The Upstate Mediation Center (“UMC”), is pleased to announce Mr. Surendra Jain as the recipient of UMC’s 2025 Peacemaker Award.

Each year the Peacemaker Award is recognizes a member of the community who has made a significant difference in promoting tolerance, building good will and understanding, resolving conflict, and striving for peace. The UMC Board of Directors believe Mr. Jain’s leadership exemplifies these attributes.

Widely known as someone who does not just speak about peace but lives it; Mr. Jain brings his values into every aspect of his life. He takes action wherever he sees opportunities to promote peace.

Among his many contributions, Mr. Jain founded the Rotary Club of Greenville’s Peace and Conflict Resolution Conferences, held in 2016, 2019, and 2022. These events gathered hundreds of students, leaders, and community members to explore interfaith understanding, forgiveness, and bias, with keynote speakers like Bawa Jain and Azim Khamisa. He has also championed conflict resolution education in schools.

Most recently, Mr. Jain conceived the idea for a Peace Park within Unity Park—now the Ahimsa Garden of Peace—and is helping to lead the project’s development. In recognition of his impact, he was recently awarded the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor.

“Mr. Jain’s lifelong commitment to peace and his tireless efforts to unite people across lines of difference have left a profound mark on our community,” said Jennifer Olmert, Executive Director of the UMC. “He not only promotes peace in principle but puts it into action in ways that are lasting, inclusive, and deeply inspiring.”

Mr. Jain’s name will be added to a plaque recognizing past Peacemakers at the Peacemaker Bench in Cleveland Park. The Peacemaker Bench was commissioned in 2019 by UMC and created by Greenville artisan blacksmith Ryan Calloway.

The UMC invites the community to join in celebrating Mr. Jain’s contributions at the 2025 Peacemaker Celebration on Thursday, October 16, 2025 at Endeavor in downtown Greenville. The event will bring together civic leaders, nonprofit partners, and supporters of conflict resolution to honor Mr. Jain and uplift the importance of peaceful engagement in our community.