User:Innovator602/Terri Donovan Mansfield

Terri Donovan Mansfield is a recognized peace ambassador, carefully laying local, national and international legislative foundations for peace, love and hugs, as a true cheerleader for humanity.

Mansfield co-founded and served as executive director of the Arizona Department of Peace Campaign from 2003-2009. Mansfield is currently on the faculty of the International Metaphysical University , where she teaches a class on peace on Earth and in space.

Early life

Terri Donovan was born in her childhood home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio on February 15, 1947 during a blizzard. In 1954, Donovan, her parents and three siblings moved to Albuquerque, NM. Donovan met Mike Mansfield at St. Pius X High School, when they began dating. They married during their college years at the University of Albuquerque, which is also when their son, Steve, was born. In 1969 the Mansfields moved to Portland, Ore. where Mansfield’s husband attended dental school at the Oregon Health Science University for four years with an Air Force scholarship. Their daughters, Kimberly (deceased) and Shayna, were born in Portland. From there, the Mansfields continued their Air Force career at Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois; Incirlik Air Base in Turkey; and in San Antonio, Tex., where Mansfield’s husband completed his oral surgery residency at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base; then to Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.; and back to San Antonio, where Mansfield’s husband completed his service with the Air Force at Wilford Hall Medical Center. After his 22-year career in the Air Force, he retired as a full colonel. Following his retirement, the Mansfields moved to the Phoenix, Ariz. area, where they continue to reside.

Education

Mansfield received her Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology magna cum laude at the University of Albuquerque in 1969. She worked as a medical technologist in teaching hospitals in New Mexico, Oregon, Turkey, Arizona and Texas.

Peace Ambassador

Hospice of the Valley

When Mansfield was invited to volunteer training for Hospice of the Valley in 1995, her soul jumped at the opportunity. Hospice of the Valley is the largest nonprofit Hospice in the country. In 1996, Mansfield was invited to join the staff and trained volunteers, which she continued until 2000. From 2000-2006, Mansfield was a volunteer outreach speaker for Hospice of the Valley.

When members of Mansfield’s family died – her father Paul in 1959, infant daughter Kimberly in 1972 and mother Alice in 1975 -- there was no Hospice support or grief counseling available at that time to assist her family in the healing process. The first U.S. Hospice opened in Connecticut in 1974, thanks to the pioneering vision of two women: Dame Cicely Saunders and Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Mansfield was blessed to spend time with Dr. Kübler-Ross before her death in 2004. Hospice of the Valley was founded in 1977.

Mansfield’s involvement with Hospice of the Valley allowed her the opportunity to heal completely from the deaths of her loved ones, and to release her own fears of death.

Madonna Ministries

Mansfield was ordained as a Madonna Minister during ceremonies in 2000 and again in 2002 in California and Glastonbury, England respectively. Madonna Ministers are world servers who minister joyfully from their hearts to encourage all to express essential divinity by utilizing creativity. They are nourished by the divine grace of the “One.” They are called to minister through good will, unconditional love, gratitude, spiritual insight and intuition, discernment and humility, all of which foster direct revelation and enlightened understanding.

Reiki Master

Reiki is an ancient universal energy healing modality that works to balance and calm chakra (energy) centers, promoting physical, mental, emotional, spiritual healing. The word “Reiki” combines two Japanese words: Rei, which means "God's Wisdom or the Higher Power" and Ki, which is "life force energy" – in other words "spiritually guided life force energy."

Mansfield began studying Reiki while she worked at Hospice of the Valley. Mansfield was attuned and certified to be a Karuna Reiki Master in May 1999 by William Lee Rand. Mansfield uses Reiki as a healing and balancing tool for herself, her family and all her loved ones. Reiki is used as a gentle integrative healing modality in hospitals, clinics, resorts and spa settings.

