Kyle Carter - Executive Director
COAR recently welcomed Kyle Carter as our new Executive Director. Kyle comes with extensive experience with nonprofits and international development and thus a deep understanding of the joys, challenges, and resilience of our partners in El Salvador, as you can read below.
Living in a village at the base of a volcano in eastern El Salvador for two years transformed my worldview and set me on a service journey that has shaped my life and career.
I lived with a Salvadoran host family and worked on youth health projects alongside the local health promoter, Rolando. I also led youth leadership camps, taught computer classes, and raised funds to help young women from rural villages attend high school and college on scholarship. The work was meaningful, and we made a real impact together on community health outcomes.
But the relationships we forged and the experiences we shared left an indelible mark on my heart.
Kyle with his former Peace Corps host family in
Cantón El Palmital, El Salvador in 2024 on a return visit.
The neighborhood kids followed me around like shadows when I wasn’t at work. One kid in particular — Wilson — stood out to me for his curiosity, intelligence, and sense of humor, all of this despite losing three caregivers before sixth grade, shuffling from home to modest home. I took Wilson to Pizza Hut in a nearby city for his 12th birthday; he ate so much that he fell asleep on my shoulder during the bus ride home. I was back in the village this January and we reflected on that day together over another shared meal — pupusas this time.
He’s a young man now, still smart, funny, and quick to smile. I’m proud of him and grateful that his remarkable resilience, buoyed by an informal support network, allowed him to reach adulthood with his spirit intact. But in telling Wilson’s story, I’m reminded of so many of his peers in the village who were lost to tragic outcomes during adolescence.
Those stories are part of what makes me so honored to take the helm at COAR Peace Mission, recognizing that many young people at the Children’s Village have been shepherded through difficult times decade after decade, embraced in a loving community that empowers them to heal and flourish.
Stepping into the Executive Director role at COAR isn’t just a job for me. It’s a calling. I’m grateful for this opportunity to steward such a meaningful and enduring mission into its next chapter. Together, we will continue to meet the challenge and ensure that the youth in Zaragoza have the support they need to persevere and thrive.
Kyle Carter and his wife Kristin live on the east side of the Cleveland metro area with their one-year-old son Dylan. They were married in 2021 at St. Ignatius Loyola in Denver and currently attend St. Paschal Baylon. Kyle holds a master’s degree in Public Administration with a focus in nonprofit management from the University of Colorado Denver and brings nearly two decades of experience with nonprofits and government agencies.
Mary Stevenson - Development Director
Mary has been Executive Director since she had dark(er) hair, it is time for her to move to a gentler role: Development Director (or any other fancy title that will allow her to continue doing mission appeals and visiting the COAR children staff, and people of Zaragoza and El Salvador!)
Mary Stevenson’s continuing relationship with COAR began when she was a student at Beaumont High School in Cleveland Heights when Sr. Dorothy Kazel, OSU, left to begin her five-year assignment on the Cleveland Diocese’s Latin American Mission Team. Prevented from visiting the mission in the 1980s because of the civil war, including the murder of Sr. Dorothy, Mary first visited COAR in 1990 and experienced the anguish of El Salvador’s civil war through the orphans at COAR. Repeated visits through the years revealed the deep, healing, vital nature of the care, education, and vocational training that COAR gives its children. Won over by COAR, Ms. Stevenson left a business career to become Executive Director in 2004. In 2025 she retired to the role of Development Director.
Susan Barnish Dinehart - Programs Director
The changes in Susan’s life are obvious . . .
Susan Dinehart (nee Barnish) is expecting a baby mid April 2025! Since she won’t be doing mission appeals at parishes this summer (she has done about 10-20 every summer since the pandemic) we started looking at other changes we need in our staff.
Susan Dinehart, with glasses, is COAR’s Programs Director. Susan holds a Masters degree in Spanish translation and was a volunteer for four years in rural Chalatenango, El Salvador, which allows her to manage our groups of visitors, sponsorship, grant materials, and communication between the Archdiocese of San Salvador, the COAR Children’s Village, and COAR Peace Mission office and our supporters in North America. Since the departure of the Incarnate Word Sisters in 2009 and the changes to El Salvador’s child care laws, this position has become more important than ever. Your donations allow our office to train, guide, and support the professional standards and practices of the staff in El Salvador that runs this crucial ministry of the Archdiocese of San Salvador.
Jenni Maravola - Database Manager/Bookkeeper
Jenni’s changes are that she just keeps getting better at her job. She began as COAR’s bookkeeper in 2007 fresh out of college. Her aptitude for database and other IT support has kept us current, cost-effective, and has kept YOUR DATA safe! She, too, had dark hair when she began working for the COAR children. It was purple on her visit last month. Enough said. Fun fact: she was born in Honduras and adopted by a loving family in the US when she was a baby. When we travel to El Salvador to see the kids, she gets in for free!
COAR Peace Mission Cleveland Office
The COAR office staff includes all kinds of extra help, sometimes a Sponsorship Coordinator, sometimes an Events Coordinator, and always includes volunteers, who help with the work of shredding, filing, and translating. All of us sign a donor privacy pledge. We keep the staff small and mostly part-time to keep the maximum amount of your donations going to the COAR children.