Inspiration from the Nationwide Student Uprisings in Support of Justice in Gaza and What We Must Learn and Remember
WILPF US President’s Statement
Click here for a PDF of this statement.
I am so inspired by the students of 2024! At college campuses across the country they’re standing up for humane and moral values, about how anyone should treat anyone, as well as ethical institutional and governmental policy on militarism and Israel-Gaza. I know I speak for WILPF US to say we support political speech and activism that is nonviolent and against war. WILPF supports peace and justice, which WILPF includes within freedom. We believe societies and cultures thrive with the justice and true security possible when people and communities find and take ways to reduce or eliminate the causes of war.
WILPF principles are rooted in a women’s perspective; that perspective wants clean drinking water for the community and food for families. A women’s perspective does not accept the killing and maiming of over one hundred thousand Palestinians – most of them women and girls – as the price of "security". There is no justice to be found in the Israeli devastation of Gaza.
Peace, based on justice and other fundamentals of freedom, is the best road to a sounder and saner world, but who among the highly militarized states and factions in the Middle East is paving the way?
It’s the students who are reminding us of what should be the shared basis in human relations: ethical and moral behavior. Let us remember other U.S. student movements based on human rights standards and international law: anti-Viet Nam War, anti-apartheid, anti-Iraq War. The institutions of higher learning give lip service to the same principles, yet most of the over 3,000 student arrests for nonviolent actions on campuses have been at the instigation of the students’ own universities.
I remember other student movements when occupiers of campus building were arrested, but those arrests were mostly only after weeks or months, for trespassing. Now, it’s days! And at City College in New York, some of those said to be occupying a building have been charged with third-degree burglary, a felony.
What are the factors driving such an escalation by the universities? Almost all the student actions are nonviolent. They call on their universities to divest from the corporations that profit from the war in Gaza and militarism. Beyond that, many student actions are also calling for divestment from Israel – given the overwhelming evidence of massive violations of international law and human rights standards by the Israeli government. (Our U.S. government consistently sweeps aside that evidence.) What does it tell us about the universities, that the calls for divestment threaten them so much? If the purpose of universities is to explore and advance truth and knowledge, how is that purpose served by their responses?
Daily, we see many and continuing cases of extreme violence by the police. Whom are the police "serving and protecting"? What do the behaviors these two institutions tell us about how they see their purposes?
The unaddressed violence of so many of the police arrests – in the context of U.S. policy taking scant action in response to Israel’s violence – reminds me of other wars, other student activism, other killings. The 1970 killings at Kent State and, then, the Jackson State killings ten days later were 54 years ago just this month. Today, connecting with what’s happening in Gaza, I remember the tag line in the song from 1970: As it said about the dead in Ohio, how many more?
Now we in the U.S. can see, vividly on display in another country – yet one much like ours – just how fear can drive one to deep denial: denial of full news reporting, denial of human costs, denial of the lasting consequences of policies, denial of the centuries-long harm to the earth. How many? In the grip of denial, what limit is there?
Remembering the U.S. after September 11, 2001, do we recognize, that same fear and denial? Do you recall the miasma of fear? And the concealing of information, the distortion of the facts during the 9/11 era? That concealment and distortion continues today, as the U.S. continues to pursue Julian Assange. And now a new "mainstream" story is out, about the Saudi government involvement in 9/11. Wasn’t that indicated, even documented, long since? But in the grip of denial, when the U.S. invaded Iraq, what limit was there?
Facts can be slippery. That’s why, to build peace, we often call for truth and reconciliation. But – to get back to the students expressing themselves – truth and reconciliation requires people being able to speak their truths, in a nonviolent context. Today on campuses and in mainstream U.S. media, little or no truth is allowed through. What does that tell us about the campuses, about our news media?
We can learn a lot if we pay attention, if we do not retreat into denial. In the U.S., as in Israel, most people do not challenge the concealing of information, the distortion of the facts. The students are challenging it.
Words can be very slippery. In the stress of our historical moment, we must remember: To be pro- the lives, communities, and human rights of Palestinians is not to be anti-Semitic. (And, of course, being pro-Israeli does not make a person pro-Netenyahu. Over-simplifications and broad judgments do not serve truth and cannot support justice.)
To call for a ceasefire, as the students do, as WILPF does, is not to be anti-Semitic. Even President Biden has stated, he’s for a ceasefire!
