Heidi Kuhn

Biography

The California spirit is deeply rooted in Heidi Kuhn, CEO and Founder of Roots of Peace, who was raised with the values of respecting the earth and its people, ideals established by her family who were early pioneers in the 1800s.

A fifth-generation California, she attended the University of California Berkeley, where those core beliefs were strengthened during the peace movement of the 1970’s while majoring in Political Economics, setting forth a lifelong commitment to following in the footsteps of peace.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Heidi owned her own television news organization, NewsLink International, reporting for CNN and other news organizations in Alaska on the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the melting of the “ice curtain” between the United States and the Soviet Union. Raising her children in Juneau, Alaska, she earned a reputation for bridging borders for peace—reporting for ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Nippon Television and other major media organizations.

After beating the odds and overcoming a terminal diagnosis of cancer, Heidi further embraced the core values she was raised with when she saw an opportunity to eradicate another form of cancer – that of landmines, which she viewed as a cancer to the Earth.

From the basement of her home, she garnered the support of famed Napa Valley vintners including Robert Mondavi and Mike Grgich to support her vision of turning “Mines to Vines” – replacing the remnants of war with bountiful vineyards and orchards of peace around the world.

Over the past 22 years, Heidi has grown Roots of Peace across the world with the support of the United States Government, the United Nations, World Bank and other international governments and organizations. She has been recognized by numerous world leaders including Kofi Annan, HH Pope Benedict XVI, HH Pope Francis and many heads of state and government.

Heidi and Roots of Peace have been the recipient of numerous awards including the Skoll Award on Social Entrepreneurship, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award/National Jefferson Award for Public Service, the Rotary International “Service Above Self” Award and in 2018, received the inaugural Earth Ethics Award from Marcus Nobel, nephew of Alfred Nobel presented to her at the United Nations in New York.