People and Friends

Ann D. Ferguson

Founding Donor

Dr. Ann Ferguson (PhD, LLD) is a former Professor of English Literature at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. She spent 55 years sharing her love for literature, writing, theater, and art with 2,000 students in nearly 500 classes. After teaching for five and a half decades, Dr. Ferguson retired from Gordon College on May 15, 2010. In July 2024, she celebrated her 94th birthday! Several years after retiring, Ann was presented an honorary degree – Doctor of Humane Letters. In 1956, she helped to start a theater program, and produced the first three-act play in Gordon’s history. She is proficient in Russian, Gaelic, German, French, Spanish, and Italian. Ann also served several decades as an organist at First Baptist Church in Foxborough.

In addition to education, dialogue and the arts, Ann maintained a passion and extensive knowledge of gardening. Her vision for her own garden at her home she called “Heathmere,” and after which our Center was named, was one of inclusivity. Nearly every plant that is raised at the nursery or growing wild is welcome. Every plant can be a part of the garden because every plant is effervescent and beautiful in its own way. Ann’s garden reflected her vision for Heathmere itself: all are welcome because diversity is what makes the garden most beautiful and full of life.

Lauren Swayne Barthold

Founding Executive Director

Lauren (PhD) has been a philosophy professor for 25 years, teaching and researching in the areas of pragmatism, ethics and gender studies. Most recently, she has taught at Emerson College, in the Emerson Prison Initiative, and served as Emerson’s inaugural Intergroup Dialogue Instructor for the Deans’ Fellows for Racial Equity program. Her philosophical research on dialogue led her to seek training in several dialogue approaches (Reflective Structured Dialogue, Intergroup Dialogue and Kettering’s Deliberation), which she now utilizes to develop creative dialogue programming in her work with Heathmere. She was part of a multi-year, multi-campus grant (Templeton Foundation) to investigate how dialogue can foster humility and conviction in the college classroom.

Her most recent book, Overcoming Polarization in the Public Square: Civic Dialogue (Palgrave Macmillan 2020), defends a unique approach to using dialogue as a way to cultivate trust and mutual understanding across difference. Her current research focuses on how dialogue can address the de-humanization that fuels polarization. She and her family have lived in Beverly since 2006.

Hadley Stena Camilus

Board Member, 2024

I am the son of Haitian immigrants who was born and mostly raised in New England, primarily in inner-city neighborhoods of Massachusetts. Having grown up in the city of champions (Boston, MA), it should come as no surprise that I am an avid fan of basketball and football. I am also a first-generation college graduate who is the first in my family to have earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree. Additionally, I am a husband and a dad to two awesome girls who are incredibly creative and artistic.

My lived experiences have resulted in a passion for celebrating culture, uplifting voices that are often muted, and building bridges between people. I express this fervor through my work as the Associate Dean of Multicultural Affairs at Phillips Exeter Academy where I devise, facilitate, and coordinate programming that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Tangentially, I am the founder and producer of the Identity-n-Me podcast which is a personal project that I started in the summer of 2020 that offers a space for needed reflection about the interplay between identity and our lived experiences.

Last, yet certainly not least, I enjoy reading memoirs–particularly by individuals who have identities that I don’t hold. It’s a great way to learn about the experience of others. I highly encourage this as a regular practice.

Marc Hazel

Board Member, 2024

Marc Hazel is a seasoned entrepreneur and the former CEO of Jacqueline’s Gourmet Cookies. Marc played a pivotal role in transforming his family’s business from a small retail shop into a national frozen cookie company, shipping bakery products all over the United States and internationally. His leadership and strategic vision were instrumental in driving the company’s growth. Today, Marc leverages his industry insights and entrepreneurial spirit to provide valuable consulting services to food companies.

Marc resides in Beverly with his family. His wife, Heather, and their two children, Fiona and Beckett, are his anchors. He enjoys attending their equestrian horse events and serving as the videographer during their practices. Whether perfecting his golf swing, finding zen in hot yoga, or whipping up homemade pizza dough and sauce, Marc savors life’s diverse experiences. And let’s not forget his playful companion, Livee, the spirited Labradoodle who keeps him on his toes.

Marc aspires to bring his entrepreneurial expertise and passion for learning to Heathmere’s Board.

Godwin Nnanna

Board Member, 2019

Godwin is a journalist and the president of NAMSA Inc, a Boston-based community organization that help new Nigerian/African immigrants integrate better into the larger American society. His journalism experience spans print, broadcast and online media for a variety of Africa and Europe-based media outlets.

A 2006 Dag Hammarskjold Journalism Fellow at the United Nations in New York, Godwin has reported on humanitarian/development issues from over 25 countries in Africa. He has covered a broad array of social and political conflicts and elections in Africa. He now writes on US politics, economy, healthcare and technology for some Africa-based newspapers and magazines.

He started his journalism career as a television reporter in Nigeria. His work has won recognition, including a 2007 silver medal in the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize, and a 2006 gold medal from the United Nations Correspondents Association. Godwin has worked in hospital administration and mental health. He holds master’s degrees in Social Work and Theology from Boston University.