In WILPF, we make the strong distinction between being anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic. I am saddened and disturbed by the way that many in the U.S. – and, perhaps, some in WILPF – do not see that Zionism is a form of oppression. It was and is about forming a Jewish state by settling in – colonizing – a part of the world. The place Jews colonized is Palestine. It is no surprise that, given the current behavior of the Israeli government, many of the student actions are anti- the Zionist government of Israel.
In North America, to form the United States, European settlers did the same thing: colonized. In both Palestine and North America, the land the settlers laid claim to was already inhabited. And in both cases, what results from such colonizing are violations of the human and civil rights of the indigenous inhabitants – leading, in both cases, to genocide. Additionally, in the U.S. and Palestine, claims of "land ownership" and "land purchases" can not justify forcibly removing the inhabitants from the land where they lived.
While it should be clear that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism, we do experience anti-Semitism in the US. WILPF members are part of U.S. culture, with anti-Semitic biases embedded in us, along with other racial and class biases. So all of us – including the students rising up at campuses – do well to be self-aware and open to critiques of what we do and say.
Among the loudest now claiming that the student actions are anti-Semitic are the Right Wing voices in Congress. Where were their voices against the blatant anti-Semitism among those who sought to overturn the U.S. Presidential elections on January 6, 2021? Why do they speak up now, but did not against the racist demonstrators at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina?
I assume there are anti-Semites on the Left, too. But rather than being anti-anything, the student protests are mostly for: for human rights, civil rights, and justice for Palestinians. The students are not engaged in the delicate negotiations of statecraft; theirs is a moral stance. Meanwhile, the U.S., as a government, is not taking a consistent moral stance – nor addressing the statecraft of peace negotiations.
WILPF joins the students in opposing the U.S. arming of Israeli militarism and applauds their largely disciplined and nonviolent free speech actions. From our women’s peace perspective, WILPF condemns the war of the Israeli government and settlers against the Palestinians. Yes, Hamas, too, has acted brutally. The only meaningful answer is peace negotiations based on truth, with reconciliation and justice. And at least half of the negotiators on all sides must be women.
Darien Elyse De Lu
President, WILPF US, May 23, 2024
Martha Collins is an experienced nonprofit leader and human rights activist. For nearly two decades, she has fought on the front lines to enhance the lives of low-income children, families and communities throughout Wisconsin. In her previous work experiences, she has excelled in empowering, organizing, and mobilizing people from diverse economic, social and cultural backgrounds to work together for positive change.
Cee Cee Anderson is a former registered nurse and Special Education teacher as well as a healthcare consultant and women and children's advocate. She currently works with Fast Panel and serves as a Mediator, a Mentor and a Conflict Liaison Officer for both Fulton and Clayton Counties. Cee Cee also serves as a board member to several organizations including: Georgia WAND, Fast Parole Juvenile Justice and CASA. She serves on the Steering Committee of the Coalition for the People's Agenda, as a Chairwoman on WIN (Women in NAACP), and as the CEO of Women Changing the World, One Woman, One Child at a Time. During Cee Cee's tenure with Georgia WAND, she has demonstrated tremendous pass ion for the health and well-being of women and children affected by environmental injustices. She has been a strong advocate focally and nationally, traveling with Georgia WAND across Georgia and across the country to share her passion as well as her expertise in public health: advocating for radiological environmental monitoring as well as strengthening radiation standards so that the standards reflect the differences in vulnerability to radiation in women's and children's bodies. 
President of the Detroit Branch, Laura joined WILPF in the early 1990s and was immediately put to work writing and designing the newsletter. She served on the WILPF US Board for three years, the Nominating Committee for several more, and coordinated the 2014 WILPF US Congress in Detroit. She grew up in a left-wing activist labor and peace family and has been active in various social justice movements since she was a teenager. As an undergrad at Wayne State University, Laura was active in the Committee against Registration and the Draft (CARD). She participated in weekly SANE/Freeze anti-nuke vigils during the early 1980s, marched in many a Labor Day parade, and helped organize buses for the Women Marches. She continues to struggle for a better world for her two grown daughters and all young people. The younger generations give her hope.
Timmon Wallis, PhD is the National Coordinator of the Warheads to Windmills Coalition. He has spent his life teaching, writing, directing organizations, and campaigning on peace and environmental issues in colleges, war zones, and with governments around the world. With his colleagues at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, he shares the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. His newest book is Warheads to Windmills: Preventing Climate Catastrophe and Nuclear War.
