About our Adult Youth Facilitators

Keesha Ewers Morris

KEESHA MORRIS, age 41, is the mother of four children, two of whom are IVY members. Believing passionately that today’s children are the leaders of tomorrow and capable of healing much that is wrong with the world, Keesha has spent much of her adult life mentoring teens. She has worked in youth leadership for 21 years. A member of East Shore Unitarian Church in Bellevue, Keesha recently co-founded its Youth Exploring Spirituality (YES-U) program, which in two short years doubled its size and established many meaningful local interfaith connections. Keesha has also served locally on the Interfaith Council of Washington’s Voices of Youth, and is a youth involvement advocate in the Northwest Interfaith Coalition (NICO). Keesha is a United Nations Peace Representative, and founded the Northwest Peace Pole Project in 2001. Healing and unifying are Keesha’s touchstones; her life pursuit is integrating Eastern and Western medicine, philosophy and faith traditions. She spent many years teaching, writing and publishing to educate the medical community about delivering health care in a culturally sensitive way. She has traveled the world to learn the healing traditions of indigenous peoples. She is a Nurse Practitioner, Ayurvedic practitioner, yoga teacher, Reiki master, and professional herbalist. She is also a professional photographer who delights in capturing the divine spark in people’s faces and in the surroundings of our daily lives. Keesha believes that the barriers between peoples on all fronts can and should be bridged to build foundations of understanding, which can and will support wider efforts to promote tolerance, which will in turn lead hearts and minds to compassion, love, and ultimately, attainable peace in our world.

Becky Bell

BECKY BELL, age 49, is the mother of two teenage sons. The younger is a devoted IVY member. Becky is a life-long Unitarian-Universalist (UU), daughter of a UU minister (her mom), and active member of Bellevue’s East Shore Unitarian Church, where she has served in numerous volunteer leadership roles including lay chair of religious education and Board president. She graduated from Harvard Law School and moved to Seattle in 1981. Before parenting, Becky worked as a Washington State Assistant Attorney General, representing caseworkers in child abuse and neglect litigation. Her post-professional life has brought richly rewarding experience, including procuring and partnering to effect quality public education services to meet the needs of her older son, a true (and differently-abled) scholar. Becky’s ultimate hopes lie in coming generations’ recognition of the critical world importance of social justice. She believes that every personis born with tremendous capacity to live fully and contribute well to a healthy human community that enables all to care for themselves and their loved ones, their neighbors, and our planet. She works for IVY in the conviction that its goals are an important and achievable way toward global emergence of a healthy human community.

Diana Bonyhadi

DIANA BONYHADI, age 45, is a member of Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue. Her eldest son is a founding IVY member. Diana joined as an adult facilitator because she deeply believes in IVY’s goals and loves working with youth, treasuring their enthusiasm and courage. Diana wants to help IVY cross faith boundaries and build bridges of hope. She is dedicated to peacemaking, and knows how to promote opportunities for dialogue and engagement by providing people the tools for critical thinking, responsible self-articulation, and collaborative problem solving. Diana received her graduate degree in Social Psychology and Conflict Resolution in 1986. She has worked for Esalen Soviet-American Exchange Program, developing cooperative initiatives for both US and Soviet citizens; helped start Berkeley Dispute Resolution Services, a community-based agency for neighborhood dispute resolution, and its school-based peer mediation training program; co-founded ConflictNet, the first dispute resolution and mediation telecommunications network; designed training programs offered throughout Central and Eastern Europe by Partners for Democratic Change to aid resolution of economic, environmental and ethnic disputes; and designed and helped implement a Dependency Mediation Program for the Juvenile Court Division of the Superior Court of San Francisco. Diana now works in the Seattle area as an independent consultant providing mediation coaching, and fundraising and grant writing services. She has held a number of volunteer positions, the most important of which is parenting three of the world’s coolest kids.

Barrie Oukes

BARRIE OUKES, age 41, is a member of East Shore Unitarian Church, where he is an adult advisor for the church’s Youth Group and its Youth Exploring Spirituality (YES-U) program. Barrie has worked in the field of online education, integrating diverse learning technologies and trumpeting the importance of common standards. He is passionate about the potential of online learning to make education affordably accessible throughout the world. Barrie also formerly owned a holistic health store. He continues to expand his knowledge in both fields and is exploring the possibilities of integrating the two. Barrie believes strongly that the more empowered people of the world should assist the less empowered. He has experienced both sides of the equation, receiving needed assistance as a below-the-knee amputee, and giving it generously as a volunteer for Project Angel Food, a “Meals on Wheels”-style program to feed homebound people with terminal illness in Los Angeles, CA. Barrie brings this unique perspective on the importance of helping others to IVY as its coordinator of social justice planning and action.

William Fry

BILL FRY, age 34, has been Senior Software Architect at SumTotal Systems since his graduation from Rochester Institute of Technology with a Bachelors of Computer Science in 1995. He moved to the Seattle area in 2002. Bill joined East Shore Unitarian Church in 2004, and has discovered there a strong calling to work with youth. He is an adult advisor to East Shore’s Youth Group and also its Youth Exploring Spirituality (YES-U) class. Bill joined IVY as an adult facilitator in 2005, bringing considerable people skills and savvy about the way today’s young people think from years of heading a large workforce of headstrong young “techies”. Bill is also pleased to serve as IVY’s webmaster.

Phil Gerson

PHIL GERSON, age 64, has two grown sons. He is a member of Temple B’nai Torah, a Reform Jewish congregation in Bellevue, where he teaches both high school age students and adults, and is an active member of the social action committee. Since retiring from Boeing after 34 years as a computing systems architect, Phil has dedicated his life to doing “Tikkun Olam” (Repairing the World). Phil co-founded an interfaith organization called “Together We Build a World Community (TWB)” which is proudly entering its fifth year of bringing Christians, Jews and Muslims together annually to build homes for Habitat for Humanity of East King County. Phil is also a founding member of the Annual Interfaith Leadership Summit at Camp Brotherhood, organized by the Northwest Interfaith Coalition (NICO), which just held its fourth annual summit focused on social justice. He works with Hero House, a new Bellevue organization serving people with severe mental illness by providing safe, supportive social space and job skills to secure appropriate employment. He is enrolled at BCC in Video Productions, adding a new dimension to his skills. Phil would like to assist IVY in outreach to new youth members and fund-raising plans.

Rick Morris

RICK MORRIS , age 47, is the father of four children, three of whom are IVY members. He is a member of the Eastshore Unitarian-Universalist church. He loves working with the youth and has been involved for years in coaching his children's sports teams, as well as teaching youth religous education classes at Eastshore. Rick has worked for over 20 years in the retailing industry in various financial management positions. He recently returned from working in Sydney, Australia where he was the Audit Director over several large accounts in Australia and New Zealand. He will be serving as the Treasurer of the IVY program.