BOARD members for 2009 - with bios

 WNPJ Board – 2009 – approved by the members at the Fall Assembly, Oct. 4^th - Milwaukee

Officers:

Co- Chair:  Chamomile Nusz                         Co-Chair: Bill Christofferson
715-824-3463, Amherst                                    414-486-9651, Milwaukee, WI
chamomile@arthaonline.com                            xofferson@wi.rr.com

Secretary:  John Peck                                      Treasurer:  Stefania Sani      
608-260-0900, Madison                                    608-217-2248
familyfarmdefenders@yahoo.com                    stefania_sani@hotmail.com

Past Chair: Janet Parker                                
608-257-2748, Madison      janetparker8@yahoo.com           

Members-at-Large  
Chuck Baynton 414-961-1467, Whitefish Bay  cbaynton@gmail.com

Dennis Bergren 608-467-8877, Madison   lgbt@wnpj.org

Cindy Breunig
608-219-0782, Madison cindy@mutualaid.org

Deborah Buffton, LaCrosse  Buffton.debo@uwlax.edu  608-779-9861

Wix Covey/Carol Lukens
715-675-9681 (W)  715-842-4538 (C), Wausau
wcovey@wausau.k12.wi.us – clukens@charter.net  

Zohreh Ghavamshahidi –Whitewater  ghavamsz@uww.edu 

Carol Hannah
715-634-1319, Hayward, WI  carolh@cheqnet.net

Bob Hanson  920-293-8856, Neshkoro, WI   koshin@centurytel.net

G.Simon Harak
414-288-8445, Milwaukee   Peacemaking@marquette.edu

Seth Jensen   608-251-0218, Madison
sethtristan@riseup.net

Chris Kuehnel, Cleveland, WI  - 920-693-3141  cqnel@vetsforpeacesheboygan.org

Tom McGrath
715-842-1075, Wausau    tommcgrath1@gmail.com

Marilyn Miller
414-536-0585, Milwaukee    marilyn@lhra.org

Carl Sack Superior, WI 54880 phone: (715) 398-6554 E-mail: northlandiguana@gmail.com 

Mary Beth Schlagheck
608-846-7924, Windsor   mbspeace1@charter.net

Dan Wadle
920-496-1188, Green Bay   daniel.wadle@citizenactionwi.org

Cecelia Zarate-Laun– Madison  Phone: 608-257-8753  E-mail csn@igc.org

Biographies of  the WNPJ Board Membership - 2009

Officers:

Chamomile Nusz, Co-chair Waupaca, WI chamomile@arthaonline.com Chamomile Nusz works with the Artha Sustainable Living Center in Amherst.. She received her degree from the University of Minnesota in Women’s Studies, with a Minor in dance. She has been immersed in the world of Non-Profits and Cooperatives for her entire life, working directly for them the last 9+ years. She was raised by environmentally conscious parents in a home that is off the grid. "I live my life with the belief that I can make a difference, and that the work I do each day needs to be moving us towards a better world. This belief in right livelihood has given me the chance to work with many great people, and affect change on an individual, community and global level."

Bill Christofferson, Co-chair,  Milwaukee xofferson@wi.rr.com Bill Christofferson is a Vietnam veteran and former journalist who later spent 20 years as a campaign/media consultant for Democrats in Wisconsin. In between, from 1980-83, he was the first director of Nukewatch, then Madison-based and loosely affiliated with The Progressive. Nukewatch did public education on nuclear power and weapons, and worked closely with campaigns to stop Project ELF and oppose storage of high-level nuclear waste in Wisconsin. He was also one of the key organizers of the 1982 nuclear freeze referendum, the first statewide vote in the country, which carried 3-1, working closely with Midge Miller, one of WNPJ's founders. Since retiring in 2007, he serves as a member of the national Iraq Moratorium committee, a board member of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort (WAVE), which works to prevent firearm violence, and a board member of the Greater Wisconsin Committee, a progressive issue advocacy group.

John Peck, Secretary,  Madison, WI familyfarmdeferenders@yahoo.com    John Peck is a long-time Madison activist, currently working as the executive director of Family Farm Defenders. John has also been active with WNPJ, leading the Corporate Accountability team. He can often be found at the Madison Infoshop, working on projects such as: Reclaiming Food Sovereignty - Putting the Culture Back into Agriculture ; Free Trade vs Fair Trade - Challenging Corporate Globalization ; Public School or Shopping Mall? - How to Democratize Your Campus; Grassroots Transformation in the Global South (with slides from Zimbabwe, East Timor, etc.); NonViolent Direct Action Strategies for Social Change (a hands-on skills building workshop) ; Political Street Theater 101 (a hands-on skills building workshop) ; Books for Prisoners Project; and much more!