Vicki Elson, MA is the Creative Director of NuclearBan.US, which facilitates the Warheads to Windmills Coalition. After a long career in childbirth education and labor support, she has shifted her focus to supporting human well-being with total nuclear abolition and converting the resources wasted on WMD's to science-based climate solutions. 
Founder and executive director of the 
Kim Poole is a Soul-Fusion Performing Artist and Founding Fellow of the Teaching Artist Institute, providing an opportunity for artist to learn techniques for social transformation while fostering outlets for socially engaged art. Operating in the USA, Ghana, Liberia,Jamaica, Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia through TAI Kim Poole and an international team of Teaching Artist are originating the Art for Social Transformation: Teaching Artistry in Action curriculum & workbook for change agents and universities interested in exploring the “Art of Possibility.” 
Maureen Taylor- M.S.W. (Masters in Social Work), BA Social work- is a tireless advocate for the voiceless with a career that has spanned over 30 years. Her work has been featured in films such as "The Water Front" (an award winning documentary) and "Whose Water", which is currently in circulation. Among her many credentials, she holds a Poverty Scholar Certificate from Union Theological Seminary in New York.
Theresa El-Amin is the founder of the Southern Anti-Racism Network, 1998 to present. Theresa says her "aha moment" was meeting Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) in Jean Wiley's classroom at Tuskegee in 1966. She joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) where she volunteered at the Atlanta SNCC office with the support of John Lewis, SNCC Chairman before Stokely Carmichael. She worked at the phone company for nearly 20 years. She was active in CWA Local 3204. Became a union organizer for SEIU in 1986. She's been on the Freedom Trail for 55 years. 
Rickey Gard Diamond, author of Screwnomics and a column at Ms. Magazine, Women Unscrewing Screwnomics, got her early education in economics at a welfare office in the 70s. A newly divorced mother of three, she just couldn't make her budget work despite a fulltime job, and believed it was her fault. Since then she's made a study of how our economy works—and doesn't work—for women and people of color. Most recently, she started an alliance of feminist activists and organizations to spotlight women already working on transforming a patriarchal system never designed with women in mind, except as property. An Economy of Our Own (AEOO),is finding solutions to growing inequality from the bottom up. AEOO is grateful that WILPF-US and its Women, Money and Democracy committee is one of its strongest partners in this work. 
Mary Sanderson is a veteran Raging Granny, postal worker, farmer, interpreter, peace activist, mostly veteran at this point. Growing up among dying family farms, then spinning wheels as a WILPF activist for 3 decades, brought me eventually to study monetary reform. We'll sketch out the argument that Just Money (public-purposed and debt-free) is a pre-req for rescuing water and food, for peace, for respecting our living Earth and rebuilding trust.
Fernanda Lugo is an activist and artist, and works as the Social Media and Outreach Director for Alliance For Just Money, and as an educator for sustainable solutions in her local desert region, El Paso Texas. She graduated with a Master's in biobehavioral health, a field at the intersection of health psychology, promotion, and policy. Her research at the intersection of sustainability and health led her to find that one of the missing links is simply the power to organize people with resources. She believes that the power of money can help us meet the goals of a just society, and advocates for monetary reform to reprioritize the wellbeing of the earth and human health. 
The UN’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s empowerment, the Commission on the Status of Women forum, took place this year from March 11 - 22 under the priority theme, “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective”.
When she joined WILPF in 1969, Ellen was the youngest member of the San Jose branch. Now she is nearly the oldest member of the Sacramento branch, and can’t figure out how that happened.
Tina Deshotels Shelton grew up in Louisiana, has lived in Texas, Oregon, and in Pennsylvania, where she learned about WILPF. She works in the mental health field, and is an advocate for better services. In addition to WILPF, she is active in her community, with Girl Scouts, and local community activism. She and her husband have three children, and they have been involved in Scouts, band, and other activities. Finding WILPF after 9/11, she has been active in local leadership, in coordination with many dedicated and interesting women and men. She is passionate about living peaceably, anti-militarism, anti-racism, immigration concerns, sustainability, creating a nuclear-free world and building relationships to sustain us and move us toward our goals. She is gaining practice in developing a thick skin to make the world less racist and she practices rational thinking skills. She is excited about the transformative movements we see all around. She currently serves on the National Board of the US S Section, as an At-Large Member.
Chara Armon, Ph.D is the founder of The School for Humans and Earth. She is a thought leader and teacher who believes we’re ready to renew Earth and heal ourselves in the process. Through the Humans & Earth podcast, courses, and coaching, she supports people who are exploring how their own well-being connects to the natural world’s thriving. Chara emphasizes the practical value of feeling hopeful about our future, then crafting your creative contributions to regeneration for yourself and all life. Find her work at 
Hannah Lee is a student at the University of Pennsylvania studying PPE (Philosophy, Politics, Economics) and Psychology with a minor in Music, and concurrently pursuing a Master's in Education Policy. She was an inaugural Feminist Korea Peace Fellow at Women Cross DMZ in 2021 and a member of their 30 Under 30 group during the 7.27 mobilization last summer that commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice. She is currently a co-coordinator for the Philadelphia Chapter of Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network and an active member in campus divestment movement efforts, ultimately striving to center radical, liberating peace in the various aspects of her professional and political life.
Reverend Rhetta Morgan is a singing healer, spiritual activist, and interfaith minister who has been gathering tools for healing and inspiration for over 40 years. Through her gifts of prayer, poetry, facilitation, and sermonizing, she cultivates hope and nurtures connection in her community as a pathway back to belonging and wholeness. As a facilitator, Rhetta is known for her ability to support others to be bold, heal their self-limiting beliefs, and integrate their social movement work. As an active facilitator in the Philadelphia region and beyond, Reverend Rhetta currently works with Pendle Hill Quaker Retreat Center, the UU National Ministers Association, the Anti-Defamation League, among others. She also founded Ritual for Change Makers, an 8 month program for activists seeking to renew their spiritual connection to the transcendent and to land. She is known for her jubilant tone, visionary thinking, and beautiful singing voice. You can see the intersection of her spiritual and artistic powers in Grounded While Walls Fall, a film directed by Zein Nakhoda in which she is a featured actor. 
Kelly Lundeen (she/her) is a mother of three and staff member at Nukewatch since 2015. She is of Swedish and Bohemian descent, living on Wisconsin land stolen from the Anishinaabe Ojibwe. She became radicalized through her work with the Catholic Worker and Earth First movements. Later she did international accompaniment for three years during the war in Colombia. She has been arrested seven times for direct actions to advance justice and peace for humans and Earth.
Sue Ann Martinson is a member of Women Against Military Madness. She is co-chair of WAMM's End Military Madness Against the Earth Committee and an associate member of Veterans for Peace, Chapter 27, Minneapolis. Sue Ann is the editor of Rise Up Times, Media for Justice and Peace, which publishes thoughtful articles about current issues that bypass the sensationalism and use of violence that characterizes the mainstream corporate media. Established in 2010, and covering varied issues with a focus on media and militarism, RiseUpTimes.org encourages thoughtful discussion of issues as a basis for the voices of the people to be heard.
Chris Knopf has had a lifelong passion for environmental conservation, stemming from his childhood experiences of playing in lakes and streams and fishing. This interest led to a legal career where he practiced environmental law. His background in law combined with his love for the environment has shaped his career dedicated to preserving natural resources and advocating for conservation efforts. He has run the state office of a national, nonprofit land conservation organization and worked on Native American land conservation projects before becoming Executive Director of the Friends in 2017. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Chris is a graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Virginia School of Law.
Lee Vue brings a thoughtful, creative and data-driven lens to her professional work in communications. Her career spans multiple industries, including startups, academia, consulting agencies, small businesses and nonprofit organizations. She spent her formative teenage years on wilderness trips in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Quetico and Canadian tundra. These experiences inspired her deep love for the environment and rivers, and nurtured her confidence. Despite not knowing how to swim, she’s an avid paddler and has paddled thousands of miles including the Yukon River, Quetico Provincial Park, St. Croix River, Minnesota River, Kazan River, Kunwak River, and the entire Mississippi River and Illinois River.
Cherrill Spencer is a retired experimental physicist who was born and educated in England and has lived in Palo Alto, California since 1974. She joined WILPF in 2012 to work against war and for disarmament. She is a member of the Peninsula/Palo Alto, California, branch of WILPF through which she works on CEDAW, nuclear disarmament and the Poor People’s Campaign. Spencer’s major projects for WILPF have been: an extensive exhibit celebrating WILPF’s centenary; a detailed report on treaties; coordinating the 2020 Solidarity Season; co-creating the 
Dr. Peter Gleick is a leading scientist, innovator, and communicator on water and climate issues. He co-founded the Pacific Institute in Oakland,California in 1987, one of the most innovative, independent non-governmental research centers, creating and advancing solutions to the world’s most pressing water challenges.Dr. Gleick is a scientist trained at the intersection of hydrology, climatology, and policy. His work has redefined water from the realm of engineers to the world of social justice, sustainability, human rights, and integrated thinking. He authored many books including “The Three Ages of Water Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and a Hope for the Future” on which this presentation is based.
