An active Quaker and member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation for 50 years, Gene Hoffman is from Santa Barbara, CA and the founder of the Santa Barbara Night Counseling Center. Hoffman has worked extensively to provide counseling to those affected by the trauma of violence and conflict. She holds a Masters degree in pastoral counseling from Goddard College.

She has traveled many times to the Middle East and former Soviet Union to conduct peace-building work. In 1989, after American planes downed Libyan planes, Hoffman traveled to Libya with an FOR delegation to meet with Libyan leaders. On numerous occasions she has visited Israel and Palestine to meet with and listen to Israelis and Palestinians.

She has written and published various articles and books on her experiences, including Pieces of the Middle East Puzzle (1991) and No Royal Road to Reconciliation (1995). In January 2004, Anthony Manousos, editor of Friends Bulletin, published Compassionate Listening and Other Writings by Gene Knudsen Hoffman: Quaker Peacemaker and Mystic.

Hoffman’s work in the area of peacemaking has inspired a number of groups and people including Leah Green. Seeking to play a greater role in Israeli-Palestinian peace-building and reconciliation, Leah Green founded Mideast Citizen Diplomacy and the Compassionate Listening Project based on the work of Gene Knudsen Hoffman as an overarching framework for the organization in 1997. “I consider Gene one of my most treasured mentors. In fact, I consider her one of our national treasures,” says Leah. Richard Deats, Editor of Fellowship Magazine, remarks: “For more than half a century, Gene Hoffman - through her essays and poetry, her workshops and speeches, her travels and her witness - has been a fountainhead of creative spirituality and courageous peacemaking.”

Gene Hoffman is the founder of Fellowship of Reconciliation’s US/USSR Reconciliation program.