Tamra Haas
Executive Director
Tammy Haas lives in Whitehouse, Texas with her husband, Vern, and their two mini Aussies. She is semi‑retired from American Family Insurance, following a long and successful career in the banking industry as a Commercial Lender. A committed Rotarian for more than 24 years, Tammy has served in numerous leadership roles and currently serves as her District’s International Peace Director. She is an active member of the South Tyler Rotary Club and was selected and trained as a Rotary Positive Peace Activator, supporting peacebuilding efforts across the Middle East and Northern Africa. Tammy’s connection to CFP began in 2012 through her Rotary Club in Washington State, when she and Vern hosted a pair of girls from Cyprus. That experience sparked a deep and lasting commitment to the program. The couple later served as Area Coordinators for Northern Oregon and Southwest Washington from 2016 to 2018. Tammy went on to serve as Executive Director from 2019 to 2022 and as Administrative Coordinator in 2023 and 2024. During her tenure as Executive Director, Tammy played a key role in expanding CFP’s reach and impact, particularly in Cyprus and throughout the Middle East, with significant growth in Israel. Her leadership, dedication, and passion for youth peacebuilding continue to strengthen the program’s mission and long‑term vision.
Kenneth Crognale, CPA (Ret.)
Treasurer
Ken Crognale is CFP’s Teasurer and is responsible for finance and accounting as well as grants administration. Prior to joining CFP, Ken was Director of Finance and Administration at the Migration Policy Institute since 2014. Prior to MPI, he held senior roles in the accounting and finance departments at the Landon School, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Earlier in his career, he worked in the banking regulation sector of the U.S. federal government. Ken is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with more than 20 years in the not-for-profit sector. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in economics from the University of Pittsburgh and did additional coursework in accounting and finance at American University.
Rebecca Stirn
Alumni Relations Coordinator
Becky Stirn brings to CFP executive business experience and extensive volunteer service. She has served on the Boards of Trustees for educational, environmental, medical and historical preservation institutions. Her career has focused on strategic planning, financial management and marketing for medical device companies as well as consumer retail companies. After senior leadership positions at Collage Aesthetics, CooperVision, CEMAX and running her own consulting practice, she co-founded Aesthetic Sciences Corp. and served on its Board of Directors and as President and CFO. She chaired the Nominating/Governance Committee and served on the Audit and Executive Compensation Committees as a member of the Safeway Board of Directors. Currently, she advises entrepreneurial startups in innovative software fields. In addition to her CFP volunteer roles, she is a member of the board of a local nonprofit and on the Board of Governors at Wilmer Eye Institute (Johns Hopkins). Becky was first introduced to CFP in 2015 by a founder of the Cyprus Friendship Program. Her previous experience as a foreign exchange student through the American Field Service (AFS) and strong interest in peacebuilding through teenagers led her to open the San Francisco Bay Area as a new CFP hosting area. She now also works on strengthening CFP’s alumni program and investigating the role of US teens to aid in the peacebuilding process. Becky is a graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business and of Smith College (economics).
Betsy Small Campbell
Immediate Past Executive Director
Betsy Small is the former Executive Director of Creating Friendships for Peace, an organization she joined in 2006. She served in multiple roles —as host family, conflict-resolution workshop leader, NH on-tap counselor and family liaison, and US Cyprus Director—before becoming Executive Director. In this leadership position, she launched CFP’s first program during an active conflict in the Middle East and integrated trauma-informed practices into the organization’s teen and volunteer host-family model. Betsy brought broad experience as a special educator, counseling psychologist, and violence prevention researcher at Duke University’s Sanford Institute and holds master’s degrees from Columbia Teachers College and North Carolina Central University. As former Executive Director of War Child USA, she has supported divided and marginalized youth, their families and communities, including immigrant survivors of violence in the US and abroad. She is the author of Before Before: A Story of Discovery and Loss in Sierra Leone (University of Michigan Press, Law, Meaning and Violence series), which blends ethnography and memoir to challenge Western narratives of a nation still recovering from civil conflict.
