Board Members
DIANA OESTREICH
FOUNDER
OFFICER OF RADICAL VISION
BOARD MEMBER
Diana Oestreich is an Author, Activist, and Soldier-turned-Peacemaker. She’s a nationally recognized speaker at the intersection of justice, Peace, nonviolence, faith, and how everyday peacemakers are changing our world.
She teaches how we can show up right where we live to wage peace across the lines that divide us and unmake violence. She served as a combat medic on the battlefield of the Iraq war and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal and the Iraq Campaign Medal. She is an RN, formerly working with hospice and cancer patients before becoming a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner connecting healthcare to justice by advocating for victim survivors in the courtroom.
Her book Waging Peace: One Soldier’s Story of Putting Love First was Amazon's #1 new release in war and peace. Waging Peace exposes the false divide between loving our country and living out our higher call to love our enemies--whether we perceive our enemy as the neighbor with an opposing political viewpoint, a religion that is different than ours, or the person born across our borders. By showing that us-versus-them is a false choice, this book will compel each of us to choose love over fear. Diana’s determination and courage to cross divides and wage peace is an inspiration to many and is on display through her work challenging our acceptance of violence and empowering us to find our own story to change the world through storytelling, justice, and joy.
Diana is a trusted guide to help us understand the violence tearing apart our churches, communities, and country. She empowers us to identify our own rural, urban, political, or religious divides to cross our own “enemy lines'' in order to remake the world and heal all that’s tearing us apart. Waging peace led her back to Iraq working to empower refugees to reclaim their lives from violence, to Syrian refugee camps and the shores of Palestine and Isreal. From her son’s middle school to the Middle East to her local courthouse lawn for homeless rights, or to Iran with a team trying to heal the divides between our countries by performing life-saving heart surgeries for kids, peace means showing up.
Diana is the founder of the Waging Peace Project, a movement activating everyday people to commit small acts of courage right where we live to wage peace because our neighbors Justice and Joy cannot wait.
She has appeared on The King Center’s Beloved Community Global Symposium, news channels, and award-winning podcasts to challenge the narratives of our most divided issues: gun violence, racism, Christian nationalism, and injustice. Her work has appeared on the award-winning Sharon Says So podcast, the Webby-winning For the Love podcast with Jen Hatmaker, and conferences discussing Justice, faith, peacemaking, activism with kids, and how her posture of love shapes how she parents and shows up for her neighbors.
Diana, her partner Jake, and their two sons live along the shores of Lake Superior on Ojibwe land. They are an Ethiopian-American family woven together through adoption and a shared love for bad jokes, Bocce ball, and competitive card games.
SAADIA QURESHI
DIRECTOR OF PEACE
BOARD MEMBER
Saadia empowers others to rewrite their own narrative and tell their own story through the lens of peace and love. Being the child of immigrant parents, raised in Central Florida, shaped, unshaped, and reshaped who she is. When the towers fell on 9/11, as a Muslim American, the world she had known crumbled too. That's when she made a conscious choice to be a bridge builder, a peacemaker, a practitioner of nonviolence. Whether facilitating groups for nonprofits, volunteering for the Muslim Women’s Organization of Orlando, or bringing her kids to a vigil around town Saadia believes meaningful friendships can be found in unexpected places.
Her work to show neighbors how similar we are regardless of ethnic or religious differences led her to work with the Preemptive Love Coalition where she and Diana met and joined forces. If she’s not participating at an event around town, you may find Saadia picking up after her two girls, reminding her husband where he left his wallet, or saving the last three bananas for her famous banana bread.
LANA ZRING
DIRECTOR OF HOPE
BOARD MEMBER
Lana is a Kurdish-American peacemaker. Growing up between the U.S. and Iraqi Kurdistan, she’s witnessed and experienced violence in many forms and has seen the impact it has especially on innocent, marginalized communities. Throughout middle school, high school, and college, Lana was involved in volunteering and fundraising for multiple nonprofit organizations. It’s because of her experiences that she’s grown a passion for relationship-building with donors and volunteers, sharing stories of hope, and making folks believe that peace is possible in this world.
Lana currently lives in Atlanta, GA with her energetic hermaphrodite cat, Azula, and loves to play video games, read, or learn new languages in her free time!
COURTNEY CHRISTENSON
OFFICER OF SPARKING CHANGE
BOARD MEMBER
Courtney Christenson is a writer, activist, and peacemaker who has spent her life trying to figure out how to make a difference in the world.
Courtney is the founder of Sparks & Matches, an organization created to help women find their passion and become effective social changemakers both in their local community and around the world. She does her best to lead by example and you can read more about her personal work—including her ‘Redefining We’ photography exhibit.
Courtney lives in Central Oregon with her husband, two teenage daughters, and their motley crew of critters.