We are a small staff, a large volunteer team and amazing crew of independent trainers.
Rev. Dr. Andrea Ayvazian, Director

The Rev. Dr. Andrea Ayvazian is a veteran of nearly every peace and social change movement since the 1960s, when she was radicalized at Oberlin College during the Vietnam War. Following several years of teaching at Hampshire College and the Smith College Social for Social Work, Andrea went to Divinity School and became an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, later serving as Dean of Religious Life at Mount Holyoke College for ten years. She then went on to revitalize the Haydenville Congregational Church in Western Massachusetts. Andrea is currently on the Ministerial Team at Alden Baptist Church in Springfield, MA. Andrea is long-time war tax resister, a nonviolence and peacekeeper trainer, an anti-racism educator, a frequent speaker on strategies for effective movement building, and she writes a monthly column on the intersection of faith, culture and politics for the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, MA. She created the Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership in 2017 after Trump took office and she felt the need to response with some visionary and positive action. Andrea’s papers, chronicling over four decades of movement activism, have been collected and archived at the Smith College Women’s History Archive as part of their permanent collection. She holds degrees from Oberlin College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, the Graduate School of the Union Institute, and Yale Divinity School.
Email: revandrea@comcast.net
Leadership Team
Shelley Abend Zimbalist
Fall 2021 Classes:
Amihan Jennifer Matias
Spring 2023 Classes:
- Microaggressions: Death by a Thousand Cuts
- Cross-Racial Friendships, Anti-Racism Organizing, and the Commitment to Keeping On Keeping On: A Conversation with Amihan Matias and Andrea Ayvazian
Fall 2022 Classes:
Microaggressions: Death by a Thousand Cuts
Cultural Humility and Cross-Cultural Communication: The Building Blocks of Racial Equity SERIES
Cultural Humility and Cross-Cultural Communication: The Building Blocks of Racial Equity
Equitable Hiring Practices: Mitigating Bias that May be Excluding your Best Hires
Staff/Volunteers
Marcie Sclove
Board of Directors
Shelley Abend Zimbalist
Fall 2021 Classes:
Olivia Ilano Davis
Spring 2023 Classes:
Dr. Rose Sackey-Milligan
Mehlaqa Samdani
Pamela Schwartz
Spring 2023 Classes:
John Thorpe
Advisory Board
Rev. Dr. Margaret Bulitt-Jonas
Sister Claire Carter
The Honorable Jo Comerford, State Senator
Rabbi Justin David
Thulani Davis
Dr. Ruth Folchman
Meg Gage
Yamila Irizarry-Gerould
Randy Kehler
Dr. Michael Klare
Dr. Jennifer Ladd
Lilly Lombard
Bob Mazer
Pastor Louis Mitchell
Naz Mohamed
Jeff Napolitano
Attorney William Newman
Douglas Renick
Alexandra Russell
Attorney Elizabeth Silver
The Honorable Ellen Story, Former State Representative
Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum