“According to the Earth Charter, peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part,” shares Rev. Barbara Thorngren, founder of PeaceWorks New Hampshire, LLC.
Having spent decades working as a nurse, volunteer firefighter, emergency medical technician, and first responder, Barbara brings health awareness and healing to every aspect of her work.
Education: In 2021, she became an ordained interfaith, inter-spiritual minister at One Spirit Seminary in New York City. “I wanted to talk about spirit, talk about God, and bring other cultures and spiritual practices to my work,” explains Barbara. Her mission is to foster the art of healing and communication to build a more just and sustainable world.
Barbara earned her Master of Education degree from Antioch New England Graduate School and is the former Education Department Chair and Peace and Social Justice Studies Program Coordinator at Nashua Community College in Nashua, NH. She has designed and led three international study-abroad courses at the University for Peace in Costa Rica. She has also coordinated the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) at the NH State Prison for Men. With specialized training in Collaborative Education and the Circle Process, Barbara focuses on team building, communication, and conflict transformation skills.
Entrepreneur: Barbara’s company PeaceWorks NH serves as the umbrella for her AVALON Healing Arts Barn Studio. There, she conducts on-site programs. Barbara offers the AVALON barn and its seven acres of land with the fields, farm animals, forest, and wildlife, as a dynamic environment and retreat for learning, exploring, problem-solving, resting, and rejuvenating.
Peace activist: She is the former New Hampshire co-chair for Gather the Women Global Matrix. She is currently working as a founding member of the Green Tent Circle, an organization where women and girls are encouraged to tell their stories and where actions are created and planned for bringing about worldwide healing and heart-to-heart connections are made in fiercely caring for Mother Earth.
Educator: As an educator and workshop facilitator, Barbara utilizes The Circle Way process as the foundation for custom-designed gatherings. Barbara guides participants to explore their topics or issues and then collaborate to find creative solutions. And often invites her animals to co-facilitate these meetings and may employ expressive arts activities.
In 2009, Barbara created the Peace and Social Justice Studies program at Nashua Community College in New Hampshire. She also co-created the Peace Education Leadership and Sustainability course at the University for Peace in Costa Rica. And she co-authored Peacebuilding in Community Colleges by David J. Smith, a first-of-its-kind volume for faculty and administrators seeking to develop innovative and engaging peacebuilding and conflict resolution programs.
As a Christian and Druid: Barbara’s work reflects shared responsibility and shared leadership and is grounded in community service and conflict transformation.
For more information: Contact Barbara at peaceworksnh.com.