Michael Keller, chair of the Board, is the retired director of policy analysis and research for the Maryland Higher Education Commission. He served as president of the Peace Action Education Fund nationally from 2007 to 2016 and as co-chair of its board since that date. He also served in a number of capacities while a member of the board of directors of Peace Action nationally from 1989 to 2007, including as Secretary, chair of the Membership and Affiliation Committee, and a member of the Operations Committee and the PAC. He also served as coordinator of Anne Arundel Peace Action from 1985 to 2007. He has been chair of the Annapolis Human Relations Commission since 2000 and is vice president of the board of the Anne Arundel County Literacy Council. He was a founding member of the Anne Arundel Conflict Resolution Center. He holds degrees in journalism from Ohio University and in political science from Miami University.
Dat Duthinh, Vice Chair of the Board, witnessed war in his native Vietnam, and so he began his peace activism by protesting against the US involvement in Vietnam. He has been active in peace and justice movements for several decades, most recently as Communicator of the Friends Committee on National Legislation Frederik (Maryland) Advocacy Team, in campaigns to lower military spending, repeal the Authorizations for the Use of Military Force, and prevent war with North Korea and Iran. He also works with Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland, Peace Action, Frederick, Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, and other groups. He served on the Frederick County Containment Laboratory Community Advisory Committee for six years to keep an eye on high bio-safety-level labs. Dat Duthinh holds a Ph.D. in engineering and in his day job works at improving the resilience of the infrastructure to natural disasters.
Ann Wilcox, Secretary of the Board, is a lawyer and long-time activist for peace & social justice in the DMV region. She has worked with the National Lawyers Guild, supporting demonstrators, for the past two decades. She supports Code Pink, environmental, immigration, and other groups, and has also served on several non-profit boards. She has also been active in local politics, having run for office with the DC Statehood Green Party. She now lives in Silver Spring (Aspen Hill), Maryland and looks forward to supporting the important work of Peace Action Maryland.
Max Obuszewski, treasurer of Maryland Peace Action and secretary/treasurer of the Peace Action Education Fund, is a long-time grassroots organizer on nuclear weapons and militarism. After serving in the Peace Corps in Botswana helping to set up small businesses, Mr. Obuszewski worked with the Committee Against Registration and the Draft and later with Nuclear Free America in Baltimore. For 17 years, beginning in 1983, he worked with the American Friends Service Committee. One of his mentors was Phil Berrigan, who participated with Mr. Obuszewski in four of his five Plowshares disarmament actions. As a committed activist, Mr. Obuszewski is highly involved with several Maryland peace and justice organizations. For several years, he taught a human rights course at Goucher College. Mr. Obuszewski believes in speaking out against injustice through the use of nonviolent civil resistance. He has a master’s degree in business administration and a human rights internship certificate from the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility.
Jim Holmes, Frederick Peace Action board representative, really began his engagement in the peace movement in 1978: he was working part time as a therapeutic companion to a Vietnam vet who had taken a machine gun bullet through his eye and had extensive frontal lobe damage, and that same year he read Fields of Fire by Jim Webb. After those two experiences, he was never again able to contemplate war in a detached way. Then, in 2001, Jim’s son enlisted in the U.S. Army, completing one tour in Afghanistan in 2004 and two tours in Iraq in 2005-2006. During those years, Jim woke up every day with dread and the thought that his son would die in combat. And then he came home. But so many others didn’t. Jim became active in Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), which afforded him the opportunity to do something tangible about U.S. involvement in war. He attended many peace demonstrations and marches; passed out leaflets in front of the Capitol; and corresponded with legislators. Upon retiring in 2016, Jim began to devote more time to advocating for peace, including working to establish Prevent Nuclear War/Frederick and Frederick Peace Action. While peace advocacy is hard at times and emotionally draining, Jim is grateful to have these opportunities to play his part in working for peace.
Peace Action Frederick.
Richard Ochs, a retired printer, was a founding member of the Students for a Democratic Society at College Park in 1963. He accumulated ten arrests for equal accommodations with the Congress of Racial Equality and was resident printer for the D.C. Black Panther Party. He accumulated over 60 arrests for non-violent civil disobedience protesting U.S. wars since the 60’s. In 1978 he was elected Shop Steward in IUMSWA Local 24, representing 150 burners and welders at the Bethlehem Steel ship repair yard in Baltimore. Ochs was a Green Party candidate for Md. State Delegate in 2006. He founded Baltimore Peace Action on January 14, 2018.
Tony Langbehn is founder and convener of Maryland United for Peace and Justice, which facilitates Maryland grassroots organizations to collaborate on peace, justice, democracy and a healthy environment. He serves on the Board of Pax Christi Metro D.C. and Baltimore (a regional Catholic peace organization) and on the Board of Progressive Maryland. He is also a Commissioner on two Prince George’s County Commissions: Commission for Individuals with Disabilities and Human Relations (civil rights). Mr. Langbehn has led successful efforts to enact local legislation and resolutions, including establishing Sykesville, Maryland as the third nuclear free zone in the United States.