Pilar Perez Serrano

Board President, 2018

Pilar Pérez Serrano is originally from Córdoba, Spain. She holds a PhD in Hispanic Studies from Boston College and an MA in Literary Studies from Brandeis University. She has authored, translated and edited books and articles on contemporary Spanish theater. Pilar was a college professor for many years and since 2019 has taught English and Spanish language and literature at Phillips Exeter Academy.

Both a former student and colleague of Ann’s, Pilar has continued to garden and share stories with her over the years. As a founding board member, she has been instrumental in seeing Heathmere come to fruition. She lives in Haverhill, MA, with her spouse and their two children.

Peter Rudd

Board Secretary, 2018

Peter has worked and started businesses in experiential adventure education, historic building preservation, alternative energy and theatrical set design. He has a love for old wood, outdoor adventures, solving problems, and seeing people learn and grow. He has worked on and managed the preservation of historic buildings around New England, the design and build-out of sustainable biodiesel manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and provided facilities management to his children’s school.

Peter met Ann through his wife, a former student and long-time friend of Ann’s, and has continued to remain in close contact with her, most recently building a waterfall in her garden. He is excited to bring his entrepreneurial expertise and passion for education to Heathmere’s Board. Recently, a few years of homeschooling his daughters has brought him back to education. As his kids spread their wings Peter is wondering where his life will take him next. He lives in Haverhill, MA, with his wife and their two children.

Bob Stains

Board Member, 2024

Bob Stains is the Founder of Bob Stains and Associates, Conflict Transformation and the Transforming Dialogue training, mentoring and group coaching program. His highest purpose is to help people to get curious about and become more human to each other. Bob is also a Senior Associate at Essential Partners and has worked for decades across the US and in ten other countries. He is a seasoned designer and facilitator of conversations that cultivate understanding and connection in the midst of divisive differences. Bob is also a skilled trainer, coach and mentor who equips leaders and practitioners with the internal and external skills to design and facilitate dialogues that repair torn communities.

Over the space of two decades, Bob helped build the Public Conversations Project –a pioneer of the modern dialogue movement- from a small local group to an internationally-renowned team of practitioners, trainers and consultants now known as Essential Partners where he serves as a Senior Associate.

Bob consulted to the Harvard Negotiation Project for 15 years and was a Visiting Researcher at the Tom Porter Program on Religion and Conflict Transformation of the Boston University School of Theology 2018-2021. He has served as Adjunct Faculty at Harvard Divinity School, the Pepperdine and Mitchell-Hamline Universities’ Schools of Law as well as the Boston University School of Theology. Bob is also a mediator and was one of the original mediator trainers for USPS’ Transformative Mediation “REDRESS” program. He is an American Fellow of the US State Department’s Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative and has been honored as part of the PCP team by the American Family Therapy Academy, the Society for Professionals in Dispute Resolution, and the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Graduate Program in Dispute Resolution. As a solo practitioner, he has also been honored by The Centre for Creative Dialogue in Taipei, the National Center for Mediation in Manila and the US Embassy in The Philippines.

Sahar Ullah

Board Member, 2024

Sahar Ishtiaque Ullah is an award-winning scholar, artist, and educator whose work bridges the gap between ivory towers and communities. Committed to critical pedagogy in all kinds of spaces, Dr. Ullah is the recipient of the Presidential Teaching Award, the highest teaching honor at Columbia University, where she earned her PhD in Arabic and Comparative Literature. Dr. Ullah has facilitated storytelling workshops and taught literature courses at Rikers Island through the Justice-in-Education Initiative. For over a decade, her play Hijabi Monologues has been staged across the United States and internationally from Bellingham to Dublin to Jakarta to London. Dr. Ullah’s work has been reviewed by the BBC, The Stage, Exeunt Magazine, The Asian Writer, and British Council Voices.

She is also a dramaturg and script creator for the Neighborhood Theatre Project. In 2020, Dr. Ullah received a theater commission from the Park Avenue Armory to create Bury Me Home for the 100 Years 100 Women Project. In 2021, she was awarded a City Artist Corps grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts to develop new work.

Dr. Ullah continues to work on her liberatory vision and path—and you can read more of her writing here at saharullah.com

Memoriam

Judith Oleson (Board Member, 2018-2023)

Judith was not only one of Heathmere’s founding board members, but she was also a close personal friend to several of us. Her lifelong commitment to conflict transformation, as well as her experience having taught non-profit management, made her a highly valued founding board member. Judith received a Doctorate in Ministry from Episcopal Divinity School, a Master’s in Public Administration from The Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and an MSW from the University of Minnesota.

From 2016-2022, Judith served as the Director of the Tom Porter Program for Religion and Conflict Transformation at Boston University where she directed the program and taught courses. Previously Judith co-founded and coordinated an interdisciplinary minor in Peace and Conflict Studies at Gordon College, where she taught in their Sociology/Social Work Department for ten years. Judith also developed a course in post-conflict social reconstruction that she taught often with colleagues at the European Center for the Study of War and Peace in Croatia.

People and Friends