Barb Taft is former co-chair of our WILPF Middle East Committee (now called MEPJAC). She visited the Middle East 10 times from 1967 to 2009, and co-authored our Hamas booklet. More recently, she wrote an article for 
Mazin Qumsiyeh was born in 1957 in Beit Sahour (known in English as Shepherds Field). He is a Palestinian scientist and author. Currently, he serves as founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH) and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) at Bethlehem University, where he also teaches. He served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee (1989–1993), Duke University (1993–1999), and Yale University (1999–2005). Dr. Qumsiyeh now researches and teaches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities since returning to Palestine in 2008. He joined other professors to introduce the first Biotechnology Masters program in the region. Over the course of his career he has published well over 150 scientific papers on topics ranging from cultural heritage to biodiversity, as well as several books. He also serves on the board of a number of Palestinian youth and service organizations.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman is an American-born Israeli Reform Rabbi, and Executive Director of the Israeli human rights organization Torat Tzedek—Torah of Justice. For 21 years, starting in 1995, he served as Co-Director (1995-1998), Executive Director (1998-2010), Director of Special Projects (2010-2012) and President and Senior Rabbi (2012-2017) for Rabbis for Human Rights, an Israeli organization. He is also affiliated with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and has been attacked by both the Israeli military police and by settlers, as well as arrested for his nonviolent activism. He is currently working to protect sheep-herders from being forced out of their grazing areas and their occupations.
Rachel Betesh is a registered nurse and poet - as well as a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and Jewish Mothers Against War Crimes. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The New Yorker, Poetry Northwest, Wildness, and Bennington Review.
Leni Villagomez Reeves, M.D. is a former United Farmworkers volunteer who went to school, then did pediatric emergency medicine for many years in the Central Valley of California. She is active in WILPF, both in the Fresno Branch and nationally, co-chairing the Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Committee. She is also involved with other Cuba solidarity actions and spends significant time in Cuba, where she has close ties.
Cindy Domingo, a long-time social activist, has used her skills as a writer, speaker, organizer, and community bridge builder to create fundamental change and to build international solidarity between her communities and working people around the world. Currently, Cindy is Co-chair of WILPF's Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issues Committee and Chair of US Women and Cuba Collaboration. Over the past 17 months, she has been in the leadership of the International US-Cuba Normalization Conference Coalition and the Saving Lives Campaign. She has been a member of WILPF since the 1980s and served on the National Board and various WILPF committees.
Marguerite Adelman, a Vermont resident, is a retired non-profit administrator (education, social services, and government). Marguerite served on the WILPF US Development Committee and attended the 100th Anniversary Conference of WILPF at the Hague in 2015 and the UN Commission on the Status of Women Conference in NYC in March 2018. As an experienced grant writer and past Communications Director for the Cook Department of Public Health (Illinois), she became interested in per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in 2019. For the past 5 years, she has served as the Coordinator for the Vermont PFAS/Military Poisons Coalition. Marguerite has given presentations on PFAS to citizen groups, WILPF branches across the U.S., and WILPF International's Earth Democracy Committee. The VT Coalition includes diverse groups (peace, social justice, economic justice, religious, and environmental) that collaborate to provide education on "forever chemicals" and advocate for legislation to ban PFAS forever.
Elder and his associates with Military Poisons have tested surface waters flowing from 50 U.S. military bases worldwide and have reported dangerous levels of the toxins in the rivers. Pat has tested seawater, crabs, oysters, and fish and found levels of the cancer-causing compounds that are many times greater than the levels allowed in drinking water, The presentation will examine various ways the military uses PFAS on its bases around the world. It will look at measures that must be taken by municipal and state authorities to protect human health from the perpetual scourge of these chemicals. 
