Meet our Staff
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children, not just in some of us, but in everyone. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." Nelson Mandela quoting Marianne Williamson at his 1994 Inaurural Speech.
Byron Sandford, Executive Director
I joined the staff on January 1, 2001. I discovered Quakers in El Paso, Texas in 1974 and realized that I was a Quaker while attending Intermountain Yearly Meeting at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico in 1976. I have followed this Quaker path from El Paso to Austin to Hill Country Friends and now William Penn House and Friends Meeting of Washington. This opportunity utilizes my career experience as a mortgage banker, real estate developer, stock broker and 30+ years experience serving Quakers through many volunteer positions. Through William Penn House, I have found harmony of career, beliefs and avocation.
I have served as Clerk of FGC Development and Finance Committees and FGC Treasurer. I am currently Clerk of Trustees of Baltimore Yearly Meeting and recently served on the General Board of Pendle Hill. In the fall of 2008, I was trained by Al Gore to take the message of global warning to Quakers nationwide through The Climate Project. I am a graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso
"This journey has proven that in life mistakes open new paths and new opportunities; our joy in life is not what we are given but how we accept and grow. To regret is to deny the gifts found in our current life, friends and being, because another result would be a completely different life. My life has been truly blessed and I have neither regrets nor second guesses." Byron@WilliamPennHouse.org
Brad Ogilvie, Program Coordinator
Prior to joining William Penn House in September, 2007, I had spent the previous 15 years in the Chicago-area working primarily in HIV/AIDS. For the past 8 years, I lived and worked in Wheaton, IL, home of Wheaton College (often referred to as "the Harvard of Christian colleges" ). What I discovered over that time was that I had been indoctrinated in a partisan thinking that evangelicals were the enemy of anything progressive, and this thinking was far from the reality. I have been fortunate to work with and make friends with people from this community, and the building of these relationships gives me hope that when we put down our swords of division we can solve many of our economic, social and environmental problems. It is this spirit of bridging divides for social justice that I strive to bring to all that I do here at William Penn House. I am a graduate of Rutgers University. I am a member of Downers Grove Friends Meeting.
My current passion and commitment is to use the opportunities of William Penn House and The Mosaic Initiative (an HIV-prevention organization I founded in 2005 and has a reach in Illinois, DC and rural Kenya) to bring people together to address any number of social, economic and environmental issues. I have learned that when we find new friends and allies despite differences, we can bring renewed, positive energy to big challenges. At William Penn House, we have a unique opportunity to do this, and I welcome the challenge. Brad@WilliamPennHouse.org
Greg Woods, Coordinator of Washington Quaker Workcamps
I grew up in Jefferson City, Missouri and I am a member of Columbia (Missouri) Friends Meeting.
When I was 15, I attended the first workcamp with AFSC-IMYM JSP (now Western Quaker Workcamps) on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. My life changed through this service project. After this experience, with two friends, I started Project Lakota, which raising money to help with the housing situation on Pine Ridge.
This experience led me to want to participate in more Quaker workcamps and then I started leading workcamps in college for students on school breaks. I led trips to New Orleans and rural Nicaragua. Now I have my dream job of leading workcamps. When I run a workcamp, I try to create the conditions for a transformational experience, because I know the influence that a workcamp can have on a participant's life.
In 2007, I graduated from Earlham College with a degree in Liberal Arts, majoring in Peace & Global Studies. Between graduation and coming to William Penn House in March 2008, I volunteered with the youth of First Friends Meeting of Greensboro in North Carolina and worked as the Program Coordinator at Michigan Peaceworks in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Greg@WilliamPennHouse.org
Faith Kelley, Hospitality Coordinator
from Marysville, OH but spent this last summer near Cleveland teaching archery to young campers. I grew up a pastor's kid in Evangelical Friends Church - Eastern Region. In college, I worked for an ecumenical campus ministry and was secretary of the Interfaith Circle. I am very excited about the opportunity to do work that brings together Quakers from different branches through the William Penn House. Faith@WilliamPennHouse.orgKelli Mansure, Intern
I hail from Newark, Delaware. I graduated from the University of Delaware with an interdepartmental degree in Psychology and Hotel and Restaurant Management in 2007 (seemingly unrelated, unless you've worked in the food service industry) and have spent my "gap year" hopping from one short-term service opportunity to the next. The William Penn House is my last stop before returning to school for Counseling Psychology.
The amazing establishments/organizations I worked for in the past year include: The Global Youth Village - International Summer Camp; Global Justice Volunteers - a United Methodist mission program; Holiday House - Episcopal and Girls Friendly Society retreat house
World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms - volunteering in Quebec, Canada
I am very excited to be here at WPH and look forward to the opportunities for growth it will provide me.
Amanda Haase, Intern
Harry Caterson, Intern
I was born in 1990 and raised in Bucks County, PA. I graduated high school in 2009 “Unschooled” ( http://www.unschooling.com/) I’ve been a self-taught musician/composer for as long as I can remember. I’ve always been interested in psychology and philosophy which lead me towards my obsessive interest in right vs. wrong and violence vs. nonviolence, which in turn lead me to a nagging urge to do something about the issues I feel strongly about.
When I was about 15 I joined the Middletown Friends Meeting, and through that attended workshops and forums on conscientious objection, a subject that had caught my interest, and I think it was my persistent interest in this area which lead me to the Bucks County Peace Center , where I volunteered as a counselor at their annual summer “peace camp” teaching kids (7-12) how to peacefully resolve conflict within themselves and with others through crafts, games, storytelling, acting, and group play. I also took a basic mediation class through the Peace Center, lead by Bill Jacobson.
In 2009 I finally got around to joining the amazing Quaker youth group “young friends” and at the young friends gathering at camp onas, met Brad Ogilvie, who introduced me to the William Penn House.
The plan is, if no permanent doors open up for me in DC, then I’ll be heading back home and pursuing a career online as a virtual assistant. But as I’m starting to learn, nobody really knows what they’ll be doing in the future.
