Biographies

2006 California Peace Prize Award Honorees

Sahra Abdi

Sahra Abdi is a community activist in San Diego. A respected advocate for refugees from Somalia—wracked by civil war since 1991—and for other African immigrants, she serves as a violence prevention liaison for families accustomed to an environment where fighting is a way of life.

As a program coordinator at the City Heights Wellness Center, a partnership between Children's Hospital and Scripps Health, Abdi oversees the Hooyo (Somali for “mother”) Health program. The program provides health, nutrition and safety education for Somali and East African mothers and their families.

In her previous role as a family-support worker for Social Advocates for Youth (SAY) in San Diego, Abdi organized classes to teach parents how to manage stress and discipline and communicate with their children. She also organized peer groups in which teens learned how to better communicate with their parents, handle the dislocations of living in two cultures and manage anger.

Born and raised in Muqdisho, Somalia, Abdi received a B.A. in sociology from San Diego State University. She is pursuing a master’s degree at National University in public administration, with an emphasis in organizational leadership. Previously, she was a nutrition assistant at the American Red Cross and a teacher’s assistant at a local elementary school. Abdi serves on the advisory groups of Latinos y Latinas en Accion, San Diego Country Refugee Forum, Domestic Violence Momentum Team and East African Advisory Group. She lives in San Diego with her husband and son.

Margaret Diaz

A passionate advocate for victims of domestic violence in San Bernardino County, Margaret Diaz is founder and executive director of Victor Valley Domestic Violence Inc. (VVDV), which provides professional counseling, legal assistance, parenting classes and childcare for victims. VVDV also operates a 24-hour hotline, A Better Way shelter and Y.O.U.T.H L.I.F.E, which provides classes in local middle and high schools that teach at-risk youth about domestic violence, relationship abuse and anger management.

After ending an abusive marriage and fleeing from Oklahoma to California in 1984, Diaz wanted to initiate a program that would enable women to escape abuse without having to leave the community. She founded VVDV in 1991, motivated by her belief that outreach and education are essential in breaking the cycle of domestic violence. To help women in the shelter become self-sufficient, VVDV opened its first transitional housing complex in 2003.

Diaz previously worked at the Desert Community Bank and Sparks Hospital. She was honored with the Distinguished Service Award by Victor Valley College Foundation and the Women Helping Women Award by Soroptimist International, Victor Valley Chapter. Diaz holds a vocational nurse certificate from Fort Smith Junior College (now the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith). She is a member of California Alliance Against Domestic Violence, the Homeless Coalition of San Bernardino County and the San Bernardino County Schools Advisory Committee. She lives with her husband in Victorville, Calif.

Anthony Thigpenn

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Anthony Thigpenn has been involved in neighborhood organizing, public policy advocacy and community-organizing training for more than 30 years. In 1992, Thigpenn founded Strategic Concepts in Organizing & Policy Education (SCOPE), a multifaceted social justice organization based in South Los Angeles. He serves as SCOPE’s president. Aware that people in poor communities usually lack sufficient resources to affect public policy, he finds outlets for people to positively express their frustrations and develop effective ways to help prevent community violence.

Thigpenn attributes the success of SCOPE’s programs to devoted grassroots leaders and community collaboration. Action for Grassroots Empowerment and Neighborhood Development Alternatives (AGENDA) trains African-American and Latino community members to understand and participate in public-policy formulation and decision making. The Los Angeles Metropolitan Alliance unites regional community and labor activists to work for a long-term economic justice agenda. Thigpenn has been involved in numerous other community projects, including job-training programs, livable-wage campaigns, and the King/Drew campaign to save King Drew Medical Center to address the public health crisis in South Los Angeles.

Prior to founding SCOPE, Thigpenn was executive director of Los Angeles Jobs with Peace and executive director of the Unity Workshop. He has received many honors, including a Charles Bannerman Fellowship Award, and was named one of five “Heroes for Hard Times” by Mother Jones magazine.