MEET PEACE PORTRAITS HONOREE
DR. VANESSA PERRY DEREEF
Story: Sue Cardenas-Soto | Photography: Kelcey McKinney | Photo Editor: Isabel Miranda | Video: 5 by 12 Films | Producer: Camille Travis
Peace Portraits, presented by the Illinois Peace Project, is a visual series dedicated to spotlighting the incredible individuals making a difference to create or maintain peace in Illinois. Five honorees were selected after a review of more than 30 submissions and a rigorous judging process. These individuals embody the spirit of Peace Portraits, as they work tirelessly to strengthen their communities, empower residents, and inspire change.
To stop the cycle of violence, it needs to be replaced by other cycles.
Cycles of repair. Cycles of learning. Cycles of progress. At the Metropolitan Peace Academy (MPA), these systems are being built from the ground up by people with lived experience to back it.
Dr. Vanessa Perry DeReef, Metropolitan Peace Initiatives' Chief Training Officer, is an integral force behind creating those cycles. Since the Academy’s inaugural cohort, Dr. Perry DeReef has been a fundamental leader in the work, helping to create professional pathways for Chicago’s Community Violence Intervention (CVI) network.
She’s watched the field blossom from a grassroots strategy to a professionalized industry, while shaping the MPA’s specialized trainings for case managers, street outreach workers, victim advocates, trauma recovery specialists, Chicago police officers, and more. (She also originated the Academy’s “1,2,3, BOOM!” rallying cry, a thunderous expression of the Academy’s passion and purpose, that every cohort learns.)
Before her time at the Academy, Dr. Perry DeReef worked in Chicago Public Schools as a history teacher, a school counselor, an assistant principal, and eventually, a principal for a high school on the West Side. These jobs cemented Dr. Perry DeReef’s passion for educating not just students, but teachers and leaders. She also learned that she could teach anything if she could figure out how to deliver it in a way that genuinely engaged her audience.
Dr. Perry DeReef said she doesn’t believe in prescriptive education, where students are told to just sit and listen.
“That has to be the worst way to train. And research suggests that when people are trained that way, [they] might retain 20 percent of the information,” she noted.
“You have to understand who they are so you can understand how to engage them. These are outreach workers, many of them didn’t have the best relationship with school. Many of them have been incarcerated. Mistrust is huge. […] They need a lot of love, a lot of attention, a lot of empathy, and a lot of restorative justice.”
The curriculum at the MPA isn’t just dropped on students' laps; it’s actively shaped by the CVI professionals who use the lessons on the streets. Their lived experiences are invaluable to the curriculum and to the success of the Academy.
Dr. Perry DeReef’s recipe is community building and relevant curriculum. “The recipe works,” she says.
“With their unique skill set and lived experiences, it was critical that we created a model full of credibility, full of an opportunity to build that trust, and then to highlight their expertise,” she said, calling it a “community of practice.”
“It’s almost a necessity, especially with people who’ve been impacted by trauma, directly or indirectly. You have to make them feel safe if you expect them to get the most of this two- or three-hour training.”
"The Academy is a vehicle for empowerment, enlightenment, and opportunity for those who have often been discounted and disenfranchised."
She added, "The Academy is a vehicle for empowerment, enlightenment, and opportunity for those who have often been discounted and disenfranchised. […] There's a beautiful undercurrent of healing."
And the opportunities don't stop when graduates walk the stage. Many return to complete all three signature trainings, receive support to earn higher education degrees, and become educators for future cohorts.
"When many of them walk out of here, they are changed for the better," Dr. Perry DeReef said. "I continue to always hear these same things: 'That the Academy saved my life.'"
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For Dr. Perry DeReef, the Academy is a great source of pride, and for good reason. It’s her "ministry and passion."
In January 2024, the MPA opened its doors in Pilsen, becoming the permanent location for MPI's trainings and community gatherings. But Dr. DeReef doesn't want to stop there. She envisions national trainings, more convening space, even an entire CVI training campus.
"We go through a lot as Black and Brown people. […] If you have an opportunity to truly build a beloved community in one space, don’t you think we deserve that?"
"My vision for the MPA is huge."
The Illinois Peace Project is an initiative supported by partner organizations with a shared vision for reducing gun violence in Illinois.
NEXT STORY: Meet Peace Portraits Honoree Rafi Peterson >>