biographies-3

Quaker Peace Roundtable

Quaker Peace Roundtable: Presenters’ Biographies -- 3

MARY LORD (Workshop: A New Campaign for the Peaceful Prevention of Armed Conflicts & Gross Violations of Human Rights; Panel: What Keeps Us Going): Mary Lord works for the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) where she is developing a new project on peaceful prevention of armed conflict. She also has developed and led a young adult program for FCNL and has been released by Baltimore Yearly Meeting to work on Quaker volunteer service, Friends Peace Teams and other projects. She also speaks and leads workshops on the spiritual base of Friends peacemaking.
        Prior to her work among Friends, Mary was founder and served for twelve years as executive director of ACCESS, a non-profit publisher, information service, and comprehensive database on international affairs based in Washington DC.
        Previously, she was for six years the Deputy Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the American affiliate of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, winner of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. From 1967-75, Mary Lord was a senior policy analyst with the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare. She has also been a consultant to a number of public and private organizations, and has written on the changing role of nongovernmental organizations in international affairs. She received her B.A. in Government and Public Administration from American University in 1967, and a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979.

JUDITH MCDANIEL (Workshop: AFSC Peace Mobilization Teams): Judith McDaniel is the Director of the Peace Building Unit of the AFSC. Her background in peace building was developed in domestic and international peace campaigns, most recently in the work in Central America that is referred to as the Sanctuary Movement. Her book about that work, Sanctuary: A Journey, was published in 1986.
    Before going to AFSC, Judith McDaniel taught in the Religious Studies and Women's Studies Programs at the University of Arizona. She is currently writing the biography of peace and civil rights activist Barbara Deming. She is a member of Albany, N.Y., Friends Meeting.

RON MOCK (Workshop: The Biblical Basis for Peacemaking; Panel: What Keeps Us Going): Ron Mock directs the Center for Peace Learning at George Fox University. He teaches political science and peace studies, as well as the intensified studies seminar for honors students. He has special interests in community mediation, civilian peacemaker teams, and the role of civil society in sustaining peaceful societies. His wife Melanie teaches writing and literature at GFU. His daughter Melanie graduates this spring from GFU, and his son Ryan is finishing his junior year in high school.
        He was frustrated that Roundtable organizers, who should know better, scheduled the event while the Pirates were out of town.

BRIDGET MOIX (Workshop: The UN and Peacebuilding): Bridget Moix currently works as Project Coordinator with the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) in New York on issues of conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and alternatives to military intervention. In this capacity, she monitors related activities at the UN, organizes off-the-record dialogues for diplomats, UN staff, and the NGO community, and writes periodic articles on pertinent issues. In addition to her program work, she also assists with QUNO's website development and fundraising for Quaker House. Her position with QUNO is supported through a New Voices Fellowship, administered by the Academy for Educational Development and funded by the Ford Foundation.
        Before beginning work with QUNO-NY, Bridget completed a Masters in International Affairs at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, focusing on Human Security and International Conflict Resolution. Throughout her degree studies, she also worked with the World Policy Institute's Arms Trade Resource Center, where she was responsible for research and writing on issues of African conflict. Prior to moving to New York, Bridget worked with the Friends Committee on National Legislation on security policy issues.
        Bridget is also teaching a course at Columbia University on religion and conflict resolution. She is a member of Fifteenth Street Meeting in New York City.

JOE VOLK (Plenary: A New Congress, New President, New Challenges): Joe Volk is the Executive Secretary for the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a Quaker lobby in the public interest, established in 1943 in Washington, DC. Joe lobbies especially on military spending, arms transfers, arms control and disarmament, treaty ratification, and peacekeeping. Currently, his FCNL lobbying work centers on the campaign to ban landmines, a Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers, ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, opposition to a new version of Star Wars, and support for policies that seek peaceful resolution to violent conflicts. Joe Volk is a founding member of the Arms Transfers Working Group, composed of arms control, religious, scientific, women's and veterans groups.
        Before coming to FCNL, Joe Volk was on the staff of the American Friends Service Committee from 1972 to 1990. Joe Volk received his Bachelor's Degree in Religion in 1966 from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Joe is a Vietnam-era veteran. He began a career in the peace movement when in 1967 he refused a deferment from the draft and went into the Army to try to organize troops to refuse deployment to Vietnam. In 1968, he refused to go with his mechanized cavalry unit to Vietnam. Although convicted in a court martial on AWOL charges, he received an honorable discharge, after doing a short time in an Army stockade.
        Joe resides with his wife, Beth, a staff person at BASIC (British-American Security Information Council), in Arlington, VA, and commutes to work by bicycle. Their three grown children live in California and Oregon. Joe is member of the Ann Arbor (MI) Friends Meeting.