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| Home » Contact » Lewis Randa Bio |
| Lewis M.
Randa Founder/Director of The Peace Abbey 
Lewis Randa is a Quaker, pacifist, vegan, educator and social change
activist. He is the founder and director of: The
Life Experience School for children with disabilities (1972);
The Peace Abbey, an Interfaith Center
for the study and practice of Nonviolence and Pacifism (1988); The
Special Peace Corps., an organization that provides community
service programs for adults with mental challenges (1990);
The Courage of Conscience Award, an international peace award
for nonviolent contributions to peace and justice (1991); The
National Registry for Conscientious Objection, a register for
people of all ages to publicly state their refusal to participate
in armed conflict (1992); The Pacifist
Memorial, a national Monument honoring pacifists throughout history
(1994); The Veganpeace Animal
Sanctuary, a safe haven for animals that have escaped from slaughterhouses
following the rescue of Emily
the Cow (1995); Stonewalk,
a global peace walk that involves physically pulling a two-ton memorial
stone for Unknown Civilians Killed in War
(Documentary shown on PBS) (1999 - 2005); Citycare, an empowerment
program for the homeless (2000); R.A.T.C., the college-based Reserve
Activist Training Corps; and The
Lavender House, a Group Home for adults with disabilities (2002).
Since his discharge from the Army as a conscientious objector in 1971, Lewis has devoted his life to creating innovative models for social change through programs that change the way meaning is produced in society. A native of Des Moines, Iowa, he received a B.S. from the University of Iowa in 1969, where he helped to coordinate the 1968 presidential campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He received an M.A. in Social Change from Goddard College in 1971 with a specialization in Alternative Education for the Disabled. Before establishing The Life Experience School at the age of 24, Lewis directed the Therapeutic Activities Department at the Kennedy Memorial Childrens Hospital in Boston (69-70). He was hired as a house parent at one of the first group homes for adults with a diagnosis of mental retardation in Massachusetts as part of the state de-institutionalization mandate (1971) while maintaining a teaching position in a special education classroom at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Dorchester, MA (1970-71). He also served on the faculty at Lincoln College of Northeastern University (1972-77). Lewis has traveled extensively on peace-related projects in Central America (El Salvador, Nicaragua & Guatemala), in Europe (Northern Ireland, England, Italy), in India, and in the former Yugoslavia. He maintains an affiliation with the UN University of Peace in Costa Rica, the Department of Religious Life at Wellesley College and supervises graduate interns at The Peace Abbey from Harvard Divinity School, Boston University and Andover-Newton Theological School. Lewis is also the founding Peace Chaplain, an interfaith pastoral role within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, headquartered at The Peace Abbey. Lewis has written and spoken on a broad range of issues in the fields of education, peace and social justice, nonviolence and pacifism, interfaith dialogue and disability rights. He was honored with a Resolution from the Senate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on the 20th anniversary of The Life Experience School, received the Person of Peace Award (with Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop) in 2001 at the 16th International Peace Day in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and was recognized with the Massachusetts Doctors Group Humanitarian Award that same year. In addition to consulting on numerous boards of non-profit organizations, he is a Commonwealth Justice of the Peace. Lewis lives in Sherborn, Massachusetts with his wife Meg (with whom he operates the educational programs of the Life Experience School) and their three children: Christopher, Michael and Abbey. As a family, the Randas have been involved in numerous activities and undertakings that strive to promote a more peaceful world in the nonviolent tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. |