Kim Bell
Transportation Coordinator
A native of Pennsylvania, Kim Bell began her career after college with a regional bank in credit and lending, and then as a technical writer and finance officer. While completing her master’s degree, she then turned toward a career in the United States Air Force. She began her many assignments as a weather observer, and then as the unit Equal Employment Officer where she trained members and conducted investigations on racial and gender discrimination and sexual harassment. She then took an assignment at a higher headquarters as the disaster preparedness officer, training members on the use of nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare equipment in global deployed environments. When 9-11 occurred, the focus of that assignment rapidly evolved into what is now known as Homeland Security. This long-term assignment had local, state, and national intensity where she developed and handled many different aspects of operations, training, and planning for many homeland contingencies here at home. Toward the middle-to-end of her career, she went back to school, attending law school at night, graduating cum laude. Concurrently throughout her career, Kim was asked to be the Transportation Coordinator for a small nonprofit, then known as the Children’s Friendship Project of Northern Ireland in the mid-1990’s. She has been serving in this position as the nonprofit grew, changed, and evolved into the present Creating Friendships for Peace. She has been bringing her knowledge of global homeland security, her operations and logistics talent, and her overall leadership experience to our organization for over the past 20 years.
David Rodich
MIddle East Program Coordinator
For nearly fifty years, David Rodich has been a committed advocate for the interests of working families both in the United States and world-wide. His experience includes serving as the national director for a public employee organization with Service Employees International Union (SEIU), followed by 20 years as the executive director of SEIU Local 500 in Maryland and Washington, DC. During his tenure, the union nearly tripled in size of the union and built a culture of collaborative problem solving. David’s advocacy has included workers in public education including teachers and other school workers, university professors, childcare workers, and promoting collaborations in economic development. On the international front, David has been a consultant to the Solidarity Center, AFL CIO, working with the emerging independent trade unions in the post-Soviet countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Asia, and the Middle East, by providing skills training and strategic planning support. He and his wife Lauri are no strangers to CFP, having served twice as host parents with participants from both Cyprus and the Middle East programs.
Amanda Van Dusen
U.S. Coordinator/Houston Area Coordinator
Originally from Indiana, Amanda has called Texas home for over 20 years. She is the Vice President of Vogt Engineering, a Civil Engineering firm in the Houston area. Her family joined CFP as hosts the summer of 2022, and she has served as the Houston Area Coordinator since 2024. Her strong organizational skills and network in the community are an asset for spreading awareness of CFP and growing support in the Houston Region. Giving back to others and building community are two driving forces for her family. Along with her Husband and 2 daughters, they have served the community as leaders and volunteers for a number of organizations beyond CFP. Amanda currently serves on the board for Bayou Land Conservancy and is a Mentor in the local school district Project Mentor program.
Jessica Ambrose
Oregon/SW WA Area Coordinator
I have been a school counselor since 2014, after earning my master’s degree in education from City University of Seattle. Throughout my career, I have had the pleasure of working with students across all grade levels. Additionally, I hold a teaching certificate in Career Technical Education, which allows me to support students in exploring various career paths. On a personal note, I have been happily married to my husband for 24 years, and we are the proud parents of two teenage daughters. My youngest daughter shares my love for cooking and has truly surpassed me in the kitchen, especially when it comes to baking. Our oldest daughter inherited her father’s engineering mindset. She is excelling in the Information Technology program. Recently, she even helped her father assemble her Mazda MX-5, which she now drives to school. It has been a privilege to host exchange students from various programs, including the CFP teens during the summer of 2024. My experiences with the Cypriot teens paired in Washington and Oregon inspired me to become more actively involved in planning future events. I am eager to leverage my experiences working with teens in schools, churches, and the community to help connect CFP teen participants with local teens. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to be part of the CFP and look forward to sharing this enriching program with other organizations in my community.
Brooke Anderson
Oregon/SW WA Co-Coordinator
Brooke lives in Battle Ground, WA with her husband Derek. She was born and raised in this area. They have 2 dogs, 2 goats and a few chickens to round out their family. They are also parents to their 2 adult sons. Brooke has been involved in managing youth exchange students from various countries. She and Derek have hosted a number of teens and have traveled to visit them all. She is very involved in finding host families for the long-term exchange students and has been family with CFP for quite some time. She is well known in her community and has jumped in head first into her role. She is a real estate agent and loves her job as it allows her to meet a lot of new people and help them get settled into their new community.