U.S. Department of Peace Movement

In 1792 Dr. Benjamin Rush, Founding Father (signer of the Declaration of Independence) wrote a proactive essay entitled "A Plan for an Office of Peace.” Dr. Rush called for an equal footing with the Department of War and points out the effect of doing so could promote and preserve perpetual peace in the United States. Benjamin Banneker, noted African American scientist, published the essay in the 1792 Banneker Almanac. This is the first publicly-known proposal for the establishment of an official U.S. Office of Peace. In 1925 Carrie Chapman Catt of the National League of Women Voters, at the “Cause and Cure for War” Conference, publicly suggested a Cabinet level “Department of Peace" and “Secretary of Peace” be established. In 1935 Senator Matthew Neely of West Virginia wrote and introduced the first bill calling for the creation of a United States Department of Peace. The bill was reintroduced in 1937, 1939, 1945 and 1946. From 1955 – 1968, 85 Senate and House of Representative bills were introduced calling for a United States Department of Peace. In 1969 bipartisan bills were introduced by Democratic Senator Vance Hartke of Indiana and Republican Congressional Representative Seymour Halpern of New York to create a U.S. Department of Peace. During the height of the Vietnam War, there were almost as many Republicans and Democrats creating legacies for leadership in peace. In 1979, Senator Spark M. Matsunaga of Hawaii re-introduced a bill to create a U.S. Department of Peace. On July 11, 2001 Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced a bill to create a U.S. Department of Peace. This bill has since been re-introduced in each session of Congress from 2001 to February 3, 2009. It was re-introduced as H.R. 808 on February 3, 2009 and is currently supported by 72 co-sponsors. In July 2008, the first Republican co-sponsor of the current bill, Congressman Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), signed on.

The proposed cabinet level U.S. Department of Peace, currently HR808 legislation, currently in the House of Representatives, will research, articulate, and facilitate nonviolent solutions to domestic and international conflicts, creating a caring and sustainable culture of peace, so vital in these challenging economic times.

The Arizona Department of Peace Campaign

Mansfield is the co-founder of the proactive, inclusive and transpartisan Arizona Department of Peace Campaign, which supports the national Department of Peace Campaign, now known as the Peace Alliance. Mansfield was one of hundreds to receive an invitation in 2003 from author Marianne Williamson to attend the first Department of Peace Conference in Washington, D.C. Joining Mansfield from Arizona were Shirley Catanzaro, Susan Seats, Joyce Buekers, Caitlin Flaherty and Aleia O'Reilly. The conference was held April 6-8, 2003 and attracted 200 peace advocates. The conference participants learned about the Department of Peace bill and met with staff members of their national representatives and senators to discuss the bill and asked for their legislators’ support of the bill. On April 8, 2003, the final day of the conference, Congressman Kucinich re-introduced this legislation to create a cabinet level U.S. Department of Peace. That evening, Mansfield, along with fellow Arizonan Shirley Catanzaro, agreed to become the joint state coordinators for their newly-created Arizona Department of Peace (AZDOP) Campaign.

The AZDOP Campaign empowers civic activism for creating a culture of peace, locally and globally. It educates, inspires and supports participation in a grassroots campaign to establish a cabinet level of the Executive Branch, U.S. Department of Peace and advocates for evidence-based legislation and policies that will reduce violence and build sustainable peace domestically and internationally.

During Mansfield’s six years with the AZDOP Campaign as co-founder and executive director, the following tools of engagement created more visibility and education to the campaign:

