As a girl, she demanded protection from serial killer. Now she’s Tacoma’s peace laureate
Maralise Hood Quan was 11 when she rallied her peers to push the Bellingham City Council for safety measures at a time when serial killer Ted Bundy was stalking the city’s streets.
Half a century later, the 61-year-old Pierce County resident has been named the 2023 Greater Tacoma Peace Prize Laureate for her work mediating conflicts and advocating for peace. The honor includes a trip to Norway in December to meet with international peace-related organizations and participate in the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.
The Greater Tacoma Peace Prize is modeled after the Nobel Prize for Peace and recognizes and honors peacemakers from the Tacoma/Pierce County region, according to the GTPP website. Tacoma is the only U.S. city that awards a peace prize connected to the Nobel Prize, president of GTTP Lisa Ottoson said.
Quan, a certified mediator and executive director of the Center for Dialog and Resolution in Pierce County, was nominated for the work she has done as a conflict-resolution mediator and peacemaker in the United States, internationally and locally.
Chris Gleason, Comprehensive Life Resources’ chief communications and community affairs officer, is one of multiple people who nominated Quan. Gleason said she doesn’t know anyone more deserving of the award.
“Peace to her is not a symbol. It’s not just a word that you kind of throw around. It’s the essence of who she is as a person,” Gleason said. “I’ve never known anyone else like her who has the ability to bring in context for people that helps them feel better about the situation that they’re in.”
Quan told The News Tribune her first act of advocacy was when she gathered a large group of students to attend that City Council meeting in her hometown of Bellingham.
“I was aware, as a young 11-year-old, as a woman walking the streets, I’m not safe,” Quan said. “The City Council didn’t want to hear me asking for lighting, so I returned with a whole bunch of other fifth graders, like 100, and said, ‘We care about lighting and you should, too.’”
Quan attributes her sense for justice to her mother.
“My mother came at [life] from a philosophical perspective that if our basic needs are met, we have a duty to recognize when there’s injustices and to be part of changing the system to bring justice,” Quan said.
Quan spent 15 years mediating conflicts and teaching mediation in Mexico, Central America and South America after attending the United Nations’ University of Peace.
Quan developed an integrated curriculum that students from pre-K through college can study to learn about peace in every discipline, from math to art. She also collaborated to create a plan to fund and coordinate 108 initiatives embedded in the 14 Peace Accords in Guatemala after the end of the 36-year civil war, according to the GTTP nomination letter.
Quan returned to Washington in 2000 and brought back skills and knowledge of conflict resolution and has used them at the Center for Dialog and Resolution. Quan teaches her staff the technique of mediation in order to assist Pierce County residents in resolving conflicts such as landlord-tenant conflicts, workplace conflicts and teen with parent mediation.
Quan has four fundamental components that have guided her work and continue to guide her work today: prepare peace, build peace, maintain peace and recuperate peace, according to the GTTP nomination letter.
Quan was nominated for the GTTP last year, but was not selected. This year she had several nominations with multiple references.
“A mediator plays that impartial role and impartiality doesn’t mean neutrality,” Quan said. “It means I want to make sure both of your voices get heard. I want to make sure that you understand what’s underneath what you’ve been yelling about and that together you build the resolution that allows you to interact with each other differently.”
Along with teaching mediation to her staff, Quan and Gleason created Refresh Fridays, a weekly conversation on Facebook live between members of the community and Quan. Refresh Fridays was meant to provide the community with services from the Center for Dialog and Resolution virtually while also keeping the community connected during the pandemic.
Lisa Ottoson, president of GTTP, said it is a very difficult process to select the GTPP laureate, but Quan was an exceptional candidate.
“We are really thrilled to honor her this year,” Ottoson said. “She’s a fantastic person and has worked hard to accomplish and focus on humanity and that every human has the right to exist with respect.”
Quan participated in the Norwegian Constitution parade on May 17 and was officially announced as this year’s GTPP Laureate.
The Greater Tacoma Peace Prize will hold a banquet to honor and award Quan with a plaque, medallion, Certificate of Commendation and a unique glass artwork in September.
Quan will join the GTPP Board of Directors in 2024 where she will help raise money for the organization, but she hopes to be able to give back and support the peacemakers in the community, she said.
“I would love to reach more people and remind them that they can do it and the people around them to say ‘how can we support them?’” Quan said. “I want to identify our local peacemakers, and I want the people who are around them to support and raise them up as peacemakers.”
This story was originally published June 26, 2023 at 5:15 AM.
