Elizabeth Kucinich
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Elizabeth Kucinich | |
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| Born | Elizabeth Jane Harper 22 October 1977 North Ockendon, England, UK |
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Elizabeth Jane Kucinich (née Harper; born 22 October 1977) is a British organic food and vegan advocate. She is the producer of two documentaries,[1] (Hot Water and GMO OMG) and a socially conscious business owner.[2] Married to former 8-term US Congressman and two time Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, Kucinich splits her time between Cleveland, Ohio, and Washington, D.C.
In 2005, after working with rural and urban poor in India and Tanzania, Kucinich moved to the USA to organise the first international conference on monetary reform for the American Monetary Institute. She has previously been the Director of Policy at the Center for Food Safety and the Director of Government Affairs for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)[3] and a congressional liaison for former President of the United Nations General Assembly.[4]
Kucinich is a board director of several organisations including Sean Penn's Haitian relief organisation, J/P HRO,[5] the Rodale Institute [6] and a fledgling vegan food company, Gardenbar.
Kucinich is executive producer of GMO OMG, which "arguably does for genetically modified organisms what Al Gore’s 2006 Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth did for climate change.[7] Kucinich is also producer of the documentary "Hot Water" which reveals radioactive contamination of ground water across the United States.[8]
Kucinich's appearance has been noted in the media. Vanity Fair magazine named Elizabeth Kucinich among the nation's "best dressed" political wives,[9] the Plain Dealer featured her preference for shopping in resale and consignment stores [10] and Cleveland Magazine pegged her as "Cleveland's most interesting".[11] Esquire magazine named her one of the sexiest women in politics,[12] while the Washington Post described Kucinich as "if not a national obsession, then certainly a treasured District landmark" who as "an excellent example of genetics could easily have made it in the other Hollywood." [13]
Early life
Born Elizabeth Jane Harper, she was brought up in North Ockendon in the London Borough of Havering, England. She attended Coopers' Company and Coborn School in Upminster from 1989–96. According to her mother, as a girl Kucinich was always into human rights and the environment and circulated petitions on animal rights at school and lobbied Parliament from the age of 14 years. After leaving school, she travelled alone to India for six months. There she went to Agra and volunteered at one of Mother Teresa's homes for India's poorest children. After completing her university education in 2002, Kucinich moved to Tanzania where she worked with Voluntary Services Overseas, the UK's version of the Peace Corps, as a community development worker in the rural Dodoma Region.
Education
Kucinich holds a BA in Religions Studies and Theology, an MA in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent, UK and has completed vocational training in core Skills in U.N. Human Rights fieldwork, SPHERE: implementation training in Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, and the Child Protection Certificate. In alignment with her core commitments, she is also credentialed in Peace and Reconciliation Studies from Coventry University, UK
Personal life
Newly in from England with no knowledge of who Dennis was other than being a Member of Congress, Elizabeth walked into Kucinich's office on 4 May 2005. They had an eight-minute meeting on monetary policy. The second time they met was in New Mexico at another policy event later that month. While in New Mexico they decided to get married and three months later they did so, on 21 August 2005.
They describe their meeting as "soul recognition", the details of which were written about in depth in "The Love song of Dennis J. Kucinich"[14] and "How Kucinich found love"[15]
Elizabeth and Dennis Kucinich's marriage and deep affection for each other has continued to be a point of public interest. Regularly described as lovebirds,[16][17] headlines like "Rep. Kucinich spotted canoodling with wife at train station" [18] and "Kucinich gets some love on an escalator" [19] are not uncommon.
References
- ^ "Elizabeth Kucinich attends Oscars, debuts docs this year". Washington Examiner.
- ^ Elizabeth J. Kucinich (elizabeth_kucinich). "Elizabeth J. Kucinich - Washington, DC - about.me". about.me.
- ^ "Elizabeth Kucinich named policy chief for food safety group". TheHill.
- ^ "Sