Prize Screening Committee
Peace First Prize Screening Committee members are leaders in youth development, education, and social justice.
Prize Screening Committee members include: 
Concetta Bencivenga has served as the executive director of generationOn, the youth activation enterprise of Points of Light, since February 2012. Bencivenga joined generationOn after nine years at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, where she served as executive vice president and chief financial officer. She has also served as an adjunct at the University of Pennsylvania, Fels Institute of Government. In addition to her wide range of leadership experience, Bencivenga served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand and continued her service an employee and founding member of the Peace Corps Fund. She is a board member for The Ideal School of Manhattan.
Renee Bracey Sherman is the Major Gifts and Foundation Development Associate at the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia and its sister projects. A proud Chicagoan, Renee moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to serve with Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that empowers and advances new leadership to strengthen communities, nonprofits, and civic participation. In her spare time, Ms. Bracey Sherman serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Young Nonprofit Professionals Network San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, volunteers with ACCESS Women's Health Justice, and the Bay Area Doula Project.
Michael Brown is CEO and Co-Founder of City Year, a nonprofit organization built on the belief that young people can change the world. Founded in 1988, City Year unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time community service, leadership development and civic engagement. For his work developing City Year and advancing the national service movement, Michael has been awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award and several honorary degrees. He has been named one of America’s Best Leaders by US News & World Report and an Executive of the Year and a member of The Power and Influence Top 50 by The NonProfit Times.
Dan Cardinali is president of Communities In Schools, the nation’s largest dropout prevention organization. Cardinali is a 2007 Annie E. Casey Children and Families Fellow. He also currently serves as a trustee for America’s Promise, and as chairman of the board of directors of Peace First. In May 2011 Dan Cardinali was appointed by President Obama to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. Before assuming his current position in 2004, Cardinali served as executive vice president of Field Operations at Communities In Schools.
Marty Castro is an attorney, entrepreneur and public servant. He is serving on the Prize Screening Committee in his capacity as President and CEO of Castro Synergies, LLC, which provides consulting services to businesses and non-profits that wish to have a positive social impact on diverse communities. Castro is Chairman and co-founder of New Futuro, which seeks to increase Latino educational attainment. He is also Chair of the Illinois Human Rights Commission by appointment of Gov. Pat Quinn and Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, by appointment of President Barack Obama. Marty serves on the boards of The National Museum of Mexican Art and the Chicago Community Trust.
Maureen F. Curley is president of Campus Compact. She has more than 25 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, concentrating in the areas of aging, community service and public policy. Among other leadership positions, she has served as Director of Public Policy for the Community Service Society of New York, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Service Alliance and Chief Relationship Officer for The Bridgespan Group. Maureen serves on the Board of Governors of Antioch University, the National Advisory Board for Public Service at Harvard College and as co-chair of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s Commonwealth Corps Commission.
Cheryl Dorsey is President of Echoing Green, a pioneer in the social entrepreneurship movement. Dorsey has served in two presidential administrations most recently as Vice Chair for the President's Commission on White House Fellowships (2009-present). Dorsey serves on several boards including the Harvard Board of Overseers, the SEED Foundation, and Northeast Bank. In 2009, Dorsey was named one of "America's Best Leaders" by US News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School. For 2010 and 2011, she was named as one of The Nonprofit Times' "Power and Influence Top 50."
James B. Dworkin came to the Purdue University North Central Campus in January of 2000 from the Purdue University West Lafayette Campus. Chancellor Dworkin has been with Purdue since 1976. Prior to coming to PNC, Dr. Dworkin served as Associate Dean of the School of Management and the Krannert Graduate School of Management on the West Lafayette Campus. Chancellor Dworkin is a proponent of service learning and civic engagement, and serves as a member of the boards of the Indiana Campus Compact and the National Campus Compact, both dedicated to service learning and civic engagement at the state and national levels.
John Gomperts became President and CEO of America’s Promise Alliance in May 2012. Mr. Gomperts has a track record of success in both government and the nonprofit sectors. Most recently, he served as Director of AmeriCorps with a responsibility for implementing the bipartisan Kennedy Serve America Act. Prior to that, Mr. Gomperts served as President of Civic Ventures, an organization devoted to promoting the engagement of millions of experienced baby boomers in encore careers.