Stefania Sani, Treasurer Madison, WI stefania_sani@hotmail.com  Stefania Sani has gained experience working with the budgets and finances in two areas: she served as Treasurer for the 4 Lake Greens in Madison, and more recently, served as the Treasurer for the Madison coalition to Bring Our Troops Home Referendum. Stefania has been active with her local union, SEIU, as she works at UW Hospital as a nurse. She coordinated efforts to pass a resolution at the statewide SEIU conference in 2001 to resolve that the US should not invade Afghanistan. Stefania is committed to making the world a better place to live for all; more equitable and sustainable. Her experiences as a world-citizen, living in Italy and India, brings a broad perspective to WNPJ about why we all need to live in harmony on our planet. She has a son living here in Madison and a partner, Gil Halsted, who works in radio.

Past chair:

Janet Parker,  Madison, WI janet@wnpj.org   Janet Parker is a Madison activist with the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (www.iraqpledge.org) which uses Gandhian nonviolence to work to end the war in Iraq. She has been arrested six times for nonviolent civil disobedience. She helped with supporting WNPJ committees and fundraising during 2004 – 2005, and worked on media for the Bring Our Troops Home referenda campaigns in 2005 - 2006. She is a Quaker and is trained as a draft counselor. Janet is employed by the Community Action Coalition as a community organizer serving people in Madison's 26 community gardens, helping gardeners grow vegetables and community together. Before moving to Madison in 1999, Janet worked for community gardeners in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Havana and coordinated a large youth environmental education project in west Baltimore from 1994 – 1998. Janet speaks Spanish and holds an masters in Land Resources from the Gaylord Nelson Institute at UW-Madison. Janet lives with her partner Walt Novash who works in renewable energy.

Members at large:

Chuck Baynton, Whitefish Bay, WI cbaynton@gmail.com Chuck Baynton was born in 1949 in Montreal and immigrated to the United States at age 6 and became a US citizen at age 17. His "professional student" days ended with graduation from medical school, having studied mathematics and economics before that. In July 2001, he retired from my internal medicine practice in rural Maine. A family cabin in Wisconsin’s north woods had been passed down to his wife, Anne, and she wanted to live closer to it, so they relocated to Milwaukee County in 2002. “When George Bush said, in the first days after the September 11 attacks, ‘We will rid the world of the evil-doers,’ I knew I had anti-war activism in my future. Besides opposition to the Afghan and Iraq wars, my activist energies have focused on nuclear disarmament and prisoner abuse.” “If you want to know more details of what I think, you can find them by visiting the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s website, www.jsonline.com, which by now has a pretty good sample of what I’ve had to say.” “Besides WNPJ, I belong to the American College of Physicians, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Human Rights Watch, the Democratic Party, The American Civil Liberties Union, Peace Action Wisconsin, the Institute of World Affairs at UW- Milwaukee, and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin.”

Dennis Bergren – Madison dbergren@charter.net Dennis Bergren, nominated to the WNPJ Board as a representative of the LGBT community: Dennis is a retired German teacher. He taught H.S. students in the Madison school district. He spent long time abroad in Europe. For many years, he has been an active member of the following organizations:LGBT organizations: Madison Area Gay/Bi Fathers Group (past secretary and President);OutReach (library committee);Frontiers Gay/Bi Men's Club (former officer and board member);Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG);Fair Wisconsin (formerly Action Wisconsin);Gay Straight Alliance for Safe Schools (formerly GLSEN);Lambda Legal Defense Network;Human Rights Campaign;Task Force Foundation..He is also a member of the Wisconsin Green Party, and Chair or their Lavender (LGBT) caucus.

Cindy Breunig – Madison.  cindy@mutualaid.org   Cindy grew up outside of Cross Plains, WI in the Black Earth Creek watershed, a landscape that shaped both her spiritual and activist roots. Her past work has involved the sanctuary movement with Voces de la Frontera - Milwaukee;   campus social justice activism and literacy work in the Barry Farms public housing community in Washington D.C.;  coordinating a post-war grassroots women's mental health program in Guatemala – including organizing a post-war mental health training program for women midwives and lay health promoters in rural Mayan communities;  and working as a Spanish Medical Interpreter in Madison, WI. She is a founder and member of the Groundwork anti-racism collective in Madison, WI, (2003) which works with white social justice activists to challenge white privilege and work for racial justice.

