About Erica Ford
Known around the world as The Peace Doctor, Erica Ford is a human rights activist, anti-violence strategist, and community healer. She is the founder and CEO of LIFE Camp, Inc. (Love Ignites Freedom Through Education), the Queens born organization she launched in 2002 to meet disinvested communities with what systems too often withhold: credible mentorship, intensive case management, and opportunity pathways. Under her leadership, LIFE Camp Inc. has become one of the country's leading violence prevention and intervention organizations, and a national model for what community-led safety can look like when it is built with the people closest to the harm.
She helped shape New York City's community violence intervention ecosystem by starting the NYC Crisis Management System. Her advocacy reaches well beyond New York. As co-leader of the National Black & Brown Gun Violence Prevention Consortium, Dr. Ford's work has contributed to securing more than $5 billion in federal investment in community violence prevention, expanding programs into 33 cities, and helping establish the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention in 2024. She has trained a generation of practitioners now leading this work in their own cities.
She is the author of The Peace Doctor's Playbook and SoulTina & The Peace Doctor: The Power Within, which extend her peacebuilding framework into accessible daily tools that help individuals, families, and communities transform pain into power and crisis into connection.
Core Beliefs
Peace Is a LIFEstyle
Peace lives in the way we speak, carry ourselves, and the standards we keep when no one is watching. The Peace Doctor teaches that peace grows through steady intention and when practiced each day, peace strengthens the home and changes the atmosphere around us.
Healing Is Public Safety
Communities become safer when pain is met with care before it turns into violence. Years of frontline work has shown that trauma left unattended often returns in destructive ways. Healing creates another path. Trusted intervention can steady a crisis before it spreads.
Communities Lead the Way
The deepest solutions have always lived in the community. The people understand what healing requires, what safety demands, and what families need to thrive. This work has always honored the wisdom found in neighborhoods and carried it into rooms where decisions are made.
As Seen On
THE ORANGE PRINT:
STREETS OF PEACE
The Orange Print: Streets of Peace tells the story of Erica Ford and LIFE Camp, Inc., transforming trauma into healing. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for young Black men in America. As filmmakers rooted in these communities, this project exists because the world desperately needs it.
SoulTina & The Peace Doctor:
The Power Within
The Power Within explores themes including anger, grief, emotional intelligence, and community healing. SoulTina navigates real-life challenges with her classmates and uses her Peace Doctor skills to help them manage difficult emotions after Aaron gets really angry about a missed foul call during a playground basketball game.
RISE & RESTORE
WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP RETREAT
We are now officially accepting applications and nominations for the Rise & Restore Women's Leadership Retreat.
Seven sacred days on the shores of Tulum, Mexico, February 1 through February 7, 2027 nestled in a luxury jungle sanctuary where ancient Mayan wisdom meets natural tranquility. This experience was designed for one woman and one woman only, the woman who gives so much she has forgotten what it feels like to be nourished.
This retreat is led by Erica Ford, 'The Peace Doctor' and Shannon Amos, wellness curator and transformational guide.