Who are We?
We are a steering committee made up of International Peace and Development experts committed to making the world a better place. We believe in empowering women and girls around the world to achieve their full potential and enabling them to equitably participate in society. Our founding members were all part of the Beyond our Border's U,S. Foreign Policy Taskforce. We formed this coalition to further specialize on this important work.
Meet the Team
Cynda Collins Arsenault
Co-founder, Board Chair and President of Secure World Foundation , an operating foundation working for the secure and sustainable use of outer space for the benefit of humanity. She also co-founded and serves on the Boards of the Arsenault Family Foundation and One Earth Future, an operating foundation working to catalyze systems that eliminate the root causes of war. She has 45+ years of experience in non-profit work including peace and justice, criminal justice, mental health, disability rights and environmental issues.
In her personal philanthropy she focuses on bringing women’s critical skills to the table for solving the difficult problems we face, with a focus on women, peace and security. She helped establish and works with One Earth Future’s initiative Our Secure Future - Women Make the Difference. She is a member of the Women's Donor Network, Women Moving Millions, and The International Women’s Forum. She is the founder of Women Powering Change, an annual gathering of women working to create a better world.
Mrs. Collins Arsenault received her BA in Sociology and Psychology at University of California Berkeley and her MA in Education from Colorado State University
Patricia Cooper
Patricia served as a Senior Executive Appointee to two Prime Ministers of Canada to advise the government on the effects of legislation on women and children. Pat worked to enshrine the equality provisions in a new Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She co-founded The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund in Canada to achieve equality for women through education and litigation.
Pat founded and leads (pro bono) the Women’s Regional Network in Afghanistan, Pakistan & India. This Network conducts quantitative and qualitative research on issues of corruption, extremisms and militarization as they impact women’s security. The findings from this research provide the basis of the Network’s advocacy efforts. Pat has guided the expansion of this Network model among 7 countries in Latin America & 4 countries in East Africa focusing on peace, justice & security issues.
Pat led a team to establish to the Inclusive Global Leadership Initiative at the Korbel School of International Affairs at the University of Denver to conduct research and convene leaders on women’s role in non-violent civil resistance movements globally.
Pat has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and International Relations and served as a Fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University
Patricia Foley Hinnen
Patricia founded Capital Sisters International, a nonprofit investment fund, to raise business capital for women in developing countries and to promote gender lens investing. She created the first women’s bond in the world, enabling the general public to invest in micro loans. Each $1,000 zero-interest bond finances ten women’s businesses. She launched the fund after decades working for the microfinance industry, Congress, and State Department. She has raised loan capital from donations and bonds to finance 100,000 women’s businesses in 25 countries.
Acknowledgements include:
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“Ideas Remaking the World” award – International Women’s Forum
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“Global Purpose Prize for Financial Inclusion” - AARP/Encore/MetLife Foundation
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“One of 15 Inspiring Female CEOs that Impacted the World” - Cause Artists
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Chair of the first “Gender Lens Investing Symposium” with Beyond Our Borders
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“Pathfinder Award, Outstanding Woman Entrepreneur” - World Denver
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Inaugural List “Who’s Who in Impact Investing” - Denver Business Journal
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Delegate, UN Conference on the Status of Women
Patricia’s commitment to economic justice comes from experiences in 60 countries, starting with the Peace Corps in West and Southern Africa. Patricia has a BA in Political Science and Economics from the University of Colorado and a Master of Public Policy and Program Evaluation from Denver University.
Sue Ellen Klein
Sue Ellen moved from Philadelphia to Fort Collins, CO, 9 years ago. Currently retired, her varied career includes a PhD in biology and over 20 years in the non-profit sector as a community activist and advocate. She founded Neighborhood Bike Works Philly and was Director of Community Programs at the iconic White Dog Café. A long-time advocate for peace and non-violence, she co-founded Healing Ajax, a peer counseling program for veterans in Philadelphia, and in Fort Collins created a citizen’s initiative, Partners for Peace. She serves on the film review committee for the ACT Human Rights Festival of Fort Collins, is an associate member of the local Dan Lyons Chapter of Veterans for Peace, and a board member of the United Nations Association of Northern Colorado. She has many relationships in Guatemala, which she considers her second home.