Deborah Buffton: I am a professor of History at the Univ. of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where I teach courses in World History, European History and Asian History.  I also teach a course on Peace and War.  I am active in the local Women in Black vigils as well as other peace initiatives.  I am the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies.  My research interests include the effect of war on societies and the ways societies remember war. . Buffton.debo@uwlax.edu  608-779-9861…. http://www.wisconsin-institute.org.

Wix Covey Wausau, WI wcovey@wausau.k12.wi.us Wix Covey. My interest in peace studies and actions has taken a dramatic turn in the last five years. It is now my passion and this offer to join you comes at an important moment for me. I have written in my journals a lot, read much and am trying to contribute to a more peaceful world through my art work, my elementary teaching position in art and interactions with friends. But these steps often seem too little response to offset the suffering in our world. My hope is that I can learn more ways to channel my ideas and solutions for peace. During my life, I have found much peace from my daily practice of tai chi, from my writings and artwork, from my family and friends and through my work with children as an art instructor. I have been blessed with the work I do teaching because it gives me opportunity to stress one's creativity and individuality. My one rule for the classroom is to be kind to others and yourself at all times. It is most rewarding to give this one simple idea and to still be able to teach art every day. I have much hope for our world. Thank you for inviting me to be with your organization. Until we meet.....Wix (sharing a seat with Carol Lukens)

Zohreh Ghavamshahidi – ghavamsz@uww.edu - UW-Whitewater – Previous chair of women's studies department and faculty member of the political science department for over 20 years. She is responsible for creating and institutionalizing the annual Women's Fair, now one of the most popular events on campus. She received the UW-Whitewater Faculty Service award in 2004. In 2008 she received Women in Leadership Award from WU-Whitewater Women’s Issues Committee.
Ghavamshahidi serves regularly as a mentor to junior faculty, has lent her expertise to many student-organized events and has appeared regularly as a featured speaker for community groups, generally on Islam-related topics and the politics of the Middle East. Her willingness to share her expertise and wide-ranging knowledge have done much to correct misconceptions held about Muslims and Islamic political movements, both on campus and throughout Wisconsin communities as well as nationwide. She regularly teaches courses in International Relations such as international law, Conflict Resolution and Crises Management in International Politics, Global Perspectives, Comparative Government in the Middle East, Women and International Relations, Women and Politics  and Introduction to Women’s Studies. She is two times Fulbright Scholar and has received grants from the National Endowment for Humanity and the United States Institute of Peace. Her recent research focus in Iran’s Nuclear Policy, and Hijab in Islam and the West.

Carol Hannah Hayward, WIcarolh@cheqnet.net  Carol retired from Corporate America to the peace of the North Woods of Wisconsin. But the current administration doesn't bring much peace. So she became a founding member of Peace North. The Peace North membership agreed that WNPJ is worthwhile and we're now members, glad that an umbrella organization exists and glad that it is reaching out to Northern Wisconsin.

Bob  "ko shin"  Hanson – Neshkoro koshin@centurytel.net  920-293-8856-  My name is Bob “koshin” Hanson. I now live outside the village of Neshkoro, Wisconsin. I have been ordained as a Christian/Lutheran pastor, recently retiring after  serving for over 41 years, mostly in African American congregations and communities in Milwaukee and Detroit, as well as Bay View/Milwaukee and Brookfield. I have a life time of experience in interfaith relations and understanding as a member in the 60’s & 70’s of the Order Ecumenical of the Ecumenical Institute/Institute pf Cultural Affairs, living & working in Japan and brief work in South Korea, Africa and other countries. I also work as a volunteer with the Milwaukee Zen Center twice a month with a meditation group in Red Granite  and Fox Lake Correctional Institution 's .  In the early 2000's  I served as Executive Director of InterFaith Works for over three years. I have served two years on the Board of the Interfaith group in Milwaukee with my wife as representatives of the Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  As members of Peace Action here in Wisconsin, we continue to fight for an end of the war and peace in all its present realities.  We are now planning to be part of the Parliament of World Religions in Melbourne, Australia inn December , 2009 and the Madison Interfaith Dialogue group in Madison.

