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 Maria Santelli, Executive Director
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Maria comes to the Center from the high desert of north-central New Mexico. With a master of community and regional Planning degree and more than a decade of visionary leadership in both project and organizational development, Maria enthusiastically begins this new professional, and personal, journey. In recent years, Maria has been called to work in support of our service members - particularly those who have chosen to follow their conscience and leave the military - as part of her contribution toward building a more peaceful and just world.
In 2008, Maria founded the New Mexico GI Rights Hotline node to provide direct services and resources to callers and to be a leading voice statewide on issues affecting service members and veterans, including conscientious objection, military sexual violence, post-traumatic stress disorder, and truth in recruitment. Maria has developed local and statewide policy on military recruiting in schools and jail diversion programs for veterans, favoring treatment as an alternative to incarceration. |
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Bill Galvin, Counseling Coordinator
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Bill Galvin is a Vietnam era conscientious objector. He has been working to support conscientious objectors since the early 1970’s. He was on the staff of the United Presbyterian Church’s Emergency Ministry on Conscience & War, and later CCCO. He is active in the Presbyterian Church having served on the Peace & Justice committee of the Baltimore Presbytery and their special task force to address urban violence. He received the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship's 2009 Peaceseeker Award. He is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and sits on the National Committee of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and the Board of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund (NCPTF). NCPTF lobbies to extend CO Rights to taxpayers.
At CCW he coordinates and trains military counselors, counsels military personnel, and assists counselors throughout the GI Rights hotline with difficult cases. He also monitors the Selective Service System, and
trains draft counselors. He is co-chair of the board of the GI Rights Hotline and he is involved in all aspects of the Center’s advocacy for CO rights. That includes helping to lobby for CO rights, including an end to the draft and related issues, and has revised the Draft Counselors Manual several times. He recently wrote a self-help guide for conscientious objectors in the military, and he is currently working on a manual for military chaplains.
Galvin is available to come to your community to speak about conscientious objection and related issues (such as military recruitment), or to train counselors in your area to work on these issues. |
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 Nico Holz, Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) nico@centeronconscience.org
Nico Holz is also currently with Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) at the Center. He is helping counsel military personnel and partially responsible to do fundraising for CCW. He is a member of the Lutheran Church, Germany. He comes from Hamburg, graduated from the Heinrich-Hertz-Schule in summer 2010, and will start studying policy in summer 2012.
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Liz Rekowski, Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS)
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Liz Rekowski is currently with Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) at the Center. She is the editor of the quarterly newsletter, The Reporter For Conscience' Sake, and helps counsel military members. She graduated from Bridgewater College in 2011 with a degree in history and political science.
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