Serendipitous interventions in our chosen career path can yield surprisingly satisfying results. Dr. Kathleen Kuehnast set out for an academic career in anthropology but found herself in the middle of a crisis situation while working on her dissertation in the post-Soviet country of Kyrgyzstan. Setting aside her academic aspirations, she accepted the call to action from the World Bank to help Muslim women adapt to the complex social and economic changes during the post-Soviet transition in the 1990s. This single act would set in motion a full and ongoing career in international development, unification of gender interests, and helping people in conflict work toward peace. Dr. Kuehnast’s work reminds us all to be open to unplanned opportunities in our career paths along the way – and to recognize that each and every one of us can be every day peacemakers, if only we choose to be.