Terms run from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025.
President: Ian Mooney
Ian Mooney is a veteran of the US Army, having collaborated with the 82nd Airborne Division including a 14 campaign in Afghanistan. Ian studies Philosophy and the ethics of warfare as a PhD candidate at the University of Kentucky and fosters a longstanding passion for activist work with organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America, the Climate Change and Militarism Project, and the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition.
Vice President: Gil Field
Gil Field served in the US Coast Guard between 1970 and 1974, stationed on Governors Island in New York Harbor. He returned to his home of record (Washington, DC) and accepted a civil service position in late 1974 with the Navy as a civilian Contracting Officer in Arlington, VA. In 1997, his Navy position was relocated to San Diego as part of the BRAC95, and he and his family took the move and never looked back, retiring in San Diego in 2006. Gil joined SDVFP in 2005 and has served as president of SDVFP in 2007 and 2008 and again briefly in 2010. He was appointed as Communications Director for the chapter in 2010 and stepped into the administrator position for The Compassion Campaign (Sleeping Bags) in 2012. Gil lives in Carmel Valley and has a wonderful supporting wife, Pat, two kids, and two grandkids.
Treasurer: Ed Riel
Secretary: Karisa May
Karisa May joined the Marine Corps Reserves while in college in 1985. She served over four years attached to NMRTC, NAS Miramar, and earned an honorable discharge. Karisa completed her undergraduate degree at UCSD, and a masters at Point Loma. Currently, she is teaching middle school math/science and high school geometry, and in 2024 retired from the Church of the Nazarene as an ordained minister.
Karisa joined VFP in 2024 after seeing Chapter 91 represented at UCSD, and multiple Ceasefire for Gaza demonstrations. She is now serving the chapter as secretary and volunteer chaplain.
Member: Sydney Brumidis
Sydney Brumidis is a Peace Corner/vigil enthusiast and proponent of collaborating with other San Diego Peace and Justice groups. She is grateful to serve on the Executive Board as a Member at Large and dutifully holding the seat for the return of Denise Sellers. Her former veterans related service was as a Psych RN working at the La Jolla and Francisco, Fort Miley VAs.
Member: Don Kimball
Member: Jan Ruhman
Jan A. Ruhman was a member of the U. S. Marine Corps from 1965-1970 and
served two Tours in Vietnam from Sept. 1966 thru May 1968. He has been opposed to
War ever since returning Home from Vietnam. Purely on Humanitarian Grounds at first
from what he witnessed and participated in in that war. In College he was part of a
College Argumentation and Debate Class tasked along with four other classmates of
dissecting that war as one of five topics to be considered for debate by the class and came
away from multiple trips to the Campus Library and from that debate class angry and
disillusioned over what he learned of his government's long list of lies that led us into that
war that resulted in the death of over 58,000 naive young Americans Killed In action
(KIA), hundreds of thousands more Wounded In Action (WIA) and over 2 million
Vietnamese, mostly civilians, killed and many millions more wounded and the country
in ruins. And disillusioned with our two main political parties and the lies that flow so
easily from our politicians’ mouths and has worked in opposition to every war since
including Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and Palestine.
A Member of the San Diego Chapter 91 of Veterans For Peace (VFP) since 2008 and has
served as past Vice President and twice at President. He founded the Chapter 91
Compassion Campaign in 2011.
He is a Member of the Steering Committee of the VFP National Save Our VA (SOVA)
Committee a VFP National Project that advocates for equitable quality VA Healthcare for
Veterans in a “climate” of ongoing efforts by Congress to privatize it through outsourcing
VA Budget Resources from the VA Healthcare System into the Private sector Healthcare
System by sending Veterans into that system under the VA Choice Act of 2014 followed
by the VA Mission Act of 2018.
He is also the Operations Coordinator of the VFP National Deported Veterans Advocacy
Project and sits on its Board. He was a founding Member of The Deported Veterans
Movement in 2008 along with two other Members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War
after learning from a Union Tribune Military Reporter of the Deportation of U. S.
Military Veterans. Jan has been working on the issue of America Deporting Our Veterans
for over 16 years and along with other activists has been instrumental in the Repatriation
of over 120 Deported Veterans since July of 2022. The project has suffered financial
setbacks since Covid 19 began in 2020 that are only just now starting to be reversed
though the ongoing assistance of Chapter 91.
