Joe White was announced as the winner of the United Nations Association of Santa Barbara and Tri-Counties’ 2019 Peace Prize during the UNA’s third annual awards event held recently at the University Club in Santa Barbara. White, a professor of philosophy at Santa Barbara City College, was selected from among seven nominees.

Master of ceremonies at the event was Santa Barbara business leader, author and futurist Rinaldo Brutoco, winner of the inaugural prize in 2017.

Brutoco is founding president of the World Business Academy, a Santa Barbara-based think tank devoted to addressing climate change and advocating for sustainable energy use by working to elevate the consciousness of people in the business community.

White won the 2019 Peace Prize for his work as executive director of 2020 A Year Without War. The innovative project, which White also founded, uses advanced technology to give voice to our global community to just say no to war for a full year.

“Our growing global community is initially focused on securing a United Nations General Assembly resolution for a one-year global truce in 2020 amongst all U.N. member nations,” White said.

There is some precedent for this concept, he noted: For nearly 20 years, the U.N. General Assembly has signed a one-month global truce every two years for the International Olympics Games. 2020 AYWW anticipates such a truce for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo; White’s plan calls for that one-month truce to extend to the full year.

More information on the project and White’s team is available on the AYWW website, at ayww.org.

The other nominees for the 2019 prize were: Leslie Clark, founder of the NOMAD Foundation; Linda Eckerbom Cole, founder of African Women Rising; Sue Mantle DiCicco, founder of the Peace Crane Project; Dr. Lori Leyden, founder of Create Global Healing; Victoria Riskin, chair of Human Rights Watch, Santa Barbara chapter; and Evie Treen, founder of Friends of Woni International.

The United Nations Association is a membership organization founded in 1945 and dedicated to building understanding of and support for the work of the UN. For more information about the local chapter, visit unasb.org.

— Jennifer Goddard for United Nations Association of Santa Barbara.