About Terry LePage
Terry LePage founded Open Door Communication to fulfill her vision to share Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and related life-serving tools with people from all walks of life in Southern California.
Terry is committed to peacemaking and organizational transformation. Through her work with churches, she has found two wonderfully useful tools for this purpose:
- Nonviolent Communication, for practical relationship skills, and
- Nonviolent Parenting, for creating a more compassionate future.
She believes that a critical mass of people practicing NVC can transform our society in line with Martin Luther King’s vision of the “Beloved Community.”
Education and Background
Terry has extensive experience with speaking, training, coaching and curriculum development in corporate, university, and church settings. She discovered Nonviolent Communication in 2006 and has been studying and practicing it nonstop. She has studied with a variety of trainers certified by the international Center for Nonviolent Communication at an International Intensive Training and in other settings. In 2008 she was certified as a Teacher of Nonviolent Education and Parenting by the Center for Nonviolent Education and Parenting.
Previously she earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University and worked as a research chemist and team leader at 3M, and at the University of California at Irvine as the Molecular Modeling Facility Director. Terry had a career change in 1999 and obtained a Masters of Divinity from Claremont School of Theology. She is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, an open-minded, justice-seeking Christian denomination. She is an Intentional Interim Ministry Specialist and has served churches in Southern California in that capacity for four years.
She is a graduate of the Mediation Skills Training Institute of the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center and she is a CA DRPA-certified mediator for the Institute for Conflict Management. Other training includes Clinical Pastoral Education, Healthy Congregations and other Bowen Family Systems Theory.
Personal
Terry lives in Irvine, California with her husband of twenty-two years, Scott, and their teenage son Mark, who gives her daily opportunities to practice Nonviolent Communication. She enjoys Bikram Yoga, astronomy, choral singing, gardening, meals with friends, and learning new things.
Organizations served since 2007
Hesperia Physical Therapy
Spiritual and Religious Alliance for Hope (S.A.R.A.H.)
Pacific Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, CSU Fullerton
Center for Nonviolent Education and Parenting, L.A.
Vista Verde Elementary School and PTA, Irvine
Attachment Parenting Support Group in Irvine
Unitarian Universalist Church in Anaheim
The Recovery Center, Newport Beach
Numerous United Church of Christ Churches
UCC Conference Youth Ministries, Southern California
Southern California Nevada Conference UCC Annual Gathering
Institute for Conflict Management, Santa Ana
University of California, Irvine
Community Service Programs, Inc., Santa Ana
Terry’s passion for what she does is obvious in her dedication to teaching others how to communicate with love. She is committed to making a difference and is a model by example.