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SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
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Charlie Clements is a well-known human rights activist and public health physician. Throughout the years, Charlie has faced several moral dilemmas that shaped his life. As a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Academy who had flown more than 50 missions in the Vietnam War, Charlie decided the war was immoral and refused to fly missions that were in support of the invasion of Cambodia. Later, as a newly trained physician, he chose to work in the midst of El Salvador's civil war, where the villages he served were bombed, rocketed, or strafed by some of the same aircraft in which he had previously trained. For two years in the late 1980s, Charlie served as director of human rights education at UUSC, leading a number of congressional fact-finding delegations to Central America. In 1997, as president of Physicians for Human Rights, he participated both in the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and the treaty signing for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Charlie is author of Witness to War (Bantam) and subject of an Academy Award-winning documentary of the same title.
Todd Jones is a lifelong social activist who
has turned his passion for human rights into a remarkable record
of service and advocacy. As a UUSC local representative, he
achieved the lofty goal of 100 percent membership at his
Bellingham, Wash., church. He is a member and former chair of
UUSC’s Board of Trustees.
Atema Eclai has worked around the world on issues of conflict resolution, negotiation, microcredit, health, genital mutilation, and participatory quality education. She has chaired sessions at the U.N. women's conferences in Nairobi and Beijing and has facilitated many international meetings. Atema was also a chief facilitating team member for Women Waging Peace, an initiative of the Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government. "I am only an apprentice in the field of human rights, learning each day to question and challenge unjust power structures," says Atema. "Human rights work moves me from a place of easy excuses to a space of seeking real, just solutions. It gives me hope and the courage to believe that the world we live in can change."
A devoted water rights activist, Patricia Jones firmly believes that we need to change the way we think about and use our water. "Our challenge is to provide safe, accessible water to each person, and for future generations, by changing the way we think about water and our environment, and what we do with our water," she says. As manager of the Environmental Justice Program, Patricia's work focuses specifically on the human right to water and the problems associated with managing water services. Prior to joining UUSC, she worked with the International Water Law Research Institute, University of Dundee, in developing a legal assessment model for resolving conflicts over transboundary water. Previously, she worked for 18 years at El Centro de la Raza, Seattle, Wash., a community-based nongovernmental organization focusing on social justice nationally and U.S. foreign policy in Latin America.
Kim McDonald is responsible for the development and implementation of UUSC's JustWorks camps and other experiential learning opportunities that focus on educating participants on human rights and social justice issues. Before joining UUSC in 1993, she worked in both the social services and legal fields. "I believe that two of my most obvious characteristics — being both black and female — have affected the way that I see the world," says Kim. "I understand that how we perceive other people or events is often affected by subjective criteria. I enjoy finding out why people think and act the way they do. Developing experiential learning opportunities allows me to pursue my passion for a living."
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Charlie Clements
Todd
Jones
Atema Eclai
Patricia A. Jones
Kim McDonald
