Meet the 2015 San Francisco
Peacemaker Awards Recipients!
The Raymond Shonholtz Visionary Peacemaker Award
Valerie Tulier
Valerie is an important leader in youth development, violence prevention, and policy advocacy in San Francisco's Mission District. Her life's mission has been dedicated to serving the City's low income youth of color and their families. Valerie worked as the director of Mission Beacon Community Center, where lovingly tagged as "Mama Bear," she forged community partnerships and developed a collaborative model for youth leadership and development. Currently, she is chairwoman of the Mission Peace Collaborative, organizing town halls and events that focus peaceful community empowerment and reducing gang violence.  A onetime resident of the Sunnydale Projects, Valerie has earned her B.A., M.A., and J.D., while working full time and raising four foster children.

The Community Boards Leadership Peacemaker Award
Alternatives to Violence Project
Founded in 1975, Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) is a national nonprofit that began as a collaboration between prison inmates and Quakers interested in working with youth gangs and high-risk teens. AVP provides inmates with intensive conflict resolution workshops, training them as workshop facilitators who will then work in their own communities when released from prison. In San Francisco, AVP volunteer facilitators lead workshops in the San Bruno jail that houses prisoners returning to San Francisco and the larger Bay Area. Since 2008, over 370 inmate participants have been trained with a remarkable 50% reduction in recidivism. The Bay Area chapter also leads workshops for ex-offenders in the community.

The Gail Sadalla Rising Peacemaker Award
Ja'Marc Allen-Henderson
Ja'Marc is an 18 year old senior at June Jordan School for Equity. His passions are social justice and science. Ja'Marc became a Peer Mediator during his junior year in high school. In addition to mediation, Ja'Marc led a workshop at June Jordan on sexism in music and media. He is also a Peer Mentor for incoming freshman, helping them acclimate to their new school and feel supported. While preparing for college with College Track, Ja'Marc works three days a week at the California Academy of Sciences in their Careers in Science Program. He is a third generation San Franciscan, and credits his mother and grandparents for teaching him kindness and empathy.