Chico Peace and Justice Center

Samir (Sam) Nissan teaches accounting at Chico State and brings his talents in accounting and financial planning to the Chico Peace and Justice Center. He has been contributing to CPJC behind the scenes for many months by being an indispensable source of advice and assistance to our Treasurer, Cathy Webster. Sam was born in Iraq, and has lived in the Chico area for decades.

Diane Suzuki-Brobeck is a family woman, having raised her children with her husband, Jimmy, and is now enthusiastically helping raise granddaughters. She set down her roots in Butte County after migrating from Southern California over 30 years ago. Diane is Nisei, third generation Japanese-American. Both of her parents' families were interned during World War II, and out of their experiences she has chosen to devote her time to social justice issues.

As the coordinator of Beyond Violence Alliance, she and other facilitators present workshops in the local schools and community educating on the roots of violence and peace in our culture, a program of CCY- Community Collaborative for Youth. As an offering of peace to the Muslim world Diane co-organized a fundraising Dinner for the Women's Center of Kwaaza Khela, Pakistan.

Currently, she works as a massage therapist at Back to Basics Chiropractics and Massage Therapy in Chico. B2B's mission is "healing one body at a time." One of her other volunteer positions is as a programmer of One World Music on community radio station 90.1 FM KZFR.

Susan Tchudi and her family moved to the north state a little over a year ago, where they are creating a sustainable organic farm in Yankee Hill. Susan also writes an occasional column for the Enterprise Record. She was an active participant in CPJC's giant puppet parade in March and in the Endangered Species Faire in June.

Susan's activism began at Southern Methodist University, where she went to Selma in 1966. She also served in Vista in 1966-67, working New York, Baltimore, and Atlanta. As an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church, Susan has recently officiated at same-sex and opposite-sex marriages in the Peace Garden. She brings a passion and commitment for promoting peace in our community and is a quiet and thoughtful champion of social justice.

Cathy Webster has served on the Board since 2004 serving two terms as the Treasurer. Since 9/11, Cathy has intensified her activism, first in being a founding member of PeaceWorks, a proactive CPJC associate group, consisting of all age students and community members. She has been an organizer for the last few years of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Atomic Bombing Remembrance. With others Cathy founded the campaign to bring 1000 Grandmothers to the School of the Americas Watch vigil and protest in 2006, during which she was arrested for nonviolent trespass, consequently spending two months as the guest of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Sacramento County Jail.

Cathy retired as the owner operator of the Anchor Inn Storage in 2003. She likes to garden, read, play with her four grandchildren, and cause as much affliction as possible for recalcitrant politicians, corporations, and military interests.

Jim Anderson - Jim lived many places as a child, in most regions of the U.S. and a few years in Germany, settling eventually in California where he attended Stanford and then, newly married, spent three years in Asia-Malaysia in the Peace Corps and then some time in Japan. After some graduate work in Berkeley he moved to Chico to begin teaching at CSUC. He built the house in which he now lives during a year off, traveled to Hong Kong in 1977 to teach for three years, and returned to teach again in the Religious Studies department at Chico. He became involved in the establishment of the peace center in Chico at that time and has continued to participate in it since then. Further graduate work at Harvard in the '80s took him and his family to Massachusetts for three years, and he spent a semester teaching in a ship-board college program circling the world in the mid-90's. His children now grown, he and his wife live and work on 2.5 acres north of Chico. Jim is active in the local Quaker meeting, the local interfaith council, the Fellowship of Reconciliation chapter, as well as the CPJC, where he is currently a member of the advisory board.

Dilia Loe is an activist and seasoned non-profit professional with extensive experience in progressive environments. Skilled in resource development, she has a proven track record in organizational development, program evaluation, strategic planning, fund development and public relations. She is most recognized by her peers for her expertise in working with diverse staff and volunteer groups in long and short-term goal setting and execution.

Currently working as an Organizational Development Consultant, she has served in such capacities as Chief Administrative Officer of Tobacco Education and Prevention Programs for the Arizona Department of Health Services, Adjunct Faculty for the Department of Social Work at Arizona State University and CSU Chico, Executive Director of the Arizona Human Rights Fund and Deputy Director for Programs and Operations of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Additionally, much of Ms. Loe's time has been serving in senior volunteer positions that have included Board President of the Arizona Advocacy Network, Chair of the Prevention Committee for the Arizona Comprehensive Cancer Coalition, and Health Committee Member of the City of Dallas Health & Human Service Commission.

With a Masters of Theological Study from Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts History from the University of Texas, Ms. Loe is also a graduate of the Leadership Broward Civic Leadership Program, the Arizona State University WP Carey School of Business Accelerated Leadership Program, the Colorado Center for Creative Leadership Executive Leadership Program, and the Group Facilitation and Strategic Planning Institute of Cultural Affairs.

Ann Polivka is a retired public health nurse who has been associated with the work of the Peace and Justice Center for many years. She has recently been involved in the 1000 Grandmothers organization, as Ann has strong connections and desires to bring social justice and peace to Central America.