Honoring Jean Stokan & Scott wright

Jean Stokan and Scott Wright were honored with the 2019 CRISPAZ Peace Award. Last year’s ceremony was held at the Caldwell Hall at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC on November 12, 2019.

About the Awards

Inspired in the testimony of the Martyrs of El Salvador, the CRISPAZ Peace Award was established in 2009 to recognize individuals or organizations that embody the preferential option for the poor in their work for the promotion of peace and social justice.

CRISPAZ, the awarding organization, has for more than three decades enabled thousands of individuals, many from North America, to accompany the Salvadoran people in their ongoing struggle for peace rooted injustice and compassion.

Past Award Recipients

2018 Fr. Jon Sobrino S.J. renowned Liberation Theologian and Professor since 1964 at The University of Central American in San Salvador.
2017 Fr. Paul Schindler Long-time missionary with Cleveland Mission Society in El Salvador
2016 Fr. Tom Smolich S.J. International Director of Jesuit Refugee Services
2015 Hospitalito The Carmelite sisters at the Divine Providence Chapel
2014 Asociacion ProBusqueda. Organization that investigates cases of the forced disappearances of children during El Salvador’s civil war.
2013 COFAMIDE The Salvadoran Committee of Relatives of Killed or Disappeared Migrants
2012 CoMadres Committee of Mothers and Relatives of Prisoners, the Disappeared and the Politically Assassinated of El Salvador
2011 The late Fr. Dean Brackley, S.J.theology professor at the UCA, and pastoral minister to the rural community of Jayaque, La Libertad
2010 Sr. Peggy O’Neill director of the Art Center for Peace in Suchitoto
2009 Centro Monseñor Romero at the University of Central America (UCA)

About Jean Stokan & Scott Wright

Jean Stokan has served on the Justice Team for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas for ten years. She has focused on human rights in Latin America and immigration policies. Her work includes direct advocacy on Capitol Hill, public witness activities, coalition initiatives with immigrant-led organizations, and engaging grassroots faith organizations on these issues.

For over 30 years, Jean has led faith-based delegations to Central America and, more recently, to the US-Mexico border. She also serves on the National Council for Pax Christi USA, the National Catholic Peace Movement, and the board of the Share Foundation.

From 2002-2009, Jean served as Policy Director for Pax Christi USA, promoting nonviolent alternatives to war. She served as a liaison to religious coalitions and prepared sources for grassroots engagement on justice and peace concerns, including non-violent civil disobedience witnesses.

Scott Wright has served for six years as the Director of the Columban’s Center for Advocacy and Outreach, which serves as the justice, peace and integrity of creation office of the United States Region of the Missionary Society of St. Columban. Much of their work is focused on justice of immigrants and environmental justice.

Scott worked in El Salvador for eight years during the civil war, first with Salvadoran refugees in Honduras, and then with pastoral teams accompanying Salvadorans in areas of conflict. In 1991 he returned to Washington, DC and from 1991-2008 was a co-coordinator of the Ecumenical Program on Central America and the Caribbean (EPICA), with a brief interlude in 2005 when he served as the director of the Religious Task Force on Central America and Mexico – both faith-based advocacy organizations working for human rights, democracy, and social justice in the region. He also worked with survivors of torture as the advocacy coordinator for TASSC International from 2009 – 2013.

Jean and Scott are married, their daughter, Maura Stokan-Wright, is named after Maryknoll Sister Maura Clarke, martyred in El Salvador in 1980. They lived for several years in the Assissi Community, a community of lay and religious committed to a simple lifestyle and social justice concerns.

Over these past four decades, your lives and actions with and for the people of Latin America have been a shining, persistent example of what CRISPAZ is all about: accompaniment. For your example and for the way you have inspired us in our efforts for peace with justice in El Salvador, CRISPAZ is honored to bestow on them the 2019 CRISPAZ Peace Award.

To The Catholic University of America,

Thank you for your immeasurable hospitality and for being so accommodating and generous for allowing us to host the 2019 CRISPAZ Peace Award at your prestigious University and making our event a particularly memorable experience.

The support from The Catholic University of America comes as a vote of confidence to our mission and animates us to strengthen our efforts in building bridges of solidarity between communities in El Salvador and in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries.

To our donors and sponsors

Without the generous backing from our donors and sponsors have provided us throughout, this event. We at CRISPAZ just want you to know how thankful we are, for continuing support, involvement and enthusiasm