Community Alliance & Peacemaking Project

The trainers are skilled practitioners who serve as community facilitators, advocates & mediators who can deal with a wide range of disputes, and provide dispute resolution, leadership development, community organizing, and campaign 101 training.  Client situations include:  schools, youth groups, parents, tribal communities, programs, employee/employer, neighbors, organizations & government agencies.

   Michele (Shelly) Vendiola (Swinomish/Lummi/Filipina)

Ms. Vendiola is a mediator, educator and community activist.  Currently she works as a consultant for organizations that work for environmental, economic and social justice including the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice and the statewide Women’s Spirit Coalition.  Recently she worked with the Ferndale School District and Lummi Ventures Program to mobilize community members and co-facilitate their “Shaping Lummi Education” conference.  She also worked with the Northwest Indian College to develop curriculum for tribal leaders on tribal governance and decision-making processes.  Shelly serves on the Board of Directors for Agricultural Missions, a US based non-profit supporting rural agricultural development internationally.  Shelly also currently serves on the board of the Progressive Technologies Project whose mission is to raise the level of technical resources available to grassroots community organizations and groups through technical assistance, training and grants.  She has served as the Campaign Director for the Indigenous Environmental Network and continues to work in partnership with IEN and the Indigenous Women’s Network to support Indigenous Environmental Justice Initiatives for the Puget Sound/Northwest region.  Ms. Vendiola continues to provide leadership development training and technical assistance for the Lummi CEDAR Project, a grassroots native non-profit providing youth empowerment and leadership development program initiatives for the Lummi tribal community.

Ms. Vendiola received mediation training through the California based Indian Dispute Resolution Services, Inc., where she also produced and led Alternative Dispute Resolution & Peacemaking training events.  Prior to IDRS she received training from the San Francisco Community Boards Program and practiced as a volunteer mediator for over 5 years.  Shelly provides conflict resolution training and facilitation with her mother and cadre of trainers for tribal communities, organizatons and agency programs throughout the country.  Shelly has a M.Ed. in Adult & Higher Education and practices popular education methodology within all aspects of her work as an educator, activist, and community organizer.

   Diane Vendiola (Swinomish/Lummi/Filipina)

Diane Vendiola, Minority Mental Health Specialist has been supervisor and counselor for the Swinomish Tribal Mental Health Program for the past 20 years.  She has served as a Tribal Peacemaker for Northwest Intertribal Court System since 1985, and has facilitated meetings and mediations for tribal organizations, individuals, and families.  She developed conflict resolution trainings for school staff serving Native Americans, Native American parent groups, youth organizations and tribal leaders, as well as tribal social service providers.  Diane is currently providing services to Native American individuals and families residing in Skagit County, and cultural consultation to area mental health service providers working with Native American and/or Filipino American clients.  Diane was born and raised in Seattle’s International District and is the mother of five adult offspring and grandmother of five.  She has been a long time advocate for American Indian mental health and education programs based on cultural values with mainstream services as an adjunct.

Diane is grandmother to 7 grandchildren and 5 adult children, and Auntie many.  She received her A.A. degree from Skagit Valley College, and an honorary degree from Western Washington State University.  Four of her adult children hold Master degrees in Education and another a Bachelor’s degree in English-Writing.  Diane considers herself a life long learner and teaches many young people the importance of celebrating life and wellness.

   Carlos Rafael Alicea Negrón 

Carlos Alicea has dedicated more than15 years as a community organizer and environmental scientist in Puerto Rico and in New York.  He believes that the communities where he works have the power to transform and liberate themselves from the chains of economic, political and environmental oppression that they are facing.  He believes that it is key to integrate an historical perspective in the analysis and understanding of the environmental problems that the communities that he works are facing.  He believes that listening is one of the most important characteristics of an organizer.  He has being  blessed working with a group of individuals that are visionaries in the field of environmental justice and despite the diversity of backgrounds and experiences, agree to disagree, believing and supporting each other in our work.  

He has ample experience designing, creating and presenting workshops, seminars and speeches challenging the colonial mentality that has seeded in our soul, heart and mind the myth of “It is not possible or liberating our communities is impossible.  (Seamos realistas hagamos lo imposible, Che)   He has come from the process of liberating himself by deconstructing the myth that Puerto does not have natural resources.  He has worked with many issues and campaigns in his professional life: waste, energy, natural resources, urban environment, social injustice, incarceration rates, among other problems.  Central to his work has been creating collaborative models that integrate dialogue, education and the development and integration of young people in the struggles of their communities.

 Miho Kim

Third generation zainichi Corean from Fukuoka, Japan, miho grew up a forgotten daughter of a divided Corea under ongoing Japanese colonial apartheid, intimately familiar with interpersonal and institutional violence and colonization than love and respect for her identity. Denied access to education in Japan due to her nationality at age 13, she was separated from family―and permanently revoked legal status in Japan by the Japanese apartheid government. Miho, now based in California, works to build the capacity of Hisabetsu Nikkei communities, particularly women, to dismantle colonialism and militarism by holding those responsible fully accountable, and deliver collective healing, empowerment and genuine liberation for all.

Since joining the DataCenter in 2003, Miho led the formation of the DataCenter’s Research Justice program, and integrated ‘research’ capacity-building into a larger anti-oppression agenda for oppressed communities. Miho has facilitated US-Japan trans-Pacific solidarity for over a decade, and in 2007, co-founded Trans-Pacific Research & Action Institute (TRAI) for the Hisabetsu Nikkei, a Japan-US network of, by and for Japan's oppressed communities. Previously, Miho coordinated ECA-Watch, an world-wide campaign to reform international finance institutions, and was Editor of CorpWatch in Japanese. She studied International Relations and Political Science at Emory University, University of Georgia, and Yonsei University (Seoul). In 2008, Miho received the Matsui Yayori Human Rights Award for her trans-Pacific activism for women’s peace and justice in the Asia Pacific.

miho kim

Senior Coordating Council Rep & Information Activist

DataCenter

1904 Franklin St., Ste. 900

Oakland, CA  94612 u.s.a.