By visualizing and writing about -- world peace, Piedmonter Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall has won $100,000 from the Carnegie Corp.

The part-time Stanford University senior research scholar and mother of two will start her two-year project -- "Transforming Transatlantic Relations: A New Agenda for a New Era" -- in the fall.

"It was a total surprise to me," said Sherwood-Randall, 44. "It's not the kind of thing one anticipates."

The former deputy assistant secretary of defense moved to Piedmont in 1996.

That's when future spouse Dr. Jeffrey Randall persuaded the budding scholar that "this was the place to be," she said. At the same time, former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry -- her boss -- was retiring from the Pentagon and beginning work at Stanford. "It was a good professional move," she said.

Sherwood-Randall says, the main reason that Carnegie tapped her -- and 14 other scholarship winners -- is their ability to "translate ideas into action" for policy makers, politicians and global organizations. The awards were announced May 7.

Sherwood-Randall will focus her study on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has recently expanded to include 27 member nations. She aims to clarify the issue of if and how NATO can remain both relevant and effective in the post 9/11-world.

The scholar has studied at Harvard-Radcliffe College as an undergraduate and at Oxford University, where she completed her Ph.D. She now works for Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, part of the university's Institute for International Studies.

"How do we translate the tremendous power of the U.S. into effective influence?" Sherwood-Randall asked.

The U.S., she says, could be doing better in guiding its relations with NATO and other allies.

"NATO has taken the historic step of being a major player in Afghanistan," she explained. Now, the U.S. needs to be working with NATO in Iraq as well. "We have to work in concert with them, but we have to do a better job at diplomacy to make that happen."

While the U.S. faces challenges overseas, Sherwood-Randall must cope with a tough situation at home: tending to the needs of two young boys -- Richard and William -- and balancing her professional and domestic demands with those of her husband, a neurosurgeon.

"Life is very, very full," Sherwood-Randall said.

"I feel very grateful to Carnegie," she explained. "But I'm also humbled by the award. It's a big task."

Reach Janet Levaux at jlevaux@cctimes.com.

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