Program: Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Dee Murphy
Congress Coordinator
Welcome

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.

Dee is the founder and current Chair of the Domestic Prisoners of War (DPoW)  Issue Committee in WILPF US. After serving as a delegate to WILPF’s International Congress in 2021, she is serving in a newly created role of International Advisory Representative from the US Section, as well as contributing to various other committees in WILPF.

Dee is pleased to have conceived of the topic for and to have organized this year’s WILPF US Triennial Congress in her role as Congress Coordinator and wants to extend a shout out, with much gratitude, for the many dedicated volunteers who have contributed tirelessly of their time, ideas, energy and work to make this year’s exciting program happen!

 

7:30 PM EDT

Margo Schulter
WILPF US
Opening Day Land Acknowledgement

Margo Schulter is a peace and human rights activist. She was born in 1950, and became a consistent WILPF-USA member in 2020.

She holds a Masters degree in Sociology from Boston College, and is a lifelong opponent of the death penalty. She has done volunteer legal research and writing for the Florida and California State Public Defenders Office, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California as well as California Death Penalty Focus.

She is concerned with issues of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within WILPF-USA, and the larger WILPF struggle to confront First World privilege and promote equity for the global South, the region most impacted by climate change.
 

 

7:40  PM EDT

Sylvie Ndongmo
WILPF International President

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.

 

8:00  PM EDT

Melissa Torres
WILPF International Vice President

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.

 

8:10  PM EDT

Julie Kabukanyi
WILPF US International Advisory Board Alternate
“Our Work”, International

Julie Kabukanyi is a healthcare professional with over two decades of experience as a Registered Nurse, complemented by advanced academic achievements in Public Policy and International Relations. Currently pursuing a PhD in Public Policy at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston, she demonstrates a passionate commitment to health, education, and the empowerment of underrepresented communities. Julie Kabukanyi has a proven track record of leadership in community involvement and advocacy at both local and international levels, including roles as the President/CEO of the Congolese American Women Empowerment and Leadership (CAWEL) in the United States and the Leadership et Autonomisation de la Femme Congolaise (LAFCO) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her work as the alternate International Advisory Board Representative with the Women International League for Peace and Freedom underscores her dedication to fostering positive change and societal impact.
 

8:20  PM EDT

Darien De Lu
President, WILPF US Section

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.   

8:35  PM EDT

Mary Hanson Harrison
Former WILPF US President

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.

8:55  PM EDT

Barbara Nielsen
WILPF US Treasurer
Nielsen will speak on notable landmarks and WILPF accomplishment

 

 

WILPF US: 

• Joined c. 1971; Life Member (2005)
• Member, Berkeley Branch (now East Bay) and active participant (1971 – c. 1989)
• Member, San Francisco Branch since 2005 and active participant
• Branch, Regional service focus until 2008; when added National, International, UN focus, service & work
• National Board Elected Service: Treasurer & Finance Committee Chair; Nominating Committee Chair; Program Committee Chair, (2008 – 2019)
• Bylaws Committee Service: Member (2007 – Current) 
• National Program Committee, National Issues Committees Service/Participation: (2008 – Current) 

US Triennial Congress Service/Participation: 

• 2008 Iowa 30th Congress: Co-Facilitator/Presenter, Bylaws Workshops and seated on National Board as member-elected Treasurer
• 2014 Detroit 32nd Congress: Parliamentarian; Member: Congress Rules Committee, Congress Committee, Congress Program Committee, Resolutions Committee
• 2017 Chicago 33rd Congress: Parliamentarian; Member: Resolutions Committee,  Congress Rules Committee; Facilitator/Co-Presenter, four workshops
• 2021 Virtual 34th  Congress: Parliamentarian; Member: Congress Rules Committee, Congress Resolutions Committee; Participant, Workshop on Member Development

International Triennial Congress Service/Participation: 

• 2015 Centennial International Congress, The Hague, Netherlands: Voting Member. USA Section Delegation
• 2018 International Congress, Accra, Ghana: Chair, Congress Resolutions Commit-tee; Alternate Member, USA Section Delegation
• 2022 International  Virtual Congress: Participant in USA contributions to Int’l Program; voting member, US Delegation; invited service as Facilitator, Congress Resolutions Plenary

WILPF at United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) Annual Meeting:

• Attended CSW and supported WILPF US CSW programs.

