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When Barbara Simmons was younger, she worried her children would inherit a dangerous world. To help prevent that, she began volunteering at the Peace Center in Bucks County in 1987 — a decision that led to nearly 40 years of activism.
“You realize it’s not just your kids that matter but it’s all kids that matter,” Simmons told Spotlight PA. Simmons is now the executive director of the Peace Center, a role she’s held for over 30 years. In that time, she’s worked as a mediator, facilitator, and educator, leading listening circles, and teaching about bullying in the workplace, among other initiatives aimed at resolving conflicts.
These efforts earned her a nomination for our PA Local Heroes series, sponsored by Ballard Spahr.
The Peace Center began in 1982 and aims to reduce violence through conflict resolution and mediation classes.
After volunteering at the Peace Center for about a year, Simmons ended up joining the org as the executive director’s assistant. The director became her mentor, teaching her mediation and how to run the programs.
She was eager to learn, and later began working with a group of retired educators who believed in giving children peacemaking skills, she said.
This led to her studying under Sandra Bloom, a renowned psychologist who taught her how trauma changes the brain.
Simmons later gave a presentation at Arcadia University's International Peace and Conflict Resolution program and was asked to teach a mediation class at the school. She then began to teach other courses.
When her husband was diagnosed with cancer, she decided to retire. Still, she continued to volunteer and kept working with other Bucks County nonprofits like the Nakashima Foundation for Peace and the Bucks County NAACP.
She later returned to the Peace Center. Simmons says she was put on the earth to make peace.
“We're really, truly connected to one another, but we've lost sight of that. So that's really my life's purpose,” Simmons said.
Debbie Wachspress agrees that Simmons has truly found her callings. Wachspress got to know Simmons while working at the Peace Center from 2017 to 2019.
“I think it's just her nature,” Wachspress said. “I think social justice has always been very much at the center of her being.”
Simmons said she’s seen firsthand how the tools she gives people can make a difference.
She recalled a time she taught mediation at a local high school and waited outside a classroom while students talked among themselves. When the door opened, she said, the student mediator told her a fellow classmate had opened up for the first time about being assaulted.
“She would not go to a guidance counselor, she wouldn't go to another adult,” Simmons said of the teen. “Having young people trained like that can make a difference in that person's life when they don't feel like they can take that conflict anywhere else.”
The student mediators were eventually able to convince the classmate to turn to adults who could help her.
Another time, Simmons said, a 14-year-old reached out to her to say they were badly bullied in seventh grade. The student was then in eighth grade and wanted to learn how to help others who might be in the same situation.
“Impacting a young life who now wants to help others gives me hope for the future,” Simmons said.
Wachspress recalled how Simmons once went on a radio show for an interview and the other guest that day was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Wachspress said Simmons listened to his side before responding and had a discussion with the man without condemning him.
“Shortly after that interview, she went back to the office, and he walked into the building and up to her office,” Wachspress said. “And he said to her, ‘I don't want to be in a hate group. My daughter won't talk to me. My wife is sick, and I don't know how to get out.’ And she sat with him and they talked through it.”
Simmons said she sees white supremacy gaining ground in the U.S., and notices groups like immigrants and LGBTQ+ people are being targeted. She hopes the Peace Center can help people navigate today's challenges.
She also said they are looking into workshops to provide conflict resolutions and mediation for health care workers who often deal with burnout and a stressful work environment. The organization will also be holding workshops for construction workers, law firms, educators, and quality assurance professionals.
Simmons said she sees the pain in vulnerable communities and individuals that either can’t speak up or are afraid to.
“I hope that the Peace Center can make a difference and make some kind of dent in that kind of despair,” Simmons said.
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