Jonathan Berger
Wilmington NC Area Coordinator
Jonathan Berger recently retired from the U.S State Department after 21 years of service. His tours included Denmark, Serbia, Lithuania and Israel. Before that he worked on Capitol Hill for almost eight years, both on the House and Senate side. He currently lives in Wilmington, NC with his wife Liz and daughters Lillian and Eve.
Ashley Bell
Donor Communications
Ashley Grew up in Peterborough NH, where she married her high school sweetheart Dave and they are raising their four daughters. Ashley attended Rivier University and received a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 2006. She moved around the country while Dave was in the Army for ten years before they moved back to NH to raise their family. She loves spending her time outdoors, especially by the ocean. She loves to garden, sail and dance with her family.
Raleigh Jernigan
Investment Manager
Raleigh is a senior investment professional who specializes in planning with the end goal of increasing and generating financial wealth for both companies and individuals in differing phases of life. He is an experienced advisor who holds a Securities Industry Essentials Exam (SIE), Series 66, Series 7 securities license and is a licensed Life & Health insurance agent. Before joining Raymond James, Raleigh was previously employed at Capital One as a Principal Associate for the Company’s Leverage Finance group where he helped grow a team of three people and $1Bln in bank exposure to seventeen people and $25Bln in exposure in thirteen months. In his spare time, Raleigh is a valiant believer in giving back and reducing the economic gap within the community. He serves as a volunteer for the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, Appalachia Service Project, and is a board member for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and the Alumni Association Leadership board for Hampden-Sydney college.
Celia Larsen
Communications Manager
Celia came to the US at the age of 11 from Harare, Zimbabwe, with her diplomat parents and two sisters. Currently employed as part of the management team of Envoy Air (a regional carrier subsidiary of American Airlines), Celia brings strong administrative and proficient computer skills to CFP. She is responsible for CFP’s newsletter and email messages. The mother of two sons, she lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband Don.
Meibh McKinney
Northern Ireland Liaison
Meibh Mckinney will be working with CFP staff in the US to help CFP reconnect with the 2,000 CFPNI alumni in Northern Ireland and conduct research evaluations. Meibh is currently employed by Community Restorative Justice Ireland (CRJI) as a Support Worker with the Health and Wellbeing Programme in West Belfast, working with people that have been affected directly by the Troubles and with young people that have been inter-generationally impacted as well. She also is interning with Amal-Tikva helping them develop a program with Rethinking Conflict, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She recently finished her M.Sc. in Peace and Conflict Studies from Ulster University and has served as an intern with Cooperation Ireland focusing on cross-border peacebuilding. Meibh lives in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland with her family. She was a member of the selection committee for the Creating Friendships for Peace Scholarship in Memory of Henry John McKinney, B.Sc., M.Sc. to Haifa University.
Alexis Eskenazi
U.S. Teen Liaison
Alexis Eskenazi is the CFP U.S. Teen Liaison. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a junior at Castilleja School. Alexis and her family hosted an Israeli-Palestinian pair of teens with CFP in 2019. The following summer, she worked with a team of CFP alumni, administrators, and American teen volunteers to develop CFP’s first alumni survey, which was designed to explore strategic initiatives under CFP’s consideration. She aided in interpreting the survey results, which led to the development of CFP’s 2021 Pilot Peacebuilding Seminar for U.S. teens in the spring and the creation of new alumni initiatives and programs held that summer. Alexis participated in the U.S. Pilot Seminar as well and graduated with excellence. In Alexis’s ongoing role, she is collaborating with CFP’s leadership and alumni from the U.S., Cyprus, and Israel-Palestine to enhance the long-lasting bonds between alumni. She is exploring the possible expansion of the role of U.S. teen hosts and aiding in the opening of new hosting areas to accommodate the increasing international interest in CFP’s peacebuilding program. She hopes to continue highlighting the importance of peacebuilding in her own community and looks forward to hosting a pair of CFP teens in the summer of 2022.