Program: Thursday, May 30, 2024

7:30  PM EDT

Tara Vassefi
Welcome and Introduction

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. 

 

7:30  PM EDT

Lydia Gambacini
Land Acknowledgement

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!
 

7:45  PM EDT

Video Message: Mr. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Water & Sanitation
Spain & Geneva, Switzerland, Welcome Message from UN

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.

8:00 PM EDT

R.I.S.E. Coalition
Resilient Indigenous Sisters Engaging 

Co-founding Sisters: Debra Topping, Sherry Couture, Karen Durfee & Dawn Goodwin
Four Women were brought together through their passion to protect the balance of the four sacred elements – the nibi, aki, noodin, & ishkode. The sisters in RISE Coalition met one another during the Line 3 Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MNPUC) public commentary hearings, where Debra Topping of Nahgahchiwanong (Fond du lac) took note of the positive qualities of each of her newfound sisters. Our determination to protect Treaties, the lands, and our inherent rights was our inspiration to co-found RISE Coalition during a 2019 retreat in a little cabin located near lake Gitchi gami. As we sat around a fire, our discussion led to the development of this coalition of sisters protecting all that is sacred.

Program: Friday, May 31, 2024

5:30  PM EDT

Nancy Price
Welcome

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 www.militarypoisons.org project, say no to militarism and increased military budgets, and yes for climate justice, women, and peace. 
 

 

5:30  PM EDT

Dace Zeps
Land Acknowledgement

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.

 

6:00  PM EDT

The Impact of US-Imposed Sanctions on the Human Right to Water

Program Summary
Robin Lloyd will chair a panel on the impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures (“sanctions”) on the human right to water. Jill Clark-Gollub will give an overview of how US government-imposed sanctions are hindering achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6 on Safe Drinking Water for All. She will also talk about why sanctions are imposed and what we can do about it. Cynthia will present a case study of Cuba—one of the most severely sanctioned countries in the world. Robin will then mention how the United States’ overuse of economic sanctions is pushing non-Western countries to reject them. This will be followed by a discussion.
 

Robin Lloyd

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

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

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.
 

 

6:45  PM EDT

Chris Jones
This is Their Land

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. 

Program Summary
This program will highlight water quality in Iowa and the US Corn Belt within the context of historical agricultural production systems. Focus will be on both ground and surface water and the ecological and human health consequences. Links between drinking water nitrate and illness including cancer, asthma, and birth defects will be examined in the existing scientific literature. Finally, ideas for improving the overall condition of Cornbelt streams, lakes and aquifers going forward will be presented. 
 

 

7:30 PM EDT
Corporate Violence Through Privatization, Water Act & Blue Planet Project:  Building Trans-Local Solidarity for Global Water Justice
 

Program Summary
Water is necessary for living a life with dignity and peace, but privatization and austerity threaten access to safe and affordable water for millions in the United States. Water affordability is a national crisis, after decades of cuts to federal water funding, corporate and military contamination of our water, and the myriad of threats from climate change.  Now, water bills are unaffordable for at least one in ten U.S. households. Households who are unable to afford their water bills face violent and punitive collection practices, including water shutoffs and tax sale foreclosures. Water privatization exacerbates the harms, sacrificing local control and driving up water prices. The United States must protect water as a public trust resource, hold corporate and military polluters accountable, and fully fund our public water infrastructure at the level that is needed to ensure safe and clean water for all.
 

Mary Grant

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

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). 

