Staff

Cole Harrison, Executive Director

Cole is Executive Director of Massachusetts Peace Action.  He is on the coordinating committee of the Massachusetts People's Budget Campaign and participates in the Massachusetts Poor People's Campaign.  He is a co-founder of the People's Budget Campaign, and leads Peace Action's national Move the Money Working Group. He has served on the planning committee of United for Justice with Peace (UJP) and on United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ)'s Afghanistan Working Group and its coordinating committee.  Born in Delhi, India, he has a B.A. from Harvard in applied mathematics and a M.S. from Northeastern in computer science. He worked for the Symphony Tenants Organizing Project and the Fenway News in the 1970s, participated in the Jamaica Plain Committee on Central America (JP COCA) in the 1980s, and worked as a software developer and manager at CompuServe Data Technologies, Praxis Inc., and Ask.com before joining Massachusetts Peace Action in 2010. He lives in Roslindale, Massachusetts.

Carol Coakley, Office Coordinator

Carol is chair of Metrowest Peace Action and represents the Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex state senate district on the Democratic State Committee. She has a B.A. in Politics from Framingham State College, where she also worked as an administrative assistant and was steward for AFSCME Local 1067. She was Field Coordinator of the Instant Runoff Voting initiative petition drive with Citizens for Voter Choice in 2009. Carol works part time in the Mass. Peace Action office as office coordinator and bookkeeper. She represents Massachusetts Peace Action on Peace Action’s national board of directors, co-convenes MAPA’s Legislative Action Task Force, and serves on our board of directors and Executive Committee.

Caitlin Forbes, Student Outreach Coordinator

Caitlin Forbes builds peace activism among Massachusetts campuses.  She recruits and supports Campus Organizers on individual campuses who form Peace Action clubs on their campus.  Caitlin has an M.A. in English literature from the University of Connecticut and a B.A. in English from St. Anselm College.   She has taught undergraduates extensively and was an leader in extra-curricular activities as captain of the alpine ski team in college. A native of Bethel, Maine, she currently lives in Cambridge.

Michelle Cunha, Assistant Director

Michelle Cunha, Assistant Director of Massachusetts Peace Action, has been working with Peace Action since 2004, when she joined activists heading to Washington D.C. for a protest of recently re-elected President George W. Bush.  She spent the election of 2008 working as Bird Dog Coordinator for New Hampshire Peace Action, tracking and bedeviling the New Hampshire appearances of presidential candidates to ensure they got asked the tough questions.  Afterwards, she served as a board member of New Hampshire Peace Action in 2012-2014 and was instrumental in building 350NH, a grassroots movement to stop climate change and develop renewable energy in the state.  Her passion for peace activism stems from her longtime commitment to the reproductive rights movement, including a position on the board of the Concord Feminist Health Center, and manifests with a particular interest in nuclear disarmament.  Cunha holds a bachelors degree in European History from Franklin Pierce University.