute. Andrea was a volunteer hospital chaplain and led Sacred Visits for The Interfaith Peace Project. She was a seasoned human resources and diversity professional.
Lonnie Bristow, M.D.
Emeritus Board Member
A member of the Board of Directors, is leading The Peace Pole Initiative. The Peace Pole Project was founded in 1955 by Masahisa Goi in Japan after the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima. The Interfaith Peace Project planted our Peace Pole on September 1, 2009 and we are promoting The Peace Pole Project in homes and communities in Contra Costa County. Lonnie is an award-winning physician and is a former President of the American Medical Association. In 2017, the Board of Directors appointed Lonnie Bristow, M.D., Board Member, Emeritus.