PEACE BY PIECE - Key Persons
Barbara Faxon is a seasoned leader with more than 15 years of initiating and delivering sustained results in the technology industry. She is currently an Executive Business Partner to the CEO at Lattice Semiconductor in San Jose, CA.
She can be credited with positive contributions to managing critical affairs, overseeing process improvement, and fostering internal & external collaboration. Faxon's passion to drive her life and career with integrity, truth and kindness has helped her to easily adapt to changing environments. With her passion for sharing knowledge, she has become a mentor for people coming into the administrative space and helping them improve as assistants.
Faxon earned a Master's degree in International Marketing/Finance concentration at San Jose State University where she concentrated on leadership communications, developing and managing people, and financial management. She holds a Microsoft 365 certification which highlights her knowledge of cloud service and fluency in SaaS solutions. In her spare time, Faxon enjoys spending time with her fur-babies Metta & Helios, creating art, and traveling.
Celeste is a bilingual (Spanish/English) storyteller and communicator with a creative edge in marketing. Freshly graduated in English, born and raised in Argentina, she brings a dynamic, multicultural perspective to Peace by Piece. Whether crafting compelling narratives or designing campaigns, she thrives at the intersection of languages and creativity, using both to bridge gaps for women and communities. Passionate about building connections that empower, she believes communication can turn small stories into global impacts.
A multidisciplinary designer with over 10 years of experience in brand identity, publication, packaging, and information design, Farah Hasnie has successfully led a business that empowers women in the workplace. She has worked as a lead creative designer for many notable nonprofit organizations. Hasnie believes in living life with a greater purpose, which is why she loves working with Peace by Piece International. She studied graphic design and print media technology at the University of Houston, where she received her BA with honors.
Job Titles:
- Impact Marketing & Partnerships Lead
Heide brings a rich diversity of experience to her role at Peace by Piece. She has worked in the sustainable fashion space for 10 years, helping to design best-selling products as well as produce events and photoshoots for sustainable and ethical fashion brands.
Her degree in psychology from Columbia University combined with over two decades in the fashion world have helped her build a unique viewpoint on marketing and connecting with customers.
She believes wholeheartedly that we should all seek to use our gifts and circumstances to leave a positive impact on the earth and is truly grateful for the opportunity to use her array of experiences to help grow the mission of Peace by Piece International.
Jesse Ziff Cool has been dedicated to sustainable agriculture and cuisine for over 4 decades as a writer, restaurateur, spokesperson and consultant for eco-conscious food service. Jesse is the author of seven cookbooks and through the years has written for dozens of publications.
She founded five restaurants, starting in 1976 with the first organic restaurant in the country, Late for the Train and currently operates the legendary 40 Flea St. Cafe in Menlo Park (1980) and Cantors Arts at Stanford University (2000).
Cool's current focus is directed towards equality and justice for restaurant workers. During the recent Pandemic, she implemented an innovative way of fair wage for all hourly workers in her restaurants called Heart of House. All hourly workers including dishwashers, cooks, servers, bussers and bar tenders are respectfully paid an equal part of the tip pool. This revolutionary direction has eliminateed a formerly dysfunctional and inequitable pay disparity between the FOH and BOH.
Cool continues to work at her restaurants supported by an amazing venerable staff. She also spends time hiking, gardening, eating and drinking as much as possible with her family and friends.
Lauri Jones Pastrone founded Peace by Piece International (PbPI) in 2017 to create bridges between corporations and underserved communities. Every day, she is inspired to see how companies' gifting choices shift the direction of people's lives - especially women who have been homeless, incarcerated, trafficked, or abused. She believes that every act of gifting can and should be a way to help lift up individuals who deserve a second chance.
Prior to founding PbPI, Pastrone created and co-produced The SHARE Cookbook, published in 2012 by Kyle Books. Selling over 65,000 copies globally, the book focuses on the work of Women for Women International, a one-year sponsorship program that helps women survivors of war and conflict to become self-reliant. Artists, chefs, and humanitarians including Paul McCartney, Nelson Mandela, Annie Lennox, and Emma Thompson contributed recipes, and Meryl Streep wrote the foreword.
Pastrone spent nearly two decades in data and media intelligence with executive positions at International Data Corporation and PressChoice of London. She is a graduate of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California with a BS in international economics. She also attended Pontifícia Universidade Católica in Rio de Janeiro and speaks Portuguese fluently. Pastrone lives in Los Gatos, California, with her husband Paul.