The Blue Planet Project works internationally with local organizations and activists in both the South and the North to support grassroot struggles to protect democratic, public and community control and management of water services and resources, and to build a movement to realize the human right to water and sanitation.  The Blue Planet Project centers the work of women, Indigenous and other marginalized water defenders and frontline communities. 
 

8:30  PM EDT

Lois A.Herman
Introduction to Sara Thomsen (Concert)

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!

 

8:30  PM EDT

Sara Thomsen
Concert

“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.”

Increasing wonder and awareness, deepening spiritual connection, and widening social engagement through song is at the heart of her work. Sara’s ability to get people singing magically transforms gatherings into communities empowered with possibility. Thomsen is a recipient of the Duluth Community Peacemaker Award for her use of music towards building a more just world. Her music starts locally and expands globally. With a voice rich as the best Midwest soil, Sara’s songs carry you inward and outward—in, to the particulars of your own life, and out—into the shared humanity of us all. While at home, Thomsen and her spouse Paula Pedersen love spending time gardening and enjoying the outdoors alongside Athena the dog, Eva the cat, a dozen chickens and two beehives.

More about Sara on her website: www.sarathomsen.com

Program: Saturday, June 1, 2024

12:15 PM EDT 

Kelly Lundeen
Monticello, Minnesota  Nuclear Waste in Water

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.

Program Summary
Nuclear power and nuclear weapons are two sides of the same coin. The lies about nuclear power have graduated from “atoms for peace” and “too cheap to meter” to the modern-day “clean and carbon-free.” Old reactors are getting license renewals rubber stamped to run until the ripe old age of 80 years by the federal government and bailed out to the tune of tens of billions of dollars by taxpayers. The U.S. and international partners recently committed to tripling nuclear energy production by 2050. Uranium mining in the U.S. is being revived. What is the cost to humanity, the Water, and Earth?

 

12:45 PM EDT 
War on the Planet: An Exploration of the Local, National, and Worldwide Connections Between Imperialism, Militarism, Environmental Destruction, and Climate Chaos
 

Sue Ann Martinson

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.

Program Summary
The twin specters of imperialistic militarism and neo-colonialism haunt the earth. Together these forces are warring on planet earth, some in hot wars, others in the forms of environmental and climate chaos, and nowhere are they now more obvious than in Palestine with Israel’s genocidal attacks. What is often ignored is how the military, who we are told protects us, is endangering the people and the planet. All are driven by an economy that promotes the opposite of the security people deserve. Instead inequality of rights and blocking of fulfillment of ordinary needs that bring security to ordinary people is flagrant, beginning with nature’s commons. The earth, the air, and the water are being destroyed in the imperial quest for empire that promotes war, death and destruction instead of the collaboration and cooperation necessary for a secure planet and for the people who live on that planet. Local, national and international destruction continues to occur as people worldwide increasingly challenge the gatekeepers and those who profit from others suffering. The military, the policemen of the world, are glorified and military spending, especially by the U.S in the trillions, is deemed necessary as in the quest for hegemonic empire it wreaks havoc in hot wars with destruction of land and homes and buildings, by continued use of fossil fuels in obtaining and using them, and by water pollution. These destructive forces take many forms and are being challenged in many ways at many levels by individuals and groups seeking a just economy and a just and safe world.  

 

Chris Knopf

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

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.

As a board member of Camp Menogyn, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and Ann Bancroft Foundation, she’s dedicated to uplifting the voices of communities of color to the climate, philanthropy and social justice movements. Even though she calls Minnesota home, she was born and raised in Fresno, California where she spent her childhood in fields and farmlands among undocumented and immigrant communities. These experiences shaped her mission-driven mentality and the work she does now in communications, outdoors and community engagement.
 

 

1:15 PM EDT 
DISARM Committee
History of Conflicts Over Water and Strategies to Avoid Conflict for the Future

The Disarm committee will show a powerful 15 minute video on conflicts and wars related to water. It is by expert, Peter Gleick, from the Pacific Institute think tank. His presentation provides some strategies to reduce the risks of conflicts in the future and we will have a guided discussion after the video on what WILPF members could be doing about current conflicts over water. The discussion will be led by DISARM members Cherrill Spencer and Eileen Kurkoski.

Cherrill Spencer

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 online 1945 timeline; coordinating the 2021 Call for Peace campaign and co-chairing the DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee since mid-2020. Spencer has been an official delegate for WILPF to United Nations conferences on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Dr. Peter Gleick

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.
 

 

2:30 PM EDT 
Water is Life! Especially During Wartime

Barb Taft, Moderator

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 Disarmament Times.  She has served on the WILPF national board, as well as the board of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America (BPFNA) and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). In Arizona, she is convenor of the Greater Phoenix branch of WILPF and owner of a private school, The Accent Expert.
 

Mazin Qumsiyeh   

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  

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.

 

3:30 PM EDT

Rachel Betesh, Poet

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.

 

 

3:45 PM EDT
Cuba, State Sponsor of Peace

Program Summary
In  2014, Cuba hosted and led the 33 nations of the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC) in reaffirming the world’s first nuclear-free zone and again declaring Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.  The US has over 70 military bases in the region and illegally occupies Cuban territory as a naval base and torture prison.  Yet, the Trump administration placed Cuba on the US list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and the Biden administration has refused to remove Cuba from the list.  This has harshened the economic impact of US foreign policy.  Meanwhile, Cuba continues to implement advancements in gender rights, expansion of the definition of families and protections of children’s rights.  What can we learn from Cuba and their efforts to build a zone of peace and a strong inclusive democracy, and what can we do today to change US foreign policy towards Cuba?

Leni Villagomez Reeves, M.D

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

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.

 

4:45 PM EDT
Earth Democracy
The True Cost of PFAS Contamination/ Saving Gaza Begins With Its Water
 

Program Summary
While providing some basic information about PFAS, Marguerite’s presentation will focus on the true personal and economic costs of PFAS to our health and our environment, as well as the difficulties of passing legislation to curb or ban PFAS. PFAS chemicals are cheap to buy, but enormously expensive to clean up. The U.S. chemical industry spent over $110 million during the last two elections, sending out lobbyists to kill or gut dozens of pieces of PFAS legislation; they were successful. Every day of delay in legislation leads to more PFAS contamination that irreversibly accumulates in the environment, harming our health and the health of future generations. We need to treat the PFAS pollution crisis as the emergency that it is, turning off the PFAS tap now and forever. 
 

Marguerite Adelman

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.

Pat Elder, Military Poisons

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. 

Finally, this segment will look at the military’s reckless use of Agent Orange and comparable herbicides at bases in the US where many thousands of veterans and their dependents suffer from diseases attributed to Agent Orange exposure.  See this reporting in USA Today Elder is known for his work on per-and poly fluoroalkyl substances, (PFAS). His articles may be found on www.militarypoisons.org  Since 2019, Pat has been focused on the understudied role of PFAS exposure from food. He believes there is too much emphasis on PFAS levels in drinking water, with too limited a focus on PFAS exposure from food, particularly seafood. Recently, Elder has been documenting Agent Orange contamination at military installations like Fort Ord, California while the VA and the DOD refuse to admit they used the carcinogens and continue to deny compensation to thousands.

Patricia Hynes, Saving Gaza Begins With Its Water

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.

 

5:45 PM  EDT
Bottled or Tap Water?

Ellen Kurkoski

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.

Program summary 
As a member of the Congress committee I already had a big concern about plastic water bottle pollution, and began wondering about the quality of the water being sold.  What I learned in my research surprised me and may surprise others.  I hope my presentation increases your thirst for more information about our drinking water and stimulates you to action.
 

6:15 PM  EDT
Water Scarcity and the Future

Moses West

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.

