International Human Rights and Environmental Advocate
Previously Aired On: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - Listen to the Show!
Mrs. Kucinich is an international advocate for human rights, environmental sustainability and global prosperity.
Elizabeth’s work parallels that of her husband, Congressman Dennis Kucinich. She traveled with him to the Middle East in 2006 when he met with leaders of Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine immediately after the Israel-Lebanon war. Dennis and Elizabeth also spent time in destroyed communities, listening to people’s stories.
Mrs. Kucinich holds a BA in Religious Studies and Theology and an MA in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent, U.K. and has completed vocational training in Core Skills in U.N. Human Rights Fieldwork, SPHERE: implementation training in Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, and the Child Protection Certificate. In alignment with her core commitments, Elizabeth is also credentialed in conflict transformation studies through the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in Appreciative Inquiry at Case Western Reserve University, USA and in Peace and Reconciliation Studies at Coventry University, U.K. Before coming to America, Mrs. Kucinich was a volunteer British Red Cross refugee caseworker and a support worker for detained asylum seekers, while working fulltime for the nonprofit organization, Mission to Seafarers.
Mrs. Kucinich’s work has taken many forms. She is engaged in policy and humanitarian issues such as human and animal rights as well as showing how businesses can be agents of positive change in the world. Elizabeth is actively involved in the Congressional Human Rights and Holistic Health Caucuses in the House of Representatives, has taught graduate MBA courses on monetary reform, environmental sustainability and appreciative organizational development. As a life long advocate of environmental sustainability and ecological protection, Elizabeth, trained by Al Gore, is a certified presenter on Climate Change.
Elizabeth started early to strive for the transformation of an entrenched destructive political culture to one of empowerment, peace and prosperity. She first lobbied the British Parliament at age fourteen; at seventeen she taught in Hungary and at eighteen was offered her first job working for an MP who encountered her hand delivering 600 letters on a school day to MPs on the issue of animal welfare and factory farming. Instead of taking the position, Elizabeth decided to travel alone to India for six months where she fulfilled her dream to work at a Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa) home in Agra and later moved to a village close to the Taj Mahal where she developed a small environment focused education project for Dahlit children, providing a safe space for children of all backgrounds to socialize and learn together as equals.
Because of her experiences living with a subsistence farming community in East Africa (2002-2003), working in education, HIV/AIDS prevention, appropriate technology water and energy projects, Mrs. Kucinich formed SHE (Sustainable Holistic Enterprise) in 2006, in partnership with Cleveland based International Partners in Mission. SHE is sponsoring an education project in East Africa. SHE has just started researching comparable models for application in underserved communities in the United States. Elizabeth worked with the Forum for Stable Currencies at the House of Lords, London, and organized the American Monetary Institute’s first international conference in Chicago. For Elizabeth, reforming the global debt-based money system is the most pressing issue of our time.
An interesting note:
My final exam for my MA was on “Conflict Resolution in World Politics” the date of the exam: September 11th, 2001.
Elizabeth’s favorite quote: “Knowing love I shall allow all things to come and go, to be as supple as the wind and take everything that comes with great courage. My heart is as open as the sky.” –from ‘Kama Sutra’ film
Elizabeth would like everyone to watch the film by Paul Grignon: Money As Debt
July 1st, 2008
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