NATIONAL OFFICE STAFF
Dennis Lane
Executive Director
Dennis Lane is a native of St Louis, MO. He served with the US Army in Vietnam for 14 months with the 7th Battalion 15th Artillery from 1967 to 1969. While serving in Vietnam he earned the Army Commendation Medal for distinguished service.
He is especially committed to working in this position because of his combat experience. Not only is he against war in principle in resolving issues, but he is especially concerned about the personal impact that combat has on the military personnel. He will work tirelessly maintain contact with Veterans of all ages and has demonstrated his networking skills in his previous position.
Dennis comes to the Executive Director of Veterans For Peace position with over 25 years of nonprofit experience. One of his first priorities will be to initiate a comprehensive fund raising program so VFP can expand its mission outreach. One of his immediate concerns will be to understand how VFP can better serve the local chapters.
Finally, he is deeply honored that he was selected to serve in this position and wants the Veterans For Peace diverse constituents to know that he is there to listen and to serve them.
Chrissie Brooks
Administrative Assistant
Before beginning her work with Veterans For Peace, Chrissie served as an organizer for a variety of political campaigns, including Asst. Director of Special Programs for America Coming Together, Field Organizer for the MoveOn "Call for Change" campaign during the 2006 Congressional elections and Field Director for MO State Senator Jeff Smith. A native of the St. Louis area, she has had the good fortune to dedicate herself to progressive political and social advocacy in one of the most highly contested swing states in the nation. Chrissie would like to personally thank President Bush for providing her with the opportunity to work with an astounding number of highly energized progressive campaigns during the course of his tenure. She is eagerly awaiting the premiere of the administration's reunion tour (TBA), to be held at the Peace Palace located in the South Holland provincial capital, The Hague, Netherlands.
Virginia Druhe
Office Manager
Virginia Druhe is a native St. Louisan. She has worked with the Catholic Worker community there, the American Friends Service Committee, the National Farm Worker Ministry and her local public elementary school. She lived and worked in Nicaragua for a year and a half with Witness for Peace during the mid-1980's. Anti-war work has been a fundamental commitment in her life.
Jeanette McDermott
Membership Coordinator
Jeanette served as a roster artist with the Kentucky Arts Council for three years, and as director of media arts for a non-profit arts activist organization she co-founded, and as executive director of an environmental education non-profit organization she created in Kentucky. For many years she worked as a photojournalist for newspapers and magazines and as a television and radio personality for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Reserve and United Press International. In volunteer capacities, Jeanette has developed and managed programs in forestry and wetland habitat enhancement and forestry stewardship, environmental education and conservation media production. She has served on the board of directors of the Kentucky Association of Environmental Education, Kentucky Woodland Owners Association and several community preservation coalitions and neighborhood associations. Jeanette has received accolades for her leadership and vision, including awards for environmental education outreach and forestry and wetland restoration from the Kentucky Division of Forestry, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife and Jefferson County (KY) government. She has received extensive grant funding from diverse public and private sources for youth media, girl empowerment, youth leadership, environmental education and forestry stewardship. Jeanette was nominated twice as “The Most Admired Woman in the Arts” by Today’s Woman magazine in Louisville, Kentucky. Jeanette is a retired veteran. Her military service includes 11 years enlisted in the Navy as a photojournalist and 12 years as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve.
Betsy Reznicek
Communications and Outreach Coordinator
Betsy comes with a background both in education and local community organizing. She has been involved with a number of peace and justice groups in the St. Louis area throughout the last few years, including Instead of War, Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression and the Community Arts and Media Project, as well as the Independent Media Center.
Betsy recieved her BA in History and Secondary Education in 2002. She creates the weekly email blasts, updates the website and email lists, takes and disseminates press requests, works with chapters to support membership in VFP, and takes on special projects..
Corey Westbury
Intern
Corey graduated from West Virginia University last May with
a BA in International Studies/Development.
She is a native of St. Louis
and is extremely excited to be back home and interning with VFP! She
spent the fall 2009 semester living and
studying abroad in Sydney, Australia. It was there that
she realized that she
wanted to pursue a career in the non-profit sector, specifically with
regards
to humanitarian work in the developing world.
She looks forward to helping VFP spread its message of exposing
the true
costs of war in the coming months!
Doug Zachary
Fundraiser
A Conscientious Objector dischargee from the USMC in 1970, Doug earned a B.S. in Political Science at the University of Texas/Arlington in 1975 and an M.A. in Culture and Spirituality at Holy Names College in Oakland, CA in 2003. As a member of the Neil Bischoff Chapter of VFP and the Director of the Austin Peace and Justice Coalition, Doug traveled to Mexico and to the Mideast. He is building a grassroots fundraising system within Veterans For Peace. You may receive a phone call soon regarding our "Development and Action Fund"!
Woody Powell
Served in the USAF, 1950-54, in Korea 1952-53. Air Police, K-9 Corps. Air Base Defense. Educated at U. of California, Berkeley and U. of Connecticut, Storrs. Pursued careers in publishing, construction and steel industry sales, and hazardous materials management. President/founder of Gateway Society of Hazardous Materials Managers, 1990. Fellow of the Institute of Hazardous materials Management. Most recent full-time employment was as Executive Director of VFP, 2001 - 2005.
A Veteran For Peace since Gulf War I. Human rights observer in Chiapas and Oaxaca in 1998. Delegate for VFP with the Colombia Support Network to the Magdalena Medio region of Colombia in 2000. Returned to Korea in 2000 - 2001 as part of Korean Truth Tribunal activities, and in 2006 with Veterans For peace delegation in support of Korean farmers fighting to keep their land out of the hands of the U.S. military. Co-Author of book Two Walk the Golden Road with Zhou Ming-fu (a Chinese who fought with the Chinese People Army in Korea): the lives of two Korean War vets from two different cultures who come to the same conclusions about the waste and uselessness of war.