G. Simon Harak, SJ Milwaukee, WI Peacemaking@marquette.edu G. Simon Harak, S. J. entered the Society of Jesus (an order of Catholic priests) in 1970, and has served as a missionary in Jamaica and the Philippines. He has a B.A from Fairfield University, an M.div from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and an M.A. from the University of Notre Dame. He finished his Ph.D. from Notre Dame in ethics on a national fellowship and began teaching ethics at Fairfield University in 1986. He was John Early Visiting Professor at Loyola College in Baltimore, MD in 1992-3. In 1995, he was chosen “Teacher of the Year” by the Fairfield University students. In 1998, he gave the Staley Lecture for Distinguished Christian Scholars, at Buena Vista University, Storm Lake, IA, and attained the rank of full professor at Fairfield, having served 5 years as Chair of the Academic Council. In 2003, Harak joined the War Resisters League as its National Anti-Militarism Coordinator, where he organized a National Speakers Bureau on war profiteering, and a national conference on war profiteering at St. Thomas University in Minneapolis-St. Paul in 2006. In 2006, he was named Pax Christi’s Long Island’s National Peacemaker of the Year, and Pax Christi’s New York City’s Peacemaker of the year. He has written articles and given numerous presentations on war profiteering across the country, spending July 2006 in Germany on a speaking tour. He will return to speak in Germany and Poland in the Summer of 2007. In January 2007, Harak left his position as at the War Resisters League to join Marquette University in Milwaukee as a professor of theology and as the Director of the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking.

Seth Jensen, Madison  sethtristan@riseup.net  608-251-0218  Seth writes: It was originally a peace activist who got me excited about raising money for the movement.  During the early days of the global justice struggle, Tony Vento of Pax Christi U.S.A. gave a presentation called, "You mean you're ready to take on corporate globalization, but you're afraid to ask for money."  His development experience was largely based on the Fundraising for Social Change Principles developed by Kim Klein (http://www.grassrootsfundraising.org/), and many years later it is those same organizing practices that I am excited to be cultivating within the Network.

When I'm not doing development work for WNPJ, you can find me expressing my passion for climate justice, small farms and indigenous rights by volunteering for the agribusiness campaign (http://ran.org/campaigns/rainforest_agribusiness/).  My other hope is to start a Transition Initiative in Madison.  (Transition Initiative refers to a type of process begun in England in which communities undertake the shift from oil dependence to local resilience.  Find out more at
http://transitionculture.org/)

Chris Kuehnel, Cleveland  - 920-693-3141  cqnel@vetsforpeacesheboygan.org . Chris is the contact for the WNPJ group, Veterans for Peace – based in the area about Sheboygan, northeast Wisconsin. He is a tireless organizer, concerned with the militaristic ways of our country.  Chris recently attended the military exhibit at Summerfest, in Milwaukee –where the infamous video”game” was on display for recruitment purposes – and he said that the purpose of peace groups ‘action alerts’ about this exhibit should not be to get a few counter recruitment youth to sign up with us (the peace movement), but it should be to shut it down,  and to expose this recruitment tool  to different levels, depending on the individual’s perspective or knowledge. “My goal and my groups’ goals aren’t to recruit more members. They are to confront “authority” and to work for change.“ 

Carol Lukens Wausau, WI clukens@charter.net  Carol Lukens worked for years as a paralegal before returning to school and receiving a teaching degree from UW-Stevens Point with majors in History and Broadfield Social Science. She is currently teaching World History at Wausau West High School which fits beautifully her passion for peace, social justice and global issues. She is a member of Northwoods Peace Fellowship in Wausau, regional organizer for the War Resisters League and particularly involved in its programs on corporate war profiteering and the issue of militarism and women.  -  A personal passion of hers is also involvement with the Hmong community. Carol has researched and presented on Hmong history, culture and immigration at high schools and colleges, and her interest in the Hmong involves not only their culture, but the fact that their immigration and the prejudices they’ve experienced are a direct result of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. (sharing a seat with Wix Covey)

Tom McGrath, Wausau, WI tommcgrath1@gmail.com - I was born in Milwaukee. I spent four years in the Navy as a Electronics Technician ( three years of which were on a Destroyer) in the 1960's. Upon leaving the Navy, I went to work for a large Computer Corporation as a technician in Milwaukee. - I moved to Wausau in 1979 and raised four children (all of which, now live out of the state). Currently I am divorced, and I am now retired from the Computer Corporation. - I became involved in the "Northwoods Peace Fellowship" through friends in Wausau over the last couple of years and through that became aware of WNPJ. Over the years I have become quite disillusioned with the current administration in Washington; since I seem to disagree with them on just about every issue.  Over the years, I've become quite aware of the amount of corruption in government, the ineptness of the current administration in Washington, and the lack of integrity among our politicians. - I am hoping to affect some of these issues by becoming more socially/politically active. It is a never ending learning process.

