Leadership Driving
the Work
Melannie Denise Cunningham
Peace Works United exists because Melannie Denise Cunningham believes peace is built. So she builds it. As Founder and Global Strategist, she has moved more than 5,000 people from awareness into action across two continents: The People's Gathering, the annual convening that pulls leaders into frank conversations about race; a literacy campaign that placed 400 books in the hands of young readers in George, South Africa; a paid media lab that trains Tacoma youth to tell their own stories; and community campaigns that change how a city talks to itself.
Tacoma knows her as the Peace Queen. The world is learning why.
A Deeper Dive
Founder / Global Strategist / Director
Melannie is a champion of peace and racial reconciliation whose four-decade commitment to justice has transformed communities and earned global recognition. The visionary founder and Executive Director of Peace Works United. A nationally recognized leader in dialogue and community transformation, she has spent over a decade creating spaces where people come together to engage in courageous conversations, build understanding, and lead with purpose.
The Woman King
Her peacebuilding is planted deep in African soil. She first landed in South Africa in 1995, one year after apartheid fell, and she never let go. She co-founded the Tacoma-George Sister City Committee in 1997 and, as its Chair, has led executive delegations across the Atlantic for more than 25 years. And she keeps expanding the map. In March 2026 she led the effort that won a unanimous Tacoma City Council vote to partner with South Africa's Garden Route District Municipality, elevating the relationship to the municipal level and growing Tacoma from one sister city in South Africa to seven Western Cape cities. Today she serves as Senior Vice President and Global Strategist of the Africa Global Sister Cities Foundation in Accra, co-founder of LionelMel Ventures in Ghana, building diaspora wealth through farming, agro-processing, tourism, and real estate, and she is an adopted daughter of the Dagomba Clan, honored with the name Pagnaa, Woman King.
A Step Toward Global Peace
The roots run back decades. She has been gathering people with her voice since 1978, when she first sat behind a radio microphone as a DJ and talk show host. She became a charter member of the Xi Psi Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. at Washington State University in 1980. She founded Tacoma's citywide Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration in 1989, a tradition the city still keeps every January. She spent 18 years championing students of color at Pacific Lutheran University, and in 2015 she led Tacoma to become the first city in America to accept the Hate Won't Win challenge. In 2018 she was named the 2018 Greater Tacoma Peace Prize Laureate and traveled to Oslo, Norway to represent the South Sound at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony. Her journey became the documentary Peace Queen, which aired on PBS and earned her a Northwest Regional Emmy Award as Executive Producer along with two Silver Telly Awards, one for Social Impact and one for Motivational television.
The Journey of Reinvestment
A doctoral candidate at Fielding Graduate University, her dissertation, Breaking Rank: white Wealth, Racial Reckoning, and the Narratives of Transformation, studies how wealthy white people experience racial reckoning and what moves them to redirect their wealth toward Black community development. Co-host of the What Say U? podcast with her sister Audrey, golfer, gardener, and proud auntie to a community of young people, Miss Melannie lives what she teaches: peace works when people work it.
In the Works — Expanding Our Impact
Past Works That Inspired Change
Through the years, we have supported community campaigns that shaped local culture and conversation. Each project demonstrates our belief that awareness and compassion can drive long-term transformation.
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The Read Well Campaign: Promoting literacy and unity through storytelling.
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Shots & Catfish: A creative vaccination awareness initiative blending health and heritage.
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Check the Black Box Census Education Campaign: Encouraging equitable representation.
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Good Trouble Media Lab (Pilot): Empowering youth to tell their stories.
The People's Gathering
A powerful convening designed to equip leaders with the tools, insight, and community needed to navigate today’s most complex challenges with clarity and confidence.
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Structured Race Dialogue Rooms with trained facilitators
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Action tools & reflection guides for practical application
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Cross-sector participation (education, government, nonprofit, business)
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Virtual and in-person access
The SisterFriend Gathering
The SisterFriend Gathering brings together women from the Black, white, Indigenous, Latina, Asian, Pacific Islander, African immigrant, and faith communities of our region, all in one room, on purpose.
The People's Golf Gathering
Using golf as a lens for anti-racist dialogue in a $70 billion industry that’s mostly white, despite Black golfers’ participation declining.
The People's Youth Gathering
Empowering the next generation to build an anti-racist future.
The People’s Gathering:
A Revolution of
Consciousness Conference
For ten years, The People’s Gathering has been one of the Pacific Northwest’s most trusted spaces for honest dialogue on race, culture, and community impact. In 2026, Peace Works United will convene a two-day experience designed to move leaders from awareness to action on anti-Blackness — the most enduring and structurally consequential form of racism in the United States.
This convening is a professional development intervention, a community accountability space, and a leadership laboratory where participants examine the systems they control and leave with one concrete change they will implement.
Sponsors who invest in this work are investing in institutional transformation, community trust, and a model of racial dialogue that has proven effective for a decade.
