2022 UNA of Greater Milwaukee Chapter Monthly Forums
All programs were presented virtually on Zoom on the second Saturday of the month unless otherwise noted.
January 2022
Program Title: “How Can the City of Milwaukee Fight Climate Change?”
Featured Speaker: Erick Shambarger, Milwaukee’s Sustainability Director
Program Details: Erick Shambarger described the work of the Environmental Collaboration Office, as it attempts to meet the United Nations environmental goals, and what more could be done with greater public support. Since 2015, he has overseen the implementation of the Refresh Milwaukee sustainability plan.
February 2022
Program Title: “How to Bring Foreign Policy Issues to Candidates and Voters”
Featured Speakers: Four Milwaukee Peace Activists: Jim Carpenter, Sharaka Berry, Pam Richard, and Steve Watrous
Program Details: The four Milwaukee Peace Advocates spoke on how the 2022 Spring WI Senate race offers an opportunity for activists to raise issues & encourage candidates to support pro-peace positions. Speakers focused on the following issues: Cutting the Pentagon budget, nuclear weapons, Yemen, easing tensions with Russia and China, sanctions on Cuba, and drone warfare.
March 2022
Program Title: “International Women’s Day Program”
Featured Speakers: Courtney Hayward and Tina Cordova
Program Details:
Courtney Hayward, lobbyist for reproductive health rights in Wisconsin, spoke on “The Threats to Abortion Rights in Wisconsin,” how anti-abortion ideologues have rolled back reproductive rights and cut Planned Parenthood patients off from care.
Tina Cordova spoke on “Justice for the Unknowing,” with a focus on the innocent victims of the July 16th, 1945 Trinity atomic bomb blast in New Mexico. She described communities in New Mexico demanding justice and working towards a nuclear-free world. She is a 4th generation cancer survivor.
April 2022
Program Title: “United Nations School of International Learning World’s Fair”
Featured Speakers: This annual UNSIL program featured 2,000 enthusiastic 4th - 8th graders from 14 Milwaukee Public Schools presenting their projects about the countries and cultures they studied and the goals of the United Nations. An in-person program at the UW Milwaukee Panther Arena.
May 2022
Program Title: “Advocates for a Better World: the UNA and Our Youth”
Featured Speakers: Rachel Bowen Pittman and Margaret “Peggy” Rozga
Program Details: Rachel Bowen Pittman, Executive Director of the United Nations Association-USA spoke about the grassroots advocacy movement of more than 20,000 Americans in 225+ UNA-USA chapters who are dedicated to supporting the work of the United Nations in their communities and on Capitol Hill.
Margaret “Peggy” Rozga, a professor and a former Wisconsin Poet Laureate, spoke on “Youth Advocacy for Social Change, reflections on her experience with youth leadership and participation with middle and high school students in Milwaukee's open housing marches as well as with her ongoing concern for social justice.
June 2022
Program Title: “NATO and the United Nations: Peace in Europe?”
Featured Speakers: Gary Shellman. PhD and Harry Targ, PhD
Program Details: Two retired professors, a historian, Gary Shellman, PhD, and a political scientist, Harry Targ, PhD, brought their experience as scholars and advocates for stability in postwar Europe, as they discussed of the effectiveness of NATO and the United Nations and their future challenges.
July 2022
Program Title: “2022 Senate Candidates Virtual Forum on War, Peace, and Military Spending”
Program Details: Six candidates: Sarah Godlewski (D), Tom Nelson (D), Steven Olikara (D), Darrell Williams (D), and David Schroeder (R) spoke on their perspectives on the Ukraine War, nuclear weapons, military spending vs. unmet human needs, basing F-35s in Madison, the Yemen War, and sanctions.
August 2022
Program Title: “Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Lanterns for Peace”
Program Details: During the Lanterns for Peace in-person event, the suffering inflicted by the dropping in 1945 of the atomic bombs by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was commemorated.
September 2022
Program Titles: “Voting in Milwaukee and the United States: Overcoming Obstacles to Voting!”