 Marilyn Miller Milwaukee, WI marilyn@lhra.org Marilyn Miller is the Executive Director of the Lutheran Human Relations Association (LHRA), a national peace and justice organization founded almost 55 years ago. Marilyn is an educator/trainer who has served as an adjunct faculty member of Concordia University (then College), as Advisor and Program Director for the Multicultural Engineering Program at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, and as Director of Youth and Congregational Ministries for LHRA. This work has spanned over 30 years. Marilyn is a native Milwaukeean who has served locally and nationally in helping people reach their full potential educationally and relationally. She is currently serving her second term on the Board of Directors for Frieden's Community Ministries. Other service to the community includes working with the Milwaukee Human Rights Coalition, serving as a member of the Greater Milwaukee Synod's Anti-Racism Team (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - ELCA), and as a member of the Program Committee for the Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Ministries Unit (ELCA). Marilyn is a member of Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church in Milwaukee and recently completed a Certification Program in Youth and Family Ministry through Wartburg Seminary in Iowa.

Carl Sack 1530 ½ Grand Ave.,Superior, WI 54880 phone: (715) 398-6554 E-mail: northlandiguana@gmail.com      I am a founding member of the Northland Anti-War Coalition, the regional anti-war coalition in the Duluth, MN-Superior, WI area. For the past seven years I have been actively involved in organizing local protests against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as helping organize buses to protests in Washington, D.C. in the winters of 2003 and 2007, and to Chicago in fall of 2007. I have worked to link NAWC with other peace groups in northern Wisconsin and beyond, and have directly collaborated on projects with members of Peace North (based in Hayward).   In addition to anti-war work, I have been involved in struggles for social and environmental justice in Wisconsin and globally. I am a member of Socialist Action since 2004. I graduated from Northland College in Ashland, where I was a campus organizer with Youth for Socialist Action, a member of the Peace Club, the campus newspaper’s editor and a Student Senator. Prior to college, I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where I was involved in protests against police brutality and racism. More recently, I was an active member of Save Our Unique Lands, a grassroots group that stood up to the American Transmission Company and fought the construction of the Arrowhead-Weston Power Line. In 2006 I worked with Fair Wisconsin against the state’s constitutional ban on gay marriage and civil unions. I have volunteered my time to activities ranging from strike support to support for political prisoners. Currently, I am a regular columnist and feature writer for Duluth’s Zenith City News, and a teaching assistant for Americorps in the Duluth Public School system.

Mary Beth Schlagheck, Windsor, WI mbspeace1@charter.net Mary Beth Schlagheck, Born September 3, 1938 in Richland Center, Wisconsin, Mary Beth was raised on a farm in Bear Valley. She moved to Milwaukee in 1956 where in 1965 she married James Schlagheck in 1965. Following moves from South Bend, IN and Cedar Rapids, IA, they settled in Madison in 1969. Employed by the University of Wisconsin until 1978, she dedicated herself to volunteerism in both church and community. Her activism led her to be involved in nonviolent civil disobedience, protests, line crossings and acts of religious obedience which included the Nevada Test Site, Las Vegas, NV; Whiteman A.F.B., Knob Noster, MO; Offut Air Force Base, Omaha, NB; Truax Field Air Force Base, Madison, and St. Raphael Cathedral, Madison. In response to the Reagan Administration military build-up in 1981, she joined two other women to create a weekly Vigil for Peace in front of the IRS building in downtown Madison. This Vigil continues in front of the Municipal Building in downtown Madison to the present day. In 1982 Mary Beth and Jim began the domestic support of Helen Dery Woodson by helping to care for her large family. Beginning in 1984 until the present when Helen’s civil disobedience resulted many long prison sentences,  Mary Beth and Jim along with the support  of many others, became full time caregivers of seven Woodson children. Jim Schlagheck passed away in January of 1997. In 1999 Mary Beth married John Marhoefer and moved to Windsor, WI. where she continues guardianship of the three youngest members of the Woodson family. Mary Beth remains committed to the values and ideals of nonviolence and peace through the lens of social justice for all.

Dan Wadle, Green Bay  daniel.wadle@citizenactionwi.org  Dan joined Citizen Action in February 2007. Dan received his B.S. in Political Science and History from the University of Northern Iowa in 1983, and his J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1987. Prior to joining the staff, Dan had been an Employee Benefits Administrator/Consultant and Trust Officer with financial services companies, as well as a writer and researcher. During that time, Dan was a campaign volunteer for multiple Progressive candidates. Prior to Dan's career in banking, Dan was a Presidential campaign staffer during Gary Hart's 1984 campaign, and during Paul Simon's 1988 campaign in Iowa. Dan was also a Congressional campaign staffer for Progressive candidates in Iowa in 1982 and 1986.   He is currently employed by Citizen Action of Wisconsin as their NE Wisconsin Organizer. (Dan is a contact for this member group). Address: 1642 Western Ave., Green Bay, WI 54303

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