 

7:00 PM  EDT
Navigating Toward Peace: Overcoming the Militarization and Climate Crisis of our Oceans with Ann Wright on RIMPAC

Program Summary
Tamara will talk about the crisis in the oceans from militarism and climate change. Through, the expansion of NATO, the new Indo-Pacific Strategy and the formation of AUKUS, the oceans are increasingly becoming militarized spaces for warmaking, though they are dangerously warming and acidifying. However, this militarization of the oceans is ignored at the United Nations climate and oceans conferences and reports. Tamara will explain some of the adverse environmental and social stressors to the marine environment of regular naval war exercises like the US-led RIMPAC in the Pacific, NATO’s BALTOPS Exercise in the Baltic Sea, NATO’s “Cold Response” Exercise in the Arctic, Exercise Talisman Sabre in Australian waters among others. She will discuss how activists and anti-war groups are coming together to navigate toward peace and protection of the oceans. Ann Wright will speak on issues surrounding the RIMPAC movement. 

Tamara Larincz

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

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.
 

 

8:00 PM EDT

Helen Jaccard
The Golden Rule and Ending the Whole Nuclear Era
Veterans For Peace Golden Rule Project Manager, Jane Addams branch, member of WILPF Disarm/End Wars Issues Committee

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.

Program Summary
Veterans For Peace’s anti-nuclear sailboat, the Golden Rule, “Sails for a Nuclear-Free World and a Peaceful, Sustainable Future”.  

Learn about:

• The history of the boat, which in 1958 helped to stop nuclear weapons tests.  
• Voyages and educational campaign since 2015, when the rebuilt boat sailed again into the Pacific Ocean.  
• Nuclear issues and solutions –
• The whole contaminating nuclear chain
  • Hope through taking action.  Support Eleanor Holmes Norton’s bill to eliminate nuclear weapons and move the money to support non-carbon, non-nuclear energy and human needs
• Actions can be at the local, state and federal level through interaction with politicians, political parties and organizations , groups of faith, and Indigenous groups including Marshall Islands Communities. 
  • Protest against weapons manufacturers.
  • Push pension funds, cities to Divest from weapons companies and banks that support them.
  • Educate the community through presentations, letters to the editor, resolutions in support of nuclear disarmament

 

9:00 PM EDT

George Friday
Virtual After Party

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.

George was the fundraiser for SANE (then SANE/FREEZE, now National Peace Action) in the latter half of the 1980s and Development Director, then Assistant Director of the Piedmont Peace Project in North Carolina in the first half of the 1990s. She directed a National Office of Juvenile Justice project from 2000-2004.  George served as co-chair of UFPJ from 2005 to 2008.

They began working as National Field Organizer for the Bill of Rights Defense Committee/Defending Dissent Foundation in 2008. George was one of the founding members of Move to Amend in 2009. Since 2017, George has been staff to NC Peace Action and UFPJ

Program: Sunday, June 2, 2024

12:00 PM EDT

Martha Collins
WILPF US Board
Welcome and Introduction

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.

Martha is a proud graduate of Milwaukee Public School with a primary study of Information Technology at George Washington High School. She attended Cardinal Stritch University and received her Bachelor of Science in Business Management. 

Currently, she is  pursuing a Master of Legal Studies at Trinity International University.  

 

12:00 PM EDT

Cee Cee Anderson
WILPF US Board

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. 

 

12:15 PM EDT

Laura Dewey
Lloyd Legacy Foundation

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.

 

1:00 PM EDT
Feeding Two Birds with One Scone: Taking Action to Address Both Climate and Nuclear Weapons

Summary
Timmon Wallis will share insights from his new book, Warheads to Windmills: Preventing Climate Catastrophe and Nuclear War and Vicki Elson will outline some of the steps we can all take to get us out of this mess. Despite the continued increase in global carbon emissions and the collapse of disarmament treaties, all is not lost! The companies responsible for nuclear weapons and for the continued burning of fossil fuels are calling the shots in Washington. But these companies themselves are surprisingly vulnerable to legal threats emanating from the Nuclear Ban Treaty and from the global movement for a Fossil Fuel Treaty. They are also vulnerable to public disapproval and investor anxiety as more and more faith communities, financial institutions, colleges and cities divest, boycott and stigmatize these companies for their actions. By working together to pressure these profiteers, we can get them to change the policies that are threatening the whole planet.