The AZDOP Campaign and the Arizona Interfaith Movement co-hosted “Arizona Embrace: Prayers of Peace,” which is an annual event held to envision peace as the Arizona legislature prepares to convene for the new year. Hundreds of participants meet at the State Capitol lawn to focus on legislation for the new year. After greetings, prayers, songs and music are heard, participants form a circle in the Capitol’s courtyard to offer a collective embrace as a symbolic group hug for Arizona, its leadership and all living in Arizona. The first Arizona Embrace event was held on January 13, 2008, the day before the legislature convened. The second was held on February 14, 2009, Arizona Statehood Day.
On May 20, 2007 more than 1,000 people of all religions from Israel, Palestine and the world came to Jerusalem, the heart of the world, to meet at Damascus, the gate at the old city of Jerusalem for the first JERUSALEM HUG for peace, an historic peace event. American James Twymann sang his rendition of the prayer of Saint Assisi: "Lord make me an instrument of thy peace." Mansfield received an email from Twyman, peace troubadour, about his journey to Jerusalem. This gave Mansfield and the AZDOP Campaign the inspiration to invite Dr. Paul Eppinger and the Arizona Interfaith Movement to co-host the first ever ARIZONA EMBRACE: Prayers of Peace at the state capitol in Phoenix, Arizona.
Arizona became the first state legislature to introduce a bipartisan bill, whereas the Arizona Legislature would encourage Congress to pass the Department of Peace bill. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, Arizona State Representatives Mark Anderson (R) and David Lujan (D) were key sponsors of this Department of Peace legislation.
During the annual National Peace Alliance Mother’s Day event, AZDOP Campaign representatives presented pies to the offices of Arizona's congressional leaders and senators for the “Peace of the Pie” campaign, which asks for a "piece" of the federal budget to create a national Department of Peace. This annual May event recognizes the original meaning of Mother’s Day. Julia Ward Howe began a campaign in 1870 that encouraged women to embrace peaceful resolutions to conflicts after she witnessed the devastation associated with the Civil War. She issued a Declaration and hoped to obtain formal recognition of a Mother’s Day for Peace. Anna Jarvis continued the work and the first Mother’s Day was celebrated in West Virginia in 1912. The holiday was declared officially by states in 1912, and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day.
In 2007, Mansfield was invited by the Arizona Governor’s Commission on Service and Volunteerism to be the plenary speaker for the governor’s 13th Annual National and Community Service Conference, which was held at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. The theme of the conference was “Be the Change – Unite and Serve.” The conference included volunteers from Vista Corp, the Peace Corps and America Corp. Mansfield educated the audience about the proposed U.S. Department of Peace, the AZDOP Campaign and the history of the Peace Poles.
The AZDOP Campaign's monthly meetings drew impressive speakers like Leslie A. "Cap" Dean, who was the defacto mayor of Baghdad, Iraq in 2004. Dean wrote a letter of endorsement supporting the creation of a cabinet level U.S. Department of Peace. Dean’s career spanned 28 years in the state department with the USAID and he worked with Nelson Mandela and South African President F.W. de Clerk to end apartheid in South Africa.

In addition to the 2003 kickoff for the DOP campaign, Mansfield has also led Arizona volunteer delegations to every national Department of Peace Campaign meeting:

April 2003 in Washington, D.C.
September 2003, in Washington, D.C.
November 2004 in Berkley, Calif.
September 2005 in Washington, D.C.
February 2007 in Washington, D.C.
March 2009 in Washington, D.C.
(There were no national DOP Conferences in 2006 and 2008.)

The AZDOP state coordinators who have worked with Mansfield since 2003 have included Reverend Shirley Catanzaro, former West Point Major Ann Marie Tate, Reverend Dr. Mitzi Lynton, and Caitlin Flaherty, current executive director for the AZDOP Campaign.

Organizations that have collaborated with the AZDOP Campaign include the Peace Alliance, Hard Rock Cafe, Star Shine Academy, UN Peace Pals, the Franciscan Renewal Center, Voices for Civil Dialogue, Church Women United, Arizona Interfaith Movement, World Peace Prayer Society, Harp Foundation, Creative Living Fellowship, Peace Pole Makers, Interfaith Unity of Mesa, Arizona. and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

The AZDOP Campaign has received proclamations thanking the AZDOP Campaign for its peaceful civic engagement with Arizonans, from former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano (currently U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security), Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Paradise Valley Mayor Vernon Parker.

Peace Poles

The Peace Poles Project started in Japan in 1955 by Masahisa Goi, who dedicated his life to spreading the message, “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in response to the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Peace Poles are handcrafted monuments erected the world over as international symbols of peace. Their purpose is to spread the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in over 300 different languages.

Mansfield saw her first Peace Pole in 1997 in Hanalei, Kauai in Hawaii. Mansfield and her husband bought their own eight-foot peace pole for their home after September 11, 2001.

