UNA-USA Dane County Events

UN Day Luncheon at the Monona Terrace

12:30 to 3:30 pm Sunday October 24, 2010

Main Speaker

Our speaker will be Wolfgang A. Schmidt, chair of the Governor’s Commission on the United Nations in Madison, Wisconsin.

Wolfe has eighteen years of executive experience in Europe and the United States (including twelve years as an entrepreneur and owner of a manufacturing company in the U.S.). His business expertise is complemented by years of academic research and lectures in the field of international affairs along with a broad range of civil society engagements on both sides of the Atlantic.

He is presently a member of the boards of the Foreign Policy Association in New York, International Institute of Wisconsin, Milwaukee School of Engineering, and the Center for International Health, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He serves on the Advisory Councils of the International Business Center at the Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business and the Institute of World Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the latter of which he chairs.

Wolfe is currently involved with international organizations where public and private sectors, acting together work to make a difference on the human level. He holds a masters degree in international relations and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

UNA-USA Dane County Global Citizen Award Recipient

Norma Berkowitz is the recipient of the third annual UNA-USA Dane County Global Citizen Award for her dedicated efforts on behalf of those suffering from poverty, discrimination, and human rights abuse throughout the world; and in particular for her work in forming Friends of Chernobyl Centers U.S. Inc. (FOCCUS) in the mid-1990s.

Norma has spent years facilitating government and citizen involvement with international organizations and is the founder of Friends of Chernobyl Centers United States (FOCCUS), chartered in the mid-1990s.

FOCCUS has two main goals: 1) to support a system of community centers founded by UNESCO that swerve areas severely affected by the Chernobyl disaster 24 years ago; and 2) to educate the public about the Chernobyl disaster and its consequences. At this time there are five FOCCUS centers in the Ukraine serving communities in the two highest zones of radiation contamination. Each center provides 25,000 service hours each year to affected people.

Norma Berkowitz joined the UW School of Social Work as a clinical faculty member in 1986. Her focus was on development disabilities – a major international concern. Her work with governmental and international support organizations in the US has led to relationships between the UW and the London School of Economics as well as other charitable and educational and training organizations in the United Kingdom. We are pleased that Norma has accepted our Global Citizen Award for 2010.