Kim Kavrell Savit
Kim Kavrell Savit is currently the CFO of Predictive Compliance, LLC, a Colorado based software as a service (SaaS) company supporting the mining industry. She served as Chair of the WorldDenver Board of Directors (2019), part of the World Affairs Councils of America, Vice Chair in 2018 and as a Board Member of WorldDenver since 2009.
Kim retired in June 2018 as the Director of Government Relations at the Benevolent Healthcare Foundation, d.b.a. Project C.U.R.E. She joined Project C.U.R.E. in 2015 after a long, successful career as a civil servant at the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in various roles in the private sector. From 2006-2015, Kim was the U.S. Department of State/USAID Account Manager for the Leidos Corporation (formerly Science Applications International Corporation-SAIC). She also has taught several courses as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Denver, Josef Korbel Graduate School of International Studies. Kim retired in May 2006 from her position as the Senior Professional Staff Member for the Middle East, Central and South Asia on the Majority Staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She joined the Committee Staff in April 2003 after working for the Coordinator of U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia as the Director of Security and Law Enforcement programs at the U.S. Department of State; and as the Director of the Cooperative Threat Reduction (a.k.a "Nunn-Lugar") program for the US Department of Defense in Washington, D.C. Kim served as a Country Desk officer in the Office of Secretary of Defense, Near East and South Asian Affairs Bureau and as a Budget Analyst in the Defense Comptroller's Office working on funding for humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and peacekeeping programs.
Selected in a national competition as one of the first Presidential Management Interns in the U.S. Department of Defense, Ms. Savit has received numerous awards, including the U.S. Department of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service in 1995.
Kim received a Master's Degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1978 and a Bachelor's Degree from the University of California at Davis in 1975. She also studied at the Dag Hammerskjold School (Columbia, Maryland) as one of two Americans invited to study with 50 students from 50 countries.
Bev Sloan
Bev Sloan led innovative healthcare organizations for more than 30 years. Sloan was CEO of The Denver Hospice, Colorado’s largest hospice, from 1999-2015, serving over 800 hospice and palliative care patients a day, with staff of 400 and an annual budget of $50 million. Bev was named the 2011 Outstanding Woman in Business in Healthcare by The Denver Business Journal. Bev founded the Life Quality Institute which provides palliative training to medical students and clinical professionals.
Sloan established a partnership with Selian Lutheran Hospice in Tanzania in 2001 and served on the Board of the Foundation for Hospices of Sub-Saharan Africa for 8 years. Bev continues to work with Selian Hospice and helped secure USAID funding to replicate hospices in 16 sites.
Sloan is on several boards promoting girls and women internationally and locally. She holds a B.S. in biology and an MSPH in Health Management and Public Health from the University of Missouri.
Karen Yuan
Karen was born in the jungles of West Cameroon as the daughter of an educator, builder and missionary. Childhood experiences aiding in childbirth, living alongside poverty and witnessing the horrors of civil war led to her passion for social justice and cross-cultural understanding.
After earning a master’s degree as a Family Nurse Clinical Specialist, Karen, her husband and young children moved to rural Taiwan for three years of medical service. On return to Colorado she formed a mental health task force providing resources, support and education to clients, school counselors and health care providers. In 2010 she studied international development with the University of Virginia’s shipboard university, Semester at Sea. During these years she also ran her own business as a ceramic artist. Currently, Karen serves as a board member and Director of Peru Programs for Adopt-a-Village International, which funds clean water, education, health and economic development projects. She is a member of Beyond Our Borders, serving on the Women’s Foreign Policy Taskforce and the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity committee. Karen and her husband live in Colorado Springs, CO