When Mansfield and her fellow AZDOP Campaign advocates Shirley Catanzaro, Susan Seats and Joyce Buekers were in Washington, D.C. on April 8, 2003, they were invited by an active duty military friend of Buekers’ to tour the Pentagon. Inside the Pentagon's chapel stands an eight-foot, four-sided, wooden peace pole with the message: "May Peace Prevail on Earth." Upon seeing the Peace Pole, Mansfield burst into tears of gratitude. In that moment, Mansfield knew that the Department of Defense and the Department of Peace will work together to create a new paradigm for peace and for humanity. Since then, the AZDOP Campaign and Mansfield have distributed hundreds of eight-inch wooden “baby” peace poles during meetings in Arizona and around the United States.

On November 21, 2008, Mansfield helped dedicate a Peace Pole at The University of Arizona (UA) in Tucson, Arizona. Peace Corps Fellows erected the Peace Pole at the university’s Old Main. The Peace Pole phrase "May Peace Prevail on Earth" is written in eight languages: American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Hindi, Spanish, and Tohono O'odham - representing the diversity of The University of Arizona and Tucson community. In addition to Mansfield, other speakers included UA President Robert Shelton and Chairman Ned Norris Jr. of the Tohono O'odham Nation and many others.

On February 12, 2007 Mansfield was invited to be the keynote speaker at the annual MLK Prayer Breakfast for students and faculty at Arizona State University’s East Polytechnic campus. The future Peace Pole was discussed by Mansfield that day. Uqualla, Havasupai Spiritual Emmissary, also spoke and performed a blessing for the campus’ land where the Peace Pole will stand.

In February 2005 the AZDOP Campaign orchestrated dual Peace Pole ceremonies that culminated in dedicating two eight-foot hollow aluminum peace poles. Mansfield and the AZDOP Campaign dedicated one to the city of Phoenix, Arizona. in a community event at the Civic Center, and friend Lyle Skillen, who retired from the U.S. Navy, hand carried the other eight-foot Peace Pole to Baghdad, Iraq, where it has been installed in the Iraqi Institute of Peace. The Iraqi Institute of Peace is a sister organization to the U.S. Institute of Peace. The Peace Poles were donated by the Peace Pole Makers, the World Peace Prayer Society and the Hard Rock Café in Phoenix, Arizona.

On September 11, 2004 a peace pole ceremony was held at StarShine Academy, a K-12 charter school in an at-risk community in Phoenix, Arizona. Students, teachers, and friends wrote peace prayers and placed them inside the hollow aluminum peace pole before it was “planted" in the school's Peace Garden. The ceremony marked the AZDOP Campaign and Starshine Academy’s 11 Days of Peace and Sustainability. StarShine was founded by Trish McCarty and is dedicated to helping every child find their talent and grow into a peaceful, productive, and successful person.

More than 200,000 Peace Poles have been dedicated throughout the planet in more than 180 countries. Mansfield’s Peace in Space / Peaceful Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI) Journey Mansfield has witnessed several peaceful ET-UFO paranormal events:

Mansfield witnessed the Phoenix Lights event when a giant two-mile wide mother craft glided gracefully and peacefully over her head around 8:00 p.m. on March 13, 1997 while she attended a meeting with her hospice volunteers. Mansfield then began expanding her hospice focus of the power of compassion to the universal focus of the power of peace.

On April 8, 2003, when Mansfield began her AZDOP Campaign work, the proposed Department of Peace legislation called for banning all weapons in space. On August 9, 2005, while walking with the Japanese Buddhist Monks to the Trinity Test Site in NM to extinguish the Atomic Flame, which had been born there 60 years ago and burned for 60 years in Hiroshima, Japan, Mansfield sensed and felt an enormous mother ship cloaked in the clouds overhead, conveying to Mansfield the gratitude of cosmic beings for this peace ceremony. For more information, see the Global Nuclear Disarmament Fund website.