Chike Ibeabuchi is a Peace First graduate and a 2012 graduate of Northeastern University Law School. He received his B.A. in 2006 from Boston College. Ibeabuchi is an Assistant District Attorney for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Previously, Ibeabuchi served as the BNY Mellon CityACCESS: An Investment in Youth Program Manager (BNYMCA), made possible through the generosity of the Arthur F. Blanchard Trust. He also currently serves on the Executive Board of the Nigerian Youth Organization. Some of Ibeabuchi’s recent awards include: the Denise Carty-Bennia Memorial Bar Award, YMCA Young Black Achiever’s Award, Boston College George F. & Jean W. Bemis Award, and the Steamboat Foundation Grant.
Noorain Khan is a corporate associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. She focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and securities law matters. She received a B.A. from Rice University and went on to receive an M. Phil from Oxford University where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She completed her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow. Noorain is an active National Operating Volunteer with Girl Scouts of the USA. She also sits on the boards of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars and Ms. JD.
As New York State Education Commissioner, Dr. John B. King, Jr. oversees more than 7,000 public and independent elementary and secondary schools (serving 3.1 million students), and hundreds of other educational institutions across New York State including higher education, libraries, and museums. He is also president of the University of the State of New York. Dr. King is a strong voice for education reform, and he was a driving force in New York’s successful Race to the Top application. A former high school teacher and middle school principal, Dr. King has earned a national reputation for his vision and commitment to education reform.
'Amelia Kolokihakaufisi served two years in the AmeriCorps program, Public Allies. In her second year of service, she became a part of Foundation for a College Education (FCE) where she is the College Bound Program Associate. She will complete an undergraduate degree in Urban Studies and Planning at San Francisco State University this spring. As an East Palo Alto native, Kolokihakaufisi is passionate about serving her community and has been involved in many local intiatives around youth development. She is a founding member of the Know Our Hood Collective and currently serves on the Advisory Board of Rebooting History, a community collaboration with Stanford University documenting the process of urban change in East Palo Alto.
Wendy Kopp is the CEO and Founder of Teach For America, which is building the movement to eliminate educational inequity in the United States by enlisting the nation’s most promising future leaders in the effort. She is also CEO and co-founder of Teach For All, a global network which is working to accelerate and increase the impact of this model around the world. Wendy is the author of A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn’t in Providing an Excellent Education for All (2011) and One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I Learned Along the Way (2000).
Charles Pierson joined Big Brothers Big Sisters of America as President and CEO in June 2012. Prior to assuming this national role, he served as the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star for nine years. Mr. Pierson first became involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters in 1993 as a volunteer mentor. He has since served as a Big Brother to three Little Brothers and earned the title of 2001 Big Brother of the Year for the State of Texas. Prior to joining the non-profit sector, Mr. Pierson had a successful thirteen-year business career in for-profit channels.
Dr. Dara Richardson-Heron is the CEO of the YWCA USA, which promotes solutions to improve the lives of over 2 million women, girls, people of color and their families in the United States. The YWCA is also the largest provider of domestic violence services and battered women’s shelters in the country, serving 500,000 women and children annually. Dr. Richardson-Heron has more than 20 years of health care leadership, management and operations experience in the corporate and nonprofit sectors. Dr. Richardson-Heron is on the boards of the Women’s Forum of New York and the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens. She is also a member of the Greater New York Chapter of the Links, Inc. and an alumna of CORO Foundation-Leadership New York.
In 2012, David Shapiro became CEO of MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, the lead champion for youth mentoring in the United States. Before joining MENTOR, he was the CEO of Mass Mentoring Partnership. Mr. Shapiro also has experience with the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay, chairs the board of the Mass Nonprofit Network and is on the boards of Common Impact and Friends of the Children–Boston.
Randi Weingarten is President of the 1.5 million-member American Federation of Teachers, which represents teachers; paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; higher education faculty and staff; nurses and other healthcare professionals; local, state and federal employees; and early childhood educators. She was elected in 2008, following 11 years of service as an AFT vice president. Weingarten served for 12 years as president of the United Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 2, and for 10 years, chaired New York City’s Municipal Labor Committee. Weingarten is known as a reform-minded leader who has demonstrated her commitment to improving schools, hospitals and public institutions for children, families and their communities.
Coming soon:
Don Floyd, President and CEO, 4-H
Daniel Domenech, Executive Director, American Association of School Administrators
Fellowship Interview Committee
The Fellowship Interview Committee includes respected civic, business and community leaders who are committed to unleashing the power of young peacemakers to work for positive change.
Proposed Winners will each have an opportunity to be interviewed by a member of the Fellowship Interview Committee. We’ll announce these Committee members later on, so check back for some exciting updates!
