Nancy Olmsted Spanovich

Nancy Olmsted Spanovich, scientist, business owner, wife and mother, founded Olmsted Legacy, an environmental planning consulting firm that focuses on water, infrastructure, and alternative energy projects that create peace with the earth. Nancy’s career spans more than three decades as an environmental scientist managing projects for multi-discipline engineering firms in Honolulu, Boise, and Portland/Vancouver, WA.

A transforming moment for Nancy came in 2009 when she was introduced to Dr. James Kim, who managed to reconcile with his torturers in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), i.e. North Korea and find the courage to build a University in Pyongyang North Korea. President James Kim’s courage and conviction to build peace within lands of great oppression and while suffering great painful abuse gave Nancy the courage to depart from vocation of a corporate manager and to seek ways to become involved in researching, teaching actively educating for peace at the Wholistic Peace Institute.

Nancy was a member of the Portland Downtown Rotary Club where she chaired the domestic violence solutions committee, became a Paul Harris fellow and was nominated for the trustee board. Since that time her involvement with the Nobel Peace Laureate programs and the Student Peace Leaders programs inspired her to assist the organizations growth.

In 2013, she was accepted as a visiting lecturer at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology in North Korea though the trip has not yet transpired because of the uncertainty in diplomatic relations with the country. In 2015, Nancy agreed to serve as the Executive Director of Educating for Peace, the Wholistic Peace Institute (founded in 2001) after volunteering with several Nobel Peace Laureates and leading the development program for the Institute for the past five years. She brings business acumen and compassionate heart for teaching peace and acting on the mission- to “stop the killing”, the mission of research, teaching, and peacemaking organization.