Pat Hynes is a retired environmental engineer and professor of environmental health from Boston University School of Public Health, where she c0-directed community-based environmental justice projects in Boston Public Housing and diverse, low-income neighborhoods in Boston. For her work, she has received many regional and national awards. She works, writes and speaks on peace, social justice, women’s equality and environmental justice issues and directed the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice in western Massachusetts from 2010-2021 and currently serves as a board member. The impact of US militarism on countries and people, especially women, across the world, is a major focus of her writing, speaking and activism. She is a member-at-large of the Women’s International League for Peace and Justice and has partnered with WILPF Sierra Leone and WILPF Cameroon since the WILPF 2018 Congress in Ghana.
Eileen Kurkoski is a co-chair of her Boston WILPF branch, a former WILPF board member, and an active member of WILPF issue and administrative committees. She has been a long time activist and a co-chair in her church Social Action committee.
Moses West is a retired Army officer. He is currently the CEO and Founder of AWG Contracting, and his Non-profit 501c3 The Moses West Foundation. He works closely with the U.S. Military, universities, and municipalities to mitigate the prolonged effects of drought, water contamination issues and food shortages by advancing the technology of Atmospheric Water Generators. He has worked endlessly over the past 10 years to manufacture the most energy efficient high-volume water producing Atmospheric Water Generator units available for Military use, disaster recovery, and normal everyday usage for a myriad of other solutions where water has become difficult to obtain. He has proven that the Atmosphere is an endless, inexhaustible source of pure water that is limitless in its ability to provide for a growing global population. This is necessary source of water for many critical areas of society today and well into the future. He has developed mass production water facilities as well as small units for emergency use. He has made it his mission to prove that the atmosphere is a limitless source of water that will help provide for society well into the future. He has been the first to successfully the largest AWG unit for the first in a any major water crisis event. Moses deployed the technology in Puerto Rico on the Island of Vieques to supply all the island with potable water, He has deployed one AWG unit to Flint Michigan and Jackson Mississippi. These missions are recorded as the first time that any large Atmospheric Water Generator has been deployed in recovery efforts from a natural disaster or water contamination issues within the United States.
Tamara Lorincz is a PhD candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School for International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has a Masters in International Politics & Security Studies from the University of Bradford and a Law degree and MBA specializing in environmental law and management from Dalhousie University. Her research is on the climate and environmental impacts of the military. She’s a member of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom-Canada. Tamara is also on the advisory committee of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, and the No to War, No to NATO Network. She’s a long-time environmentalist, feminist and peace activist and a mother with two teenage boys.
Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S Army and retired as a Colonel. She was also a U.S. diplomat for 16 years and served in U.S. Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the U.S. government in March 2003 in opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq. As an anti-war activist, she has been on delegations to Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen, North Korea, South Korea and Cuba. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience." Ann lives in Honolulu, Hawaii and has been active in the campaigns Shut Down Red Hill, the US military fuel contamination of the drinking water aquifer of Oahu and Cancel RIMPAC, the largest military naval war exercises on the planet held off the islands of Hawaii.
Helen Jaccard is a non-veteran member of Veterans For Peace and a member of the WILPF Disarm/End Wars Issues Committee. She co-founded the Veterans For Peace Nuclear Abolition Working Group and manages the Golden Rule Project. She is an author and public speaker and travels internationally, most recently a second trip to Guatemala to investigate the cultural and environmental harm caused by US and Canadian mining.
George Friday grew up in a rural low-income community in North Carolina in the 60s. She holds degrees in Political Science, Economics, and African American Studies from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, from which she graduated in 1982.
Nancy Price, as a student at Columbia University in the late 1960s was active on campus in anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. Later. living in Davis, CA, in the1980s she was chair of her county's Nuclear Freeze Campaign. Joining WILPF in 2003, she first gathered with the Save the Water campaign and is now co-chair of the Earth Democracy Committee and served on the National Board. Over years, she has used many opportunities in writing, speaking and organizing to advocate for the human right to water and health, to support the Earth Democracy 
Prior to retiring and moving to SW Rural Michigan at the start of the pandemic in 2020, Dace A. Zeps (Dotsa) was an active member of WILPF-Madison. She retired with emeritus status from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she worked as the administrator of the Center for Research on Gender and Women and the UW Systemwide Women's and Gender Studies Consortium. Having to work two jobs most of her career to make ends meet, she was also staff for a time at Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice as well as Progressive Dane. Dace focuses her activism energy on supporting political and collaborative educational efforts on the Rights of Nature particularly as it relates to water and woods.
Long time peace and anti-nuclear activist and filmmaker; coordinator of the Burlington VT branch of WILPF US. Former publisher of Toward Freedom. My film website is Green Valley Media with films on WILPF and Haiti, and beyond. Also: grandmother.