Job Titles:
- Ambassador
- Development Consultant
Olsen is a leadership team development consultant and facilitator who is passionate about unlocking leadership potential to create positive social change.
She has over 10 years of experience achieving peak performance through a blend of facilitating, catalyzing connections, and encouraging continuous growth. Olsen spent eight years at Peak Teams, Inc. (now the AIP Group) as a lead facilitator, director of clients, and general manager. She guided the success and growth of the business while developing and sustaining partnerships with clients.
In addition to her work with Peace by Piece International, Olsen advises Resonate Workshops. She has worked with social ventures to increase their impact and sustainability, serving as interim COO at Peace by Peace, building capacity through creating train-the-trainer programs for Resonate Workshops in East Africa, and improving the recruiting and vetting of fellows at Kiva.org. From 2004 to 2014, she served on and led the board at Girls for a Change. Olsen earned her BA in management communications from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego.
A senior marketing professional with extensive experience in technology, Nancy Nunziati is known by a San Francisco-based ad agency as the "client whisperer." Nunziati says advising Peace by Piece International is special to her because of her passion for helping women around the world and her desire to care for and sustain our planet.
Prior to the formation of her consulting company, Nunziati held VP of marketing positions at cybersecurity and robotics companies and consulted for both startups and multi-billion-dollar corporations with a focus on corporate brand strategy, breakthrough advertising campaigns, and customer acquisition and retention.
With a degree from UC Berkeley, Nunziati has been featured with Andrea Smith on Living in Digital Times's "Mommy TV," and Robots on the Runway. She helped produce TEDxSandHillRdWomen's "Women Rising."
For over three decades, Robin Selden has successfully worked in executive management and marketing throughout the tech industry, including executive positions at Avast, NETGEAR, Dolby, Logitech, and Adaptec. With a passion for supporting women, Selden serves on the board of directors of The Julian Center and is a business advisor and guest lecturer at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business.
Selden has received the Silicon Valley TWIN award honoring women executives and was named one of Silicon Valley Business Journal‘s "Top Women in Business" in 2003. She earned her BS with honors from California Polytechnic State University and her MBA from Santa Clara University.
Sarah Johnston brings over 25 years of experience in accounting and finance, including past roles as a financial analyst at a publicly traded company and a CPA providing tax and audit services. Today as an independent financial consultant, she provides accounting services, audit support, cash flow management, budgeting, financial reporting, and tax compliance to small businesses and nonprofits.
Johnston is passionate about sustainability, environmental issues, and the power of vocational training to transform lives. She volunteers locally as a community activist regarding wildfire issues and globally as the volunteer bookkeeper for International Veterinary Outreach. She earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics from Pomona College and her master's degree in accounting from San Jose State University.
Una Hrnjak is a passionate sustainability professional. She recently joined ALDI to help make sustainability affordable for all. Prior to ALDI, she was the Head of Sustainability Strategy at Starbucks. This included work on climate change adaptation and mitigation and water stewardship efforts, engagement and partnership with key global organizations on achieving these targets, and advising commodity teams at Starbucks on climate and water smart ag practices and collective action opportunities. As a refugee, she is passionate about creating a more sustainable and equitable future for all.
Prior to Starbucks, Hrnjak was a Senior Manager on the Gap Inc. Global Sustainability team. She was responsible for implementing several key programs focusing on environmental impact and human rights in Gap Inc.'s supply chain.
Of note, Hrnjak served as the Deputy & Acting Chief of Party of the Gap Inc. and USAID Women + Water Alliance. She has been recognized for her contributions with a GreenBiz 30 Under 30 Recognition as a Rising Leader in 2018.
Hrnjak holds a MA from American University's School of International Service and a BA in Foreign Affairs from Miami University. Outside of work, she supports Women for Women International, the Jericho Foundation, and serves as an advisor to Forested.
Growing up in the Philippines with parents actively engaged in community service through organizations like Shriner's Children and women's youth foundations, Veronica Go developed a deep commitment to social causes. She continues to champion a foundation dedicated to rescuing young girls from online exploitation and human trafficking.
By joining PbPI, Veronica seizes the opportunity to amplify the profound impact we can collectively have on women, mothers, and families worldwide, by purchasing socially responsible products made by PbPI's partners.
Veronica Go's professional journey includes holding leadership roles in customer and marketing operations within tech organizations, with a strong focus towards placing the customer's voice at the heart of go-to-market strategies and product design thinking. Veronica holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Ateneo de Manila University and a Master of Science in Management of Technology from MIT Sloan.