Patricia Smith Melton

Patricia Smith Melton is the founder, former executive director, and board chair of Peace X Peace, an international nonprofit organization that uses the internet to connect women across all cultures for mutual support and actions that build cultures where everyone can thrive. The heart of Peace X Peace, the Global Network, includes Women’s Circles in more than 100 nations. Smith Melton is the editor and photographer for Sixty Years, Sixty Voices: Israeli and Palestinian Women, an interview and photography book bringing forth the experience and wisdom of 30 Palestinian women and 30 Israeli women. Scheduled for release in fall 2008, this is the first book that interviews Palestinian and Israeli women equally and that is published in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. Ms. Smith Melton was executive producer of the award-winning 2003 documentary PEACE BY PEACE: Women on the Frontlines, which highlights the often invisible work of women around the world in building the components of sustainable peace. In 1990, Smith Melton co-founded the Melton International Education Foundation, which brings together university students in India, China, Chile, Germany, and the United States to participate in the earliest large-scale international effort using the internet to establish cross-cultural understanding and personal and professional connections.