Board of Directors:
Linda Kenoyer, chair, moved to Livingston in 2008, but already feels like it is the home town she never knew she’d been looking for all her life. Linda recently retired from being a researcher at Boise State University. This is the third time she has retired and she thinks this time it will stick. The first time it was from a career as a Seattle Firefighter where she was one of the first four women in that exclusive boy’s club. The second time was from a career as a semiconductor engineer. In her checkered past she has been a cab driver, karate teacher, ski trail groomer, secretary,crafts sales-hippie, housekeeper, school bus driver, engineering technician, and paleo-climatology lab rat, as well as serving on the board of several women’s organizations in Seattle. She has a sense of humor and a sense of direction, but no fashion sense and no common sense. She is happy to help with computer and website issues wherever she can. She is honored to be on the board of Montana Women For.
Donna Gleaves, Secretary, believes in social justice, and is delighted to be a part of Montana Women For! She worked for 25 years as an advocate for people with disabilities, and now serves as the parish administrator for the Episcopal Churches of the Upper Yellowstone. Montana is home by choice, although Donna grew up on the Atlantic coast in Virginia Beach and Norfolk. As an ordained Deacon in the Episcopal Church, Donna feels blessed to be able to combine her work as a deacon and with Montana Women For on behalf of the multitude of social justice issues facing us today.
Anita Varley, Treasurer, has a long history of activism for social justice and environmental stewardship. She joined the first anti-war demonstration at the University of Utah in 1964. She continued her passions while working 22 years for the National Park Service in Yellowstone. She served in several capacities: interpretation, visitor services, concessions, and as the parks Federal Women’s Program Manager. Her favorite post was as the supervisor for the park’s backcountry/wilderness management program. Now retired, she lives in Bozeman with her husband also retired from the National Park Service. She joined MWF in May when she worked on the Mothers’ Day March. Anita looks forward to working with our exceptional and dedicated members for the betterment of our society and our planet.
Joanie Kresich is a long time educator with many years in both general and special education, a community and peace activist, and a poet. Empowerment of all is the thread that runs through all aspects of her life work. She hails from Berkeley CA where the word citizen is a verb, so working with MWF is a perfect fit. She has been trained in restorative circles practice, and is working to bring a center to Livingston to make those practices available here. Living in Montana full time is exhilarating for a city girl used to the sounds of traffic; the sounds of geese flying low overhead is still occasion for celebration. Trips to an off the grid cabin in the Bridgers she shares with her husband, a Bozeman native, brings nature and its inhabitants up close.
Margie Kidder is an actress and writer who has been politically active since 1980. She campaigned for the California Nuclear Freeze initiative in that state and then expanded her work and campaigned for over 20 Senate and House candidates around the country in 1980 and 1984. She worked with the Jesse Jackson campaign in 1988, Amnesty International, Madre, The Fellowship of Reconciliation (a Quaker peace group), and many other peace organizations. She attended the Democratic National Convention as a reporter in 1984 and then again in 1988 as a delegate for the Jackson campaign, and traveled to Russia in 1984 as a representative of the American Peace Movement on a political exchange sponsored by Jerry Brown. She is now an advocate for a sane national mental health policy and for the mentally ill and for orthomolecular medicine, a natural way to cure mental illness. She has been with Montana Women For since its inception.
Frances Stewart is our newest board member. As soon as we have her bio, we’ll post it here.