Meet the Women In Peace Team
James W. Gould, PhD – Founder, developed the women peacemakers database
Jim was a veteran of five years in World War II as a combat infantryman from Normandy to the Elbe. He earned five battle stars and a Purple Heart. This experience of witnessing senseless deaths, the total ruin of once beautiful cities, and the reality of mass death in a liberated concentration camp made him a firm opponent of all war, but not a pacifist, yet…
Convinced that diplomacy was a superior method to resolving conflict than war, Jim served in the U.S. diplomatic service for five years. His first assignment was to the Dutch East Indies, where he was present at the signing of Indonesia’s peace agreement in 1949. His next assignment was to China in the midst of a Civil War. Jim recognized that war can bring change, and even liberation, but at a terrible cost.
At the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Jim attained a doctorate in international relations, which helped him to explore alternative means of preventing and ending wars. In 1955, he took a job teaching international relations at Claremont Men’s College in Claremont, California. This led him to examine the philosophical study of nonviolence, especially the writings of Leo Tolstoi. Jim found the practical application of nonviolent theory in the successes of Mohandas Gandhi in South Africa and India. He became an absolute pacifist in the rejection of all violence during this time.
In 1965-1966, the Gould family lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where Jim directed the Peace Corps programs in Malaya, North Borneo and Sarwak.
His beliefs led him in 1972 to join a community of activists that applied the principles of nonviolence: the Society of Friends, or Quakers. He attended vigils at General Dynamics against the manufacture of weapons that were killing civilians in the Vietnam War, he and joined grape boycotts to support the nonviolent protests of César Chavez.
The connection of nonviolence and women came while teaching courses in peace studies at Scripps College for women in the 1960s. In Jim’s classes, young women found liberation from patriarchal norms and challenged the militarism of American foreign policy. A course in the humanities on women and peace opened new visions of the power of women. His syllabus celebrated the birthdays of great women peacemakers such as Jane Addams and Bertha von Suttner, and it also included the testimonies of Dorothy Day and Vera Brittain.
Out of this course emerged Jim’s idea for a calendar of woman peacemakers’ birthdays, accomplishments, and insights into a world without war. The database of women peacemakers grew over a 40-year period to what it is now: the Women in Peace website.
Jim was awarded The Peace Abbey’s International Courage of Conscience Award in 2017.
He died on March 13, 2021, at the age of 96. He was buried at the Quaker Burial Grounds in East Sandwich, Massachusetts.
His family is honored to maintain WomeninPeace.org as a lasting tribute to a dedicated pacifist and a loving husband, father and grandfather.
Elizabeth Gould, MLIS, MAIR - WIP Site Manager
Elizabeth is proud to have been raised by a feminist peacemaker and a mom who was active in women’s family planning. Following her first Master’s degree in Library and Information Sciences, Elizabeth conducted research examining the socioeconomic impacts of information and communication technologies in emerging and developing economies (including how women are less represented in the technology sphere). For her second Masters degree in Intercultural Communication, Elizabeth wrote her thesis on how ecotourists can be both environmentally and socially responsible.
Deborah Olsen - WIP Site Publisher
Deborah Olsen leads the staff at Ski Town Media Inc., which is devoted to maintaining Women in Peace to the standards that Dr. Gould would want the site to uphold. Deborah is the longtime partner of his oldest son, Robert. She earned degrees in media and language, and she has written and edited multiple historical books. Ski Town Media manages numerous websites and social media channels from its headquarters in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Linn Gould, MS, MPH - WIP Website Advisor
Linn is the executive director of Just Health Action, a non-profit that advocates for reducing health inequities that result from social, economic, environmental, and political conditions. It goes without saying that war and its root causes, including but not limited to racism, classism, and sexism are significant determinants of health. Linn believes that both promoting women and ending wars will result in a much healthier and more equitable world and as a result loves advising on the Women in Peace website.
Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT - First put women peacemakers on Toxipedia website
Steve is the executive director of the Institute of Neurotoxicology & Neurological Disorders (INND) and creator of the Toxipedia website with the purpose of putting scientific information in the context of history, society, and culture. His interest in developing the initial Women in Peace (WIP) website stemmed from a longstanding focus on history and nonviolence. Steve, is convinced that a deeper knowledge of global women peacemakers will inspire others to work toward a more peaceful and healthy world.
Trey Mullen - WIP Site Editor
The digital director of Ski Town Media, Trey Mullen earned a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Colorado in 2011. After working for the Division of Fish and Wildlife as a fisheries biologist in both Colorado and Oregon, Trey moved to southern Wyoming to work as a fishing guide in 2015. It was there that he began working in marketing and digital asset creation for a variety of outdoor brands. He then established his own media production company, which produces digital assets for advertising clients. Trey joined Ski Town Media, Inc. in 2022 and manages all digital aspects of the company.