MAU CENTRAL

Joellen Raderstorf, Co-founder and Executive Director: I design actions and love to have my hands around the whole picture. I’m willing to walk on stilts to get my message heard and am often found talking about politics at family gatherings. “Good in math and science,” I hold a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iowa which makes me the techie of the team. I always advocate for the “potluck approach” in my local and global endeavors with a vision of a gigantic potluck in 2015 celebrating the end of extreme poverty. I broadened my horizons considerably when I traveled for six months with my life partner of 20 years and three cherished sons, visiting 14 countries, sleeping in 64 different beds and surviving 1 Asian tsunami.

Juliana Forbes, Co-founder and Creative Director: I write and produce the Handbook, mini-movies and literature for the movement. I attended UC Berkeley in Cultural Anthropology and currently live in Boulder with my two wonderful children. When not at MAU Central, I paint abstract oils and read. With a history of somewhat eclectic work experiences, I bring a love of literature and the visual arts to MAU’s communication strategies; helping to create a new image of activism which provides a compelling entry point into political advocacy.

Beth Osnes, Co-founder and Program Coordinator for MAU Live!: I am the youngest born of ten children and am now raising three of my own; as such I’ve been knee deep in kids for 42 years. I teach theatre part-time at the University of Colorado and have written books and articles on both theatre and issues around mothering. I am thrilled to be bringing together my life passions with Mothers Acting Up; using theatre as a tool for empowering mothers on behalf of the world's children. A life-long activist, I am eternally grateful to have all of you as my community and to be joining my voice in a beautiful and noisy chorus!

Anjali Kochar, Partnerships and Operations Director: I'm half Indian and spent half of my childhood growing up in New Delhi, India. After graduating from The American University with a degree in Political Science and the homecoming queen tiara, I worked for the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights marching on four continents with former child laborers and activists calling for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor. I married my high school sweetheart and dragged him to New York, where I completed my Masters Degree in International Affairs at Columbia University. When I'm not visiting remote villages in India with my eldest daughter or working with her school's PTA, I am balancing baby and budgets. Until the wind carries us to India, I make my home in the Bronx, NY with my husband, two daughters and Puja, our cat, the true head of the household.

Paige La Grone Babcock, National Outreach Coordinator: As a new mother, I organized the first MAU Mother’s Day Peace Parade in Nashville in 2006, sought to be more involved with MAU and volunteered time and wouldn’t go away dissuaded. Now in addition to organizing my local MAU community, hosting weekly playgroups, monthly potluck social and salons and putting on actions, I am National Outreach Coordinator for Mothers Acting Up. I am also a writer and communitarian engaged in what I call the Apron-string Revolution where peace begins at home; I’m raising my son to be Joy Warrior nursed on the literal and metaphysical milk of human kindness. I’m a (slightly lapsed) voracious reader, messy gardener, a lusty cook and chowhound. I have a Theatre and Speech degree and an English Literature minor from the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, where I was a Cotton Boll Scholar and yearly merit stipend award winner. I live in a cozy urban cottage in Nashville with my husband, son, and rescue cat and dog. I dream of raising chickens in the country.

MAU BOARD & COUNSEL (stay tuned)
LOCAL MAU MAVENS (stay tuned)