In February 2006, Mansfield was gifted with NASA space artist Robert McCall’s masterpiece, “Peace on Earth, Peace in Space.” Later, on February 27, 2006, when Mansfield returned home after being asked to give a Department of Peace presentation to the Phoenix Human Relations Commission, three amber orbs appeared over the Estrella Mountains. Mansfield and her husband watched through their telescope as the orbs remained rock solid in the sky for at least 15 minutes before disappearing. Each orb had a circle of lights like a diamond bracelet, rotating clockwise inside. Five days later, on March 3, 2006, Mansfield began her ETI peace work with astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell and Dr. Suzanne Mendelssohn.

On December 14, 2007, after Mansfield spent the day on a peace mission with the staff inside the United Nations, and then visited John Lennon’s peace memorial “Imagine / Strawberry Fields” in Central Park, NY with her son, they saw a pink UFO had sliced diagonally through the clouds at sunset over the Manhattan skyline. The event happened in front of them – as if in gratitude. (See photo at Mansfield’s web site.)

On June 21, 2008, while Mansfield and her husband watched the Cirque de Soleil performance of “LOVE” in Las Vegas, Nev., a brilliant blue light suddenly shone in Mansfield’s eyes, followed by the appearance of a very tall slim man in a white robe with shoulder-length white hair, who energetically placed an enormous emerald cut diamond in Mansfield’s hands, saying “this is for healing.”

Mansfield and her husband were whale-watching on a Kauai, HI cliff on January 12, 2009, which marked the 50th anniversary of Mansfield’s father’s death. She was relating how the whales and dolphins are the angelic caretakers of Earth’s oceans, when two humpback whales shot out of the water right in front of them, belly to belly, straight up like missiles, and gently fell back into the ocean, as if to say, “thank you for acknowledging our presence and purpose here on Earth.”

Peace and Immigration

While thousands marched for immigration reform in cities throughout Arizona, very few were talking civilly to others across the aisle with different points of view.

In February 2008 Mansfield heard Lionel Sosa speak on National Public Radio about his nonprofit, nonpartisan Mexican Americans Thinking Together. Mansfield e-mailed Sosa about the AZDOP Campaign’s immigration work for peace in Arizona. At Sosa’s invitation, on February 21, 2008, Congressional candidate Annie Loyd and Mansfield flew to San Antonio, TX to meet with MATT board members Aracely Garcia Granados (chairman of the board) and Hope Andrade to discuss immigration strategies and develop common ground. Sosa resigned from Matt.org to be an advisor for Sen. John McCain’s (R, AZ) 2008 presidential campaign.

In June 2008, Mansfield, Loyd and Virginia Cervantes formed their inclusive and transpartisan immigration think-tank, Voices for Civil Dialogue, in Phoenix, Arizona.

In addition to weekly outreach meetings with supportive colleagues, they met with key immigration spokespersons on both sides of the aisle: the Arizona Governor’s office, the Phoenix Mayor’s office, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, the Phoenix Catholic Diocese, business and construction leaders, Arizona state and national legislators, and Arizona Ecumenical Council, etc.

On October 13, 2008, Voices for Civil Dialogue hosted an immigration panel discussion for the public at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in Phoenix, Arizona. The expert panelists agreed that dialogue is key to moving immigration issues forward to Washington, D.C. for national action.

The arts have a powerful healing influence on conflict: on December 4, 2009, Phoenix dedicated its first Hispanic cultural arts center: Arizona Latino Arts and Cultural Consortium.

International Metaphysical University (IMU)

Mansfield’s curriculum at IMU includes the following lessons on peace.

Birthing the National Department of Peace Campaign - April 2003
Arizona Department of Peace (AZDOP) Campaign - April 8, 2003
Peace Education: The National Peace Academy History
Proactive Peace Protocol
Warriors of Peace: Military and Civilian
“America’s Toughest Sheriff:” Practicing Peace and Love
Hospice and the Phoenix Lights
Walking with the Monks and the Atomic Flame to Trinity Test Site, NM
United Nations, John Lennon’s Imagine / Strawberry Fields Peace Memorial, Pink UFO
The Power of the Mind: Letting Go of Worry
This Part of Your Work is Done and Amber Orbs
Peace Exoconsciousness with Dr. Rebecca Hardcastle

Additional Diplomatic Activities

Mansfield was appointed by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon as a Phoenix Human Relations Commissioner from 2005-2008. She has served on the Advisory Board at the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University since 2008. Mansfield is a co-founder for Voices for Civil Dialogue with Annie Loyd. She received the Paradise Valley, Arizona. MLK Diversity Champion Award in 2009.

Additional Organizations

Mansfield is also co-founder of ETVoteNow.org, a transpartisan, nonaffiliated citizen organization committed to forming a planetary and national Department of Extraterrestrial Alliances, responsible for the open public dissemination, integration and utilization of peaceful extraterrestrial/UFO information, creating a culture of peace on Earth, peace in space.

Dedicated to empowering the planet’s citizenry to create an extraterrestrial reality through peace exoconsciousness, Mansfield is affiliated with Quantrek, Inc., founded by Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth astronaut to walk on the moon. In 1973, Dr. Mitchell also founded the nonprofit Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS).

IONS’ mission is to advance the science of consciousness and human experience to serve individual and collective transformation.

Quantrek, Inc. is a nonprofit frontier science research organization that promotes and accelerates the advancement of knowledge about the ultimate nature of reality utilizing the scientific method for the betterment of humankind. It is also interested in the peaceful extraterrestrial presence.

Mansfield and Dr. Rebecca Hardcastle, the originator of the concept of “exoconsciousness” are co-directors of Peace Exoconsciousness for Quantrek, Inc.

Mansfield is Executive Vice President of Dr. Suzanne Mendelssohn’s organization, Fundraising in the Public Interest, which seeks funding from billionaires for nonprofits dedicated to radical social change for the planet.

Media

Books

Referenced in “Exoconsciousness Your 21st Century Mind” by Dr. Rebecca Hardcastle. Authorhouse (paperback, 2008).

Referenced in “The Ultimate Experience: The Many Paths to God~ Messages From the Heavenly Hosts,” Book Five, 2007 by Verling Chako Priest, Ph.D., Trafford Publishing, ISBN 142522550-6 (mentioned on p. 190, as a peace advocate in reference to bringing peace to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office).

Videos

Peace Events List

March 2009 DOP trip to Washington, D.C.
February 14, 2009: AZ Embrace
August 11, 2008: Arizonans Knighted as Hospitallers
January 13, 2008: AZ Embrace
May 10-11, 2007: AZDOP Peace of the Pie
April 8, 2007: Phoenix AZDOP Campaign Day
April 2007: Find Peace in April
February 2007: February Peace in AZ Events
January 25, 2007: AZ Legislature Urges National DOP Legislation
September 21, 2007: Arizona Celebrates Peace
April 8, 2006: City of Phoenix DOP Day
February 26, 2006: Tie Vote on AZ DOP Legislation
January 25, 2006: DOP Bill Introduced to AZ State Legislature
December 1, 2006: World AIDS Day 2006, Reaching out across Arizona
August 9, 2005: Peace Walk Concludes at Trinity
July 29, 2005: Peace Walk Joined by AZDOP
April 10, 2005: AZDOP Celebrates 2 Years of its Mission to Spread Peace
April 8, 2005: Mayor Declares Phoenix AZDOP Campaign Day
March 7, 2005: Monarchid Studio AZDOP Meeting
February 5, 2005: Peace Pole Dedication Update
February 5, 2005: PEACE POLE Dedication Ceremony
January 3, 2005: January DOP Party
November 29, 2004: Did you Miss the Party?
November 11, 2004: Department of Peace Conference
July 21, 2004: AZDOP at Space for Progress Forum
June 5, 2004: A Report on the
June 5 Day of Citizen Activism & Fund Raising
January 10, 2004: Dialog for Peace - Phoenix, Shadow Rock UCC Church
December. 7, 2003: Paving the Highway to Peace!
November 9, 2003: Dialog for Peace - Chandler, Valley Unitarian Universalist Church
November 2003: Dialog for Peace - Phoenix
September 12, 2003: Fall Peace Conference from Terri Mansfield
April 8, 2003: We the People - Spring Peace Conference summary from Shirley Catanzaro

References

External links