“To see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change—across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves”* is the mission of Rotary International. In November 2024, the Rotary Clubs of Southeastern Wisconsin awarded the second annual Agent of Peace Award for Decades of Peace Advocacy and Education to Joan Robertson of Milwaukee, a long-standing WILPF US member and financial supporter. What better way to honor a 108-year-old woman who dedicated her life to building a better world as a peace advocate, educator, and philanthropist.

Joan exemplifies the enduring transformative power of education through the A.D. Robertson Fund for the United Nations along with the Rotary Club of Milwaukee and her work with the Milwaukee Public Schools (see photo). Joan’s daughter, Annette Robertson, an educator herself, writes of her mother’s dedication, “Education is really the first big and primary answer.” She then adds Joan’s solution to most of the world’s problems, “The more education people get, the more they are going to realize their civic responsibility, women especially.”

WILPF US is fortunate that the Robertson family, which encompasses four generations of WILPF women, continue to support WILPF US’ intergenerational initiative for peace advocacy at the annual UN Commission on the Status Women through the Practicum for Advocacy, focused on young women, and Local2Global with more seasoned WILPF members. The intergenerational relationship and the perpetuation of the WILPF’s history and inheritance, offers a unique opportunity for women of all ages to come together to learn about the functioning of the United Nations and to bring back to their community a prospect for a better future. 

You, too, can invest in women!  Find out ways you can contribute to the WILPF legacy; email us at plannedgiving@wilpfus.org.

* https://milwaukeerotary.com/page/rotary-agent-of-peace-award-2023