Nancy E. Boyer

Affiliated Assistant Professor
University of Delaware
United States

Jul 9, 2025

Informed by her work with the Environmental Peacebuilding Association (EnPAx) and life-long advocacy of peace and justice issues, Nancy Boyer teaches the introductory and synthesis courses in peace and justice studies at the University of Delaware. This is a new minor which she helped design and launch, joining the faculty of the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University as an affiliated/adjunct professor and as a visiting scholar in the Department of Political Science and International Relations while networking with some 26 departments and seven colleges of the University. She co-chairs the Education Interest Group of EnPAx, a position she has served since the group was launched in 2019. Her academic foundation includes a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Delaware, an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Economics from Wellesley College for which she also completed coursework at MIT and Columbia University.

Her worldview developed by early observation of contrasting perspectives: her father’s PhD-informed work purchasing raw materials for the Dupont Company and her mother’s work as an artist, journalist, and homemaker seeking to bring other people joy. Witnessing stark inequalities—such as poverty in Franco’s Spain at age 10—and navigating cultural differences between her father’s Deep South roots and mother’s California upbringing amidst well-educated women -- instilled a profound awareness of societal contradictions and contrasting worldviews. Nancy also traces her lineage to foundational American figures like Patrick Henry’s parents, embedding a deep connection to democratic ideals, and to other people of great integrity and courage, such as Sir Thomas More and Robert the Bruce of Scotland.

Her professional path reflects diverse and rich experiences. From the luxurious and gentile life at Wellesley and MIT, she left for a month back-packing through Europe seeking truth and beauty. Her professional path subsequently alternated between “do-gooder organizations” and the corporate world.  She worked as Acting Director for a prominent organization pursuing community-level social justice, as a personal financial management consultant to corporate officers, and as a consultant in corporate business planning.  While pursuing her MBA at Wharton Graduate Business School, she co-founded the Operations Management Club to network students with career opportunities and bridge academic theory and real-world practice. Recruited by Cummins Engine in Indiana, she felt unfulfilled until answering a call to work in Africa, where she served with a church organization in Ethiopia, traveling throughout the country with two Ethiopian men – one from the church organization Mekane Jesus and the other from the Marxist government - as a financial auditor of sixteen German-sponsored childcare centers.

Returning to the U.S., she was a guest lecturer at the University of Delaware drawing on her Ethiopia experience; this led to a PhD and being introduced to international scholar and peace advocate Dr. William Boyer, whom she married. Her resolve to work for peace and justice was further galvanized by inheriting papers of Helen Hoy Greeley – a suffragist, lawyer, disarmament activist, and advocate for forestry and indigenous rights, among other initiatives. Research on the life of Helen Hoy Greeley led Nancy to work briefly with Alice Paul and subsequently publish on women’s democratic advocacy as a key case study in successful principled nonviolence.

Today, Nancy works on a major environmental peacebuilding project with Dr. Saleem Ali, taking the lens of the role of land and natural resources on armed conflict that lasted more than twenty years then ended with the signing of a peace agreement. This project is in collaboration with teams from Uppsala, Ottawa, Harvard, and George Mason universities and led to a recent trip to Northern Ireland to study the on-going peacebuilding work there, for which addressing the adversarial use of land plays a critical role in stabilizing the peace. Another current project which she hopes will be completed soon is for a global database housed at EnPAx cataloging academic programs, internships, community-level educational offerings, and educational funding opportunities worldwide in the field of Environmental Peacebuilding. 

The most rewarding milestones in Nancy’s life include attending the first international conference of  EnPAx at the suggestion and partial funding of Dr. Saleem Ali.  This introduced Nancy to EnPAx’s collegial community of practice that includes scholars, researchers, educators, lawyers, practitioners working at community levels for peace with justice and policymakers at all levels of government and international relations. Other life-changing milestones include deciding to apply for work in Africa and being offered work in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; marrying a wise and wonderful intellectual partner who took her to places like Korea and the US Virgin Islands; securing the grant for advanced research with the "Bridging Insights" Harvard-based group; subsequent travel for presentations and further research in this field; receiving an unexpected book contract for her environmental peacebuilding research; and continuing work to build the peace and justice studies program at the University of Delaware.

She urges young people to "be true to yourself," transcend traditional norms, and find energy and renewed spirit in nature. To her, environmental peacebuilding means "making peace around the environment and being willing to share" – renouncing greed and having respect and awe for both nature and people. She joined EnPAx for its community of values-driven scholars and master organizers and deeply appreciates the efforts of EnPAX to uphold its ideals in complex conflicts like Israel-Palestine, to foster universal dignity aligned with principles of the United Nations, and to lead the work to give rights to nature.