Featured Speakers: Rev. Greg Lewis spoke on “Reviving the Vote!” and Dorothy K. Dean spoke on “What Needs to be Repaired?”
Program Details: The two speakers provided insight to help the public separate truth from fiction in evaluating information about voting and the election process that is published in the media.
October 2022
Program Title: “Spotlight on: The Abolishment of Nuclear Weapons”
Featured Speaker: Ira Helfand, MD
Program Details: Dr. Ira Helfand, a life-long anti-nuclear activist, discussed the report “Nuclear Famine: 2 Billion at Risk?” an outline of the global health consequences of regional nuclear war.
November 2022
Program Title: “Reclaim Armistice Day: A Day to Celebrate Peace, Not War” at Milwaukee City Hall.
Featured Speakers: Kelly Denton-Borhaug
Program Details: A presentation by Kelly Denton-Borhaug, a religious scholar, on the challenges of encouraging thoughtful discussion on the impact of violence and war on the American way of life.
December 2022
Program Title: “2022 International Human Rights Day Celebration In Milwaukee”
Featured Speakers: Matt Rothschild, Scott Thompson, and Patricia Ruiz-Cantu
Program Details: Three speakers with extensive human rights experience in the defense of voting access discussed the critical relationship of voting to human rights.
The 2022 Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission Equality Awards winners were introduced during the program.
2021 UNA of Greater Milwaukee Chapter Monthly Forums
January – Students in the Whitefish Bay High School Model United Nations Program gave a presentation on several aspects of the UN, such as the World Court.
February – "Hunger in Milwaukee and the World: What Can We Do About It?” with Lady Lee Thompson, a 2020-2021 UNA-USA Global Goals Ambassador; David Sinclair, local community advocate for low-income families; and Maureen Fitzgerald, Director of Advocacy at Hunger Task Force for the last 11years.
March – The UNA -GM Chapter’s annual celebration of International Women’s Day, "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women,” with Truth Freemyn, Leadership Development and Training Manager with 9to5 Wisconsin; State Senator Latonya Johnson of the 6th Senate District; and Dr. Lisa Conley, instructor in Department of Biological Sciences and President of AFT Local 212 at MATC.
April – Presentations by the 2020 UNA-GM Milwaukee Global Citizen Award winners: “How do We Respond to Today’s Challenges.” The Awardees were Ken Greening, Annie Woodward, Ruth Zubrensky and Pardeep Singh Kaleka.
May – "The Challenges Facing Native Nations Today,” with Morning Star Gali, member of the Pit River Tribe and Project Director for Restoring Justice for Indigenous People; and Anahkwet (Guy Reiter), Executive Director of the Menominee Indian Organization called Menikanaehkem.
June – “Honoring Juneteenth Day from Milwaukee to Afghanistan,” with Angela Lang, Executive Director of Black Leaders Organizing for Community (BLOC), and Kimberly Motley, international human rights and civil rights attorney.
September – “The Genocide that Rages On: Crisis in Cameroon,” with Valentine Mbinglo, a leader of the Southern Cameroons National Council.
October – “Urgency and Agency in the Battle to Avert a Climate Crisis,” presentation by Dr. Michael E. Mann, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. This event was a collaboration with the Whitefish Bay High School Model United Nations Program.
November – "How Can We Stop Gun Violence?” with Deja Garner, Director of Equity and Outreach at the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort (WAVE); and Tim Daley, Senior Program Officer in the Gun Violence Prevention and Justice Reform Program with the Joyce Foundation.
December – The UNA-GM Chapter’s annual UN International Human Rights Day Celebration: “Human Rights Challenges Facing Democracy’s Future.” Discussed both domestically and globally by Dr. Rachael Buff, who teaches history and Comparative Ethnic Studies at UWM; Tim Muth, staff attorney at the ACLU with a focus on immigration rights, and author of a blog called El Salvador Perspectives; and Dr. Paru Shah, Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at UWM. This program is in collaboration with the City of Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission and the Milwaukee County Human Rights Commission.