Story & Mission

When Tragedy Meets Passion

September 11, 2001, was the major catalyst in Tom Etzel's commitment to peacebuilding. His 25-year-old niece, Katie McCloskey, was on the 97th floor of the World Trade Center when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower. Tom’s high school friend, Ken Waldie, was aboard that jetliner.

In the days following the tragedy, when many Americans were thinking of war and retribution, Etzel's thoughts were traveling on a different path. He began to wonder if, by improving relationships among people of different viewpoints, peace could be achieved.

Upon completing his master of arts degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in July of 2010, Tom established the Global Peace Building Foundation (GPBF). The effective date of GPBF’s incorporation was September 11, 2010.

GPBF operates under the premise that changing attitudes, perceptions, and relationships is essential to peacebuilding, and that doing this at the grassroots level will lead to sustainable peace.  

GPBF’s mission is to contribute to the building of global peace by supporting organizations and projects that restore, rebuild, and transform relationships broken by prejudices, stereotyping, hatred, and fear that may have accumulated over generations.

We hope you join us. 

GPBF is supported by an exceptional governing board comprised of members dedicated to grassroots peacebuilding around the globe.

Alicia shade

Alicia Shade joins our team while serving as a full-time professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she obtained her PhD and MA in Hispanic Literature. Alicia first lived abroad in Chile in 2000 as a 20-year-old Spanish student, and she has been traveling and exploring ever since. Her passion for other cultures is contagious, and she continues to inspire her students to work and live abroad and to foster intercultural relationships and a shared understanding of one another. Outside the classroom, Alicia is a mother of two daughters and actively involved in volunteering at local schools and other community organizations.

Gavin byrum

Gavin learned the importance of global connectedness at a young age, spending the large majority of his childhood living between France, Zimbabwe, and Senegal. After his family returned to the US where he attended middle school and high school, he graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, studying Psychology, Economics, and French. As a young adult, he worked with Apple, Inc. where he helped small business owners optimize their companies in the ever-evolving technological landscape.  In the hopes of traveling more and working with kids, he has continued the international interests of his childhood by participating in the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF) in Auxerre, France. He has also spent time volunteering in youth soccer programs and hospice care facilities. He currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his wife Julie.

Tom Etzel

Founder & Executive Director

Tom’s Story… 

Our life experiences shape us. After losing two loved ones on 9/11/2001, I was moved to transform my grief and loss into something positive, tangible, and driven by hope. I searched for over five years, trying to understand how to accomplish my dream of bringing people together for peace—and then I attended a graduation ceremony in December 2006.

The keynote speaker, an alumnus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, addressed the assembly on the subject of global peace. Her speech was the spark that ignited my passion. For the first time, I could see a path forward for the dream that had guided me for so long.

I immediately contacted the Fletcher School about its international programs. Tuition for its mid-career one-year graduate program was out of reach, especially because I still had a child in college, but throughout the following year, I kept returning to the thought of attending the Fletcher School.

Finally, in May 2008, I applied for admission. At this stage, I had a passionate spiritual calling to take action, and I consulted with clergy, mentors, friends, and family about taking on this academic and financial challenge at the age of 54. I was humbled by the support I received, and when Fletcher accepted my application, I was able to enroll in large part due to the generous financial contributions from family, friends, and church community members.

I began my studies in July 2009 with a purposeful intent to find a vision for building peace on a global scale. My Fletcher School thesis was titled ‘The Impact of Grassroots Diplomacy on Peace Building,’ and it formed the cornerstone for the Global Peace Building Foundation (GPBF). After graduating in July 2010, I established GPBF.

I was determined that GPBF would help to change the attitudes and perceptions of youth and children to stop the cycle of hatred and fear passed down from generation to generation. It is my great pleasure and honor to continue this work today.

Tom holds the Master of Arts degree in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, cum laude, from Duquesne University.

Tom is a Certified Public Accountant and Investment Advisor. He has been the Principal of his own tax and investment advisory practice for the past 30 years. He currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his wife, Phyllis Etzel. Tom and Phyllis have three children, Kristen, Katie and Mark; a son-in-law, Aaron; a daughter-in-law, Nikki; another daughter-in-law, Katie; and grandsons, Elliott, Sullivan, Gilmore, Dashal, Hobson Thomas and Thatcher. 

Within Our Grasp: Changing Ourselves and the World is the story of Tom Etzel’s transformative journey from grief to empowerment after losing two loved ones, including his beloved niece, on 9/11. Awakened by a spiritual calling, he channeled his grief into action. Taking a profound leap of faith, he was able to walk the path of healing and compassion and work to change the lives of children and youth all over the world.

Tom Etzel is an author, altruist, and philanthropist. He is the executive director of the GPBF, which he founded to empower young people to become positive change-makers in their communities.

GPBF is a member of the Peace and Security Funders Group (PSFG) and the Alliance for Peacebuilding(AFP); and registered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).  These organizations provide collaboration, education and networking opportunities for GPBF.

about psfg

The Peace and Security Funders Group is a network of public, private and family foundations, and individual philanthropists who make grants or expenditures that contribute to peace and global security. PSFG maintains an informed, engaged and collegial community of funders, whose numbers and investments in the field are steadily increasing. 

About AFP

The Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) is the institutional home for the peacebuilding community—a network of over 100 organizations working to resolve conflict and create sustainable peace in 153 countries. 

ABOUT USAID

One of the many things USAID does is to help societies prevent and recover from conflicts.