Timmon Wallis

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

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. 
 

 

2:00 PM EDT

Osprey Orielle Lake
Conversation on Climate Change

Founder and executive director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), Osprey works internationally with grassroots, BIPOC and Indigenous leaders, policymakers, and diverse coalitions to build climate justice, resilient communities, and a just transition to a decentralized, democratized clean-energy future.

She sits on the executive committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and on the steering committee for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Osprey’s writing about climate justice, relationships with nature, women in leadership, and other topics has been featured in The Guardian, Earth Island Journal, The Ecologist, Ms. Magazine and many other publications.

She is the author of the award-winning book Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature. Osprey holds an MA in Culture and Environmental Studies from Holy Names University in Oakland and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area on Coast Miwok lands.

 

3:00 PM EDT
The Way of Water

Kim Poole

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.”  

Under the TAI umbrella Poole serves as Chief Visionary of the ARTIZEN conference philosophy aimed at connecting sustainable development to art culture in emerging economies.

As a performer, Ms. Poole has quietly become an international power house with regular headline performances on the festival circuit in Ghana and South Africa. As a demonstration of Art for Transformation, she uses music and cultural narrative to empower African Women in health and business. 

Locally in her hometown of Baltimore, Poole has recently established the Artist in Residence program(TAI Air) for Community artist in need of housing and authentic opportunities for community service with future locations slated for Gambia, Tanzania,  and Uganda

Coining the philosophy “Culture is the New Currency” Poole began curating reparatory  institutions and experiences that promote and preserve the African identity in the Diaspora.  In response to what she refers to as Cultural Genocide against Black and Brown people living in America aka Turtle Island,  “We are the Rhythm People,” Freedom Rides, and Stolen Land,  Stolen People Coalition are amongst the numerous initiatives created that she vividly describes as “Art as a Way of life.”

Www.facebook.com/teachingartist  
Www.facebook.com/TAItours1 
Www.kimpoolemusic.com  
@KimPooleMusic Instagram and Facebook

 

Maureen Taylor

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.

Maureen was the co-coordinator for the 2 nd U.S. Social Forum (2010) performed the task of the National Logistics Chair for same, an event that secured a permanent position with the World Social Forum process. She also served as Project Coordinator/Program Development Officer for the ‘NEW CHANCES/JET’ program, a welfare-to-work project initiated by the Governor’s office. Currently, Maureen is as Parent Coordinator at Detroit Community Schools and holds a position as State Chairperson for the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, where her duties include active representation of public assistance recipients in disputes with government agencies.

Please see the following for more information about Maureen Taylor and her work:
Detroit News. Maureen Taylor: Champion of the poor
Detroit News video

Theresa El-Amin

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. 

 

4:00 PM EDT

Rickey Gard Diamond
Women’s Waterways vs. Financialization

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. 

Program Summary   
What are women’s waterways, and what on earth is financialization? We may feel ourselves in a fight for Earth’s survival, and we are, in fact, being hammered by new mystical weapons of an economy waged as war. Come learn how Elinor Ostrom and others point to more powerful water solutions, freed for peace and life.  

 

5:00 PM  EDT

Mary Sanderson and Fernanda Lugo
Can We Rescue Water From Financial Trickery?

Program Summary
“Can We Rescue Water from Financial Trickery?”  is another big piece of Women, Money & Democracy Committee work. Monetary reform activist Mary Sanderson (WILPF, Madison WI) and biologist Fernanda Lugo (AFJM, El Paso) will show us exactly where these looney financial schemes come from, and outline a surprising, but traditional and necessary, strategy to rescue water from the financiers.

Mary Sanderson

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.

