Jodie Evans is the co-founder and co-director of CODEPINK and the co-founder of the after-school writing program, 826LA. She has been a visionary advocate for peace for several decades. An inspired motivator, Jodie invigorates nascent activists and re-invigorates seasoned activists through her ever-evolving, always exciting methods to promote peace. Whether in board rooms or war zones, Jodie’s enthusiasm for a world at peace infuses conciliation, optimism and activism.
As Director of Administration in California Governor Jerry Brown’s first administration, Jodie championed environmental causes, resulting in breakthroughs in wind and solar technology. She managed Governor Brown’s 1991 Presidential campaign that instituted a cap on financial contributions which resulted in a stronger push for campaign finance standards. Jodie serves on the board of directors of numerous organizations that foster environmental, charitable, educational, socio-political and healthcare causes, including Drug Policy Alliance, Foundation for World Arts, Global Girl Media, Hereditary Disease Foundation, Institute for Policy Studies, Motion Institute and Rainforest Action Network. In 1999, she co-created the Peace Conference in Dubrovnik centered on “Imagining Peace in the 21st Century,” and she continues to produce the multi-event World Festival of Sacred Music that takes place in Los Angeles every 3 years.
Since the start of the 2003 Iraq War, Jodie has traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Jordan. On her most recent visit to Jordan, Jodie traveled with a peace coalition to meet with delegates from the Iraqi Parliament to institute an action plan for peace and reconciliation. In Cuba, she protested the prison facility at Guantanamo, and, in 2015, she was one of 30 women activists from fifteen countries who crossed the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea calling for peace and reconciliation between the two countries.
Jodie’s commitment to social change is evidenced in documentary films she has produced, starting with Stripped and Teased: Tales from Las Vegas Women, a very personal look at the real women who work and live in Jodie’s hometown. She has also produced The People Speak, based on Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States; the Oscar-nominated documentary, The Square, about the 2011-2012 democratic uprisings in Egypt; the climate change documentary, This Changes Everything; and, The Brainwashing of my Dad, about the rise of the right-wing media apparatus.
Jodie is the co-editor of two books, Twilight of Empire: Responses to Occupation, and, Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism, and a contributor to Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution. She is currently writing a book about divesting from the unjust, extractive war economy and building a just, sustainable peace economy.
Jodie’s mission: Jodie is primarily focused on sharing a global vision for peace and social justice.
Jodie’s one-line message to the world: “Find ways to disconnect from the war economy; then open your heart and mind, connect to others and together cultivate what creates conditions conducive for life.”
Podcast theme music: “Suzanne”
Performed by Leonard Cohen | Courtesy of Columbia Records | By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment
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