IWC Slate Elected on June 14, 2022
Elected to the IWC Board of Directors:
Beth O’Connell, France, for a second 3-year term
Beth O’Connell is a journalist who has been living in Europe since 2002. Currently a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Paris, she is a former vice-president and remains engaged in social action. Beth is also involved in the European Unitarian Universalists, serving as liaison with and obtaining support for IWC as well as increasing involvement of UUs in Europe with IWC's Tuesday Gatherings and committees. She participated in IWC’s pilgrimage to Bolivia in 2015 and the Asilomar Convocation in 2017. She helped organize and served as moderator of IWC workshops at the NGO Forum for the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2021 and 2022.
Deb Pritchard, USA, for a first 3-year term
Deb Pritchard has been active in Unitarian social justice since she joined UU fellowships in Northern California with her young family 25 years ago. Following her service in the Peace Corps in the Philippines, she decided to remain, dedicating her energy to organizational development and management training for NGOs and private businesses on the island of Palawan. During her stay, she helped establish Special Olympics and worked with Chambers of Commerce and Rotary Clubs in community organizing. Deb has had a variety of careers: corporate marketing director, Special Education teacher, and management consultant. Since her return to California’s central coast in 2019, she has focused on intergenerational work addressing climate change and women’s empowerment. She is in the process of publishing a memoir of her decade in the Philippines.
Peg Swain, USA, for a second 3-year term
Peg Swain was Co-Director of Religious Education at Jefferson UU Church in Golden, Colorado (1980s) before moving with her family to Davis, California where she is an active member of the UU Church and participated in its Partner Church outreach. A feminist anthropologist by trade, her work at UC Davis included directing Gender and Global Issues (GGI), a 1990s Ford Foundation supported program for visiting international women activists – primarily from Asian and African nations – working in environmental, reproductive, and social justice movements. She deeply values being able to follow these interests now in her current connections with the IWC community.
Elected to the IWC Nominating Committee
Vicki Roberts-Gassler, USA, for a 2-year term
Vicki Roberts-Gassler once brushed off missionaries from a different faith by asserting that she was a “devout Unitarian,” thinking it was a joke. She realized the significance of the UU community in her life when she joined the UU congregation in Greensboro, NC in 1981. As a UU, she co-directed Religious Education (RE) programs, served on church boards, and co-coordinated Cakes for the Queen of Heaven, a woman-honoring adult RE curriculum. During the 23 years she and her family lived in Brussels, Belgium, she was active in the European Unitarian Universalists (EUU), attending many of their twice-yearly retreats and serving in various capacities, including as an EUU representative to the International Council of Unitarians*Universalists. When she and her husband retired, they lived with the Khasi-Pnar Unitarians in India for nearly a year and volunteered as English tutors in the Jowai high school. Now living in Everett, WA, Vicki joined the Edmonds UU Congregation, where she is a member of the Advocates for Women committee. In her spare time, she volunteers with her local League of Women Voters, quilts, embroiders, and enjoys her small family.
