Staff

Jeneve Brooks, Strategic Support and Initiatives Coordinator
Jeneve Brooks brings more than twenty years of varied strategic outreach, special events, program planning, public education, advocacy, and development experience to WILPF US, having worked with a host of non-profit organizations since 2000. Jeneve holds a PhD in Sociology from Fordham University and a Masters in Social Research from Hunter College. She was a tenured professor who also wrote and served as the Principal Investigator for numerous grants during her time in academia. However, her heart for activism and service beckoned her to leave academia and apply her talents to organizations more directly committed to peace and justice. She has a long history of activism from anti-Apartheid, reproductive rights, and US out of Central America efforts in college to working on peace issues more directly after Sept. 11th. A life-long musician, Jeneve wrote her doctoral dissertation on the presence of anti-war music in the public sphere from the Vietnam War era to the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. She has collected a database of 4000 anti-war songs. Jeneve has published her research in various journals including some race relations work that was profiled in Peace and Conflict Studies. She is currently renovating an old home in Dothan, AL (called AL Seed) to be used as a community gathering space to feature independent and documentary films as well as music. wilpfus.jenevebrooks@gmail.com

Michael Ippolito, National Communications Coordinator
Michael is a high school math (and sometimes science) teacher in greater Boston's metro area at the Fredrick Douglass Academy. Michael is a national speaker on the ecological crisis along with the corporate influence on law and government. As an activist and organizer, Michael has led or supported many aspects of the greater People’s Movement-at-Large for over fifteen years and serves as a movement strategist. From presentations, radio interviews, touring with Neil Young as a spokesperson against corporate power, national coordinator supporting the People's Climate March in New York City, member of interOccupy serving the People's Movement-at-Large, or teaching in rural South Africa and much more, there are many roles and ways in which Michael has lent his energy to helping create a people-centered sustainable world. Michael's work is made possible with the support of his life-partner & WILPF member Julie who over the last ten years has been and continues to be a cornerstone in Michael's life. A favorite quote of Michael's: "Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war"- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. michael@teamgood.org, 781-589-5860

Wendy McDowell, Editor, Peace & Freedom
Wendy McDowell has more than 25 years of experience as a communications professional in higher education and nonprofit settings. She has served as editor in chief for Harvard Divinity Bulletin since 2008, and under her leadership the Bulletin has twice won “Magazine of the Year” honors from the Religion Newswriters Association. She was the staff writer and media relations officer for Harvard Divinity School from 2000-2008. Before 2000, she worked for five years as a media relations assistant with the National Council of Churches in New York City. She holds two graduate degrees, a Master of Divinity degree (MDiv) from Union Theological Seminary and a master’s degree in English from Harvard Extension School, where she won the Dean’s Prize for Outstanding ALM Thesis. Working for WILPF allows Wendy to return to her activist roots. She was the coordinator of her undergraduate college’s student peace organization (Hamilton Organization for Peace on Earth), and was also active in student movements to end apartheid in South Africa. She lives with her family in Cambridge, MA. wendymcdowell12@gmail.com, 617-416-1222.

Glenn Ruga, IT and Web Communications Specialist
Glenn Ruga is an award-winning graphic designer and communications professional with more than 30 years of experience working with nonprofit, education, and corporate clients including International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Physicians for Human Rights, Institute for Health Policy, and dozens of others. Glenn is founder and director of the Social Documentary Network, which has featured 1800 online exhibitions by 1300 photographers from all corners of the globe. He was a founding member and president of the Massachusetts-based international development and advocacy organization, the Center for Balkan Development (1994-2008). He has an MA from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst (1981) in social thought and political economy and an MFA from Syracuse University (1990) in graphic and advertising design.

Chris Wilbeck, Administrator
Chris comes to WILPF with a master’s degree in marketing research from Iowa State University and more than 20 years of management experience spanning consumer, business and non-profit sectors. After working as a research professional in Chicago for many years, Chris and her husband moved back to their home state of Iowa where they bought a 10-acre farmstead in Greene County, the same county where her Irish ancestors settled. They had a son, built a small campground in their pasture for bike and water trail tourists, and were living the dream. But, that dream was soon halted by the threat of hog confinements invading the Iowa countryside. Always one to stand up for what is right, Chris rose as an activist, organizing neighbors and others seeking protection for their water and quality of life. Now living in Des Moines, Chris works as a consultant to advance the work of non-profits whose missions and values support her own. info@wilpfus.org.