Linda Stoutgrew up in North Carolina, daughter of a "mill-town girl" and a tenant farmer, later a mill worker. She was a 13th generation Quaker who grew up inspired by the Quakers' tradition of speaking up for their beliefs. She started the Piedmont Peace Project (PPP) in North Carolina in 1984. Winner of the National Grassroots Peace Award, she helped build the PPP into one of the strongest multi-racial, multi-issue low-income organizations in the state. After 10 years at PPP, she moved on in search of how to build power and do movement building at the national level. She moved to Massachusetts and directed a foundation, the Peace Development Fund, before starting a new organization,… Spirit in Action, where she is now the director.