Jill Clark-Gollub led the Friends of Latin America (Maryland) team that launched the Americas Without Sanctions campaign in 2023, seeking to end unilateral coercive measures in the countries of the Americas. Raised in the United States in a US/Nicaraguan family, Jill is very active in the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition and organizes study delegations to Nicaragua. She represents the Nica Coalition in the Zone of Peace Regional Planning Committee, which seeks to unite grassroots movements throughout the hemisphere to resist US aggression, including sanctions. Jill joined WILPF in January of 2023 and participates in branches in the two cities where she lives—Washington, DC and Burlington, VT. She has published articles in Counterpunch, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Popular Resistance, and other outlets.
Cynthia Ann Roberts has been a WILPF member for 29 years and serves on the Cuba & Bolivarian Alliance issues committee. She is a charter member of the Cubamistad (Bloomington, Indiana-Santa Clara, Cuba sister city) and retired letter carrier and member of NALC 828. Cynthia is a founder of Hoosier Raging Grannies and EcoReport anchor for WFHB community radio. She is also a textile artist, grandmother, and avid scrabble player.
Chris Jones is retired from IIHR-Hydrosocience & Engineering at the University of Iowa, where he worked as a research engineer focusing on water quality in agricultural landscapes. Prior to that, he worked for the Des Moines Water Works, Iowa Soybean Association and as a consultant for water and wastewater utilities. He has a BA in Chemistry and Biology from Simpson College and a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Montana State University. Dr. Jones has authored 55 articles in scientific journals, several book chapters, and is the author of The Swine Republic, Struggles with Truth About Agriculture and Water Quality. His writing has appeared in the Des Moines Register and Cedar Rapids Gazette and in the on-line periodical, Civil Eats. He's a frequent guest on Iowa Public Radio and was a guest on NPR's On Point. He also writes a Substack column that can be found at riverraccoon.substack.com. He lives in Iowa City, Iowa. 
Mary Grant is the Public Water for All Campaign Director at Food & Water Watch, a national environmental organization. Since 2015, she has overseen campaigns to support universal access to safe water in the United States by promoting responsible and affordable public provision of water and sewer service. Prior to becoming campaign director, Mary was a senior researcher on water issues for Food & Water Watch for 8 years. She is a policy analyst on U.S. water utility privatization.
Marcela Olivera is Director of the Blue Planet Project and a water commons organizer based in Cochabamba, Bolivia. After graduating from the Catholic University in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Marcela worked for four years in Cochabamba as the key international liaison for the Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life, the organization that fought and defeated water privatization in Bolivia. Since 2004 she was the Blue Planet Project's Regional Coordinator for Latin America for Water Justice, REDVIDA. She sits on the coordinating committee of the Platform for Public and Community Partnerships of the Americas (PAPC). 
Lois A. Herman is Founder and Managing Director of WUNRN, Women’s UN Report Network. WUNRN addresses the human rights, oppression, and empowerment of women and girls all over the world. She has been a WILPF woman for many years and is a serious advocate for PEACE. Lois has 4 children, is a widow, and lived in Italy for 10 years. She carries UN credentials and presents regularly at the UN in Geneva, NYC (CSW and General Assembly), and FAO (Rome). She lives in Minneapolis, and her professional training is in Food Marketing and International Affairs. She received the Spirit of the UN Award. Her special cat is Karma!
“Thomsen’s soulful voice, poetic lyrics and unforgettable melodies cut through to the heart and the soul of human experience,” proclaims the Minnesota Women’s Press. Dubbed in her local press as “one of Northern Minnesota’s best kept secrets,” singer-songwriter Sara Thomsen’s home base is in the Lake Superior region of Duluth/Superior. “The Twin Ports folk singer picks up the torch carried by the balladeers of decades past: Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Holly Near, Ronnie Gilbert, and Peter, Paul, and Mary” writes the Duluth Reader Weekly. “She could make Conan the Barbarian drop his sword and collapse blubbering.”
Tara Vassefi is honored and humbled to serve as the local WILPF branch contact in dc,maryland,virginia aka Occupied Piscataway and Nacotchtank Territories aka Chocolate City. She likes to introduce her 3rd dimensional self as someone with the brain of an archivist whose favorite language of love is infinitely-long, heavily-cited legal memos. Though she's a human rights attorney by trade and continues to practice pro bono through her firm Solidarity Law Cooperative, her full-time job is at a rEvolutionary ChildCare Center called CentroNía. Should you have the bandwidth for what she calls proFound Orthogony (~exploration without destination), she would love to journey with You toward Water and Food Sovereignty, Tech-no-Logy as a Public Good, and Spiral Economics. 
Lydia is a 2023 Howard University graduate with degrees in International Affairs and Africana Studies. Born in Connecticut, she has been a proud DC resident for the past five years. She has a passion for human rights advocacy work and is working towards a career in community-centered, sustainable international development. Lydia started her work with WILPF in the Domestic Prisoners of War committee and is incredibly excited to be a part of this year’s Congress!
Mr. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo is the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. He was appointed by the Human Rights Council in September 2020 and started his mandate on 1 November 2020. From 2016 to 2019, Mr. Arrojo-Agudo served as an elected member of the Spanish Parliament. He was Professor in the Area of Fundamentals of Economic Analysis at the University of Zaragoza from 1989 to 2011, and has been professor emeritus since 2011. During the last three decades, he has focused his research on economics and water management, publishing his work in more than 100 scientific articles and in 70 books.
Co-founding Sisters: Debra Topping, Sherry Couture, Karen Durfee & Dawn Goodwin
Deanna (Dee) Murphy is a social justice advocate for the rights of demographics that experience disproportionate challenges which serve as deterrents to the actualization of all of our full human potential. After 28 years of struggling uphill and against the odds, she achieved a B.A. in Leadership and Organizational Communication in 2015. She is currently working on the completion of the last year of an M.A. in Social Responsibility, with a certificate in Gerontology, as well as performing volunteer duties in social justice-oriented organizations.
Margo Schulter is a peace and human rights activist. She was born in 1950, and became a consistent WILPF-USA member in 2020.
Sylvie Ndongmo, WILPF’s President is a peace leader with 28 years of experience. Over the years, she educated and raised communities’ awareness on public issues and social justice and created networks of women and CSOs working and including women in peace processes. Her background is multi-disciplinary with the implementation of multiple socio-economic development projects targeting policy reforms, fighting violence against women and girls, and assuming managerial roles at national, continental, and global levels. She is an AU Trainer in peace support operations with extensive experience advocating for political and social rights of women worldwide. She leads key instruments in Cameroon including The Women Situation Room with a Call Centre which provides a hotline and instant referral for victims of violence and a Legal Clinic providing timely support and remedies to victims/survivors of violence. She has extensive experience in psycho-social support after numerous training courses on mental health and psychosocial support.
Melissa I. M. Torres, PhD, MSW, CHW is a Research Scholar at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. She is an international expert and consultant on exploitation and human trafficking with a focus on displacement vulnerabilities in the Latin American diaspora. She developed and taught classes on human trafficking, human rights, and policy at the University of Houston, University of Texas at Austin, and Yale. Dra. Torres has been invited to present, train, and testify on migration, border militarization, racism and other human rights violations for the United Nations Human Rights Council, U.S. State Department, and Department of Health and Human Services. Her work has been published in textbooks on human trafficking and human rights both in the United States and Mexico. Of Mexican descent, she is a native of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Darien De Lu, WILPF US President and Congress Tech Team Core Member is a peace, justice, and Latin America solidarity activist in the Sacramento branch. She writes her California ballot guide (for over 20 years) plus political and labor songs – and sings frequently! Prior to retiring, she bicycle-commuted for twelve years to her California state jobs, addressing substance use and co-occurring disorders. She and her husband bike, especially to the local food co-op. Darien speaks several languages and has traveled extensively. An activist for over fifty years, Darien has been a consensus process and nonviolence trainer. Her civil disobedience, direct actions, and subsequent jail time inform her activism. 
Mary Hanson Harrison served as WILPF US president (2015-2019), WILPF US Des Moines Branch president, Congress Coordinator, 2008 Simpson College (IA)\ and Virtual Congress Coordinator 2021. She sits on the board of Jane Addams Paper Project, Ramapo College (NJ). Mary brings not only an academic career but also a policy researcher and hands-on activism with and for nonprofit peace/feminist oriented organizations. She convened and participated in several presentations on Ecofeminism and the necessity of a revolution in global agriculture and food systems: in The Hague, at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and the WILPF International Congress – Ghana, and past WILPF US congresses. She is a published essayist and translator. She has a degree in History and a Masters in Literary Criticism and Theory.
75th Anniversaries of the United Nations and the Atomic Bomb