 

 Program Summary
“Can We Rescue Water from Financial Trickery?”  is another big piece of Women, Money & Democracy Committee work. Monetary reform activist Mary Sanderson (WILPF, Madison WI) and biologist Fernanda Lugo (AFJM, El Paso) will show us exactly where these looney financial schemes come from, and outline a surprising, but traditional and necessary, strategy to rescue water from the financiers.
 

Fernanda Lugo

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. 

5:45 PM EDT

Member Plenary

Jan Corderman
The WILPF US CSW Program – Local To Global

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”.

António Guterres, the UN’s General Secretary, notes that there has been backsliding on women’s rights Guterres said “Women’s rights are being abused, threatened and violated around the world as progress won over decades is vanishing before our eyes. In Afghanistan, women and girls have been erased from public life. In many places, women’s sexual and reproductive rights are being rolled back. In some countries, girls going to school risk kidnapping and assault. In others, police prey on vulnerable women they have sworn to protect.” He went on to say, “The patriarchy is fighting back. But so are we. And I am here to say loud and clear, the United Nations stands with women and girls everywhere.”

The Local To Global Program, one of two CSW Programs, sponsors four members who participate in the first week of the session from both inside the UN and in the parallel sessions held outside the UN. WILPF US also offered support to other interested members who attended and, as the host Section, we sponsored a reception for WILPFers from around the world. We were especially excited this year because the UN’s youth program took place during the week giving us a chance to meet members of our Miami Mujeres Branch.

Please attend our session for more info about how you can participate next year! Also keep your eye on the website for updated info: www.wilpfus.org/our-work/wilpf-us-programs-un-commission-status-women
 

Ellen Schwartz

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.

In between, she has served as branch chair, branch newsletter editor, chair of WILPF US Policy Committee, WILPF Western Region newsletter editor, occasional Triennial Congress newsletter editor, Congress Registrar, chair of CongressCommittee, WILPF US Treasurer for ½ a term (finishing an unfinished term),WILPF US Program Chair (finishing another ½ term) and starting in 2024, chair of the WILPF US Nominating Committee (finishing another unfinished term!).

Ellen was born in Chicago, and while in college was involved with the campus chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality. Her greatest admiration was for an artist named Sophie Wessel, who produced silk screen designs for protest signs.

Ellen would think, “Look, Sophie makes these signs, everybody worships her, and she doesn’t have to actually go to the protests, never mind the planning meetings. That’s what I want to be when I grow up.” It hasn’t worked out that way, but it is still her ambition.

River of Peace Panel
There is no shortage of bad news. But a focus on obstructions limits our perceptions to seeing obstacles! As visionaries of a new way of being in the world, we are called to see and create progressive actions and movements. As institutions and beliefs in the way things have been are falling apart (as some of our speakers attest to) there is a call from multiple areas to rebuild in a transformative way. This can be seen in the environmental realm in an absolute way, but is also present in the economic realm, in the peace paradigm, in racial justice, in climate justice, in brain science, in the reframing how nations interact as people envision a UN that functions better, and ultimately how people movements are acting in intersectional ways to build capacity across areas.  Join us for a discussion of a River of Peace as we increase our perceptions of what is and what shall be!
 

 

7:00 PM EDT
River of Peace 

Program Summary
There is no shortage of bad news. But a focus on obstructions limits our perceptions to seeing obstacles! As visionaries of a new way of being in the world, we are called to see and create progressive actions and movements. As institutions and beliefs in the way things have been are falling apart (as some of our speakers attest to) there is a call from multiple areas to rebuild in a transformative way. This can be seen in the environmental realm in an absolute way, but is also present in the economic realm, in the peace paradigm, in racial justice, in climate justice, in brain science, in the reframing how nations interact as people envision a UN that functions better, and ultimately how people movements are acting in intersectional ways to build capacity across areas.  Join us for a discussion of a River of Peace as we increase our perceptions of what is and what shall be!
 

Tina Deshotels Shelton

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

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 www.humansandearth.com
 

Hannah Lee

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.

Rhetta Morgan

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. https://www.reverendrhetta.com/