WRI Hires a New Staff Member

Better yet: a woman! Hello, my name is Dominique Saillard. I was the lucky one in the interviews. I started working at the London office mid-February, three days a week for WRI and one day a week for Peace News.

In the past, I studied English, German and Spanish in my hometown Lyon, France, and after spending a year as an exchange student in Kassel, Germany, went on to get a Master's in translation — German, English, French — in Paris. I spent the better part of the past six years in the United States, in Eugene, Oregon. That's where I got a second Master's, in environmental studies, and became active in a number of environmental and peace groups/events on and off campus: Students Against Apartheid, the 1989 International Nuclear Free Zones Conference, the Oregon Peace Consortium, and other groups dealing with issues ranging from environmental racism to sustainable forestry or recycling.

At present, I am learning the does and don'ts at the office, getting to know my co-workers, Howard, Ken, Christian, our intern from Åland, and soon Chris, and trying to remember as much of the information I hear or read every day as I can. When I don't work, I look frantically for a home and ride on the top floor of the red London buses as often as possible...

For the future, I hope to tie into my new work some of the issues I have been interested in for several years. In particular, I look forward to liaising with the WRI Women's Working Group and benefiting from women's personal experiences in dealing with gender issues in the South and the North. Given my academic and activist background, I also intend to pay special attention to issues of environmental justice and sustainability and welcome the opportunity for incorporating them into my work at the WRI.

In short, I am very happy to have become a member of the wide network of enthusiastic WRI peace makers! Since I will be editing the Broken Rifle from now on, please send me news from your groups, articles, and international calendar items that might be of interest to WRI affiliates and supporters. I'll gladly listen to any other suggestions about the content of the newsletter. See you all (well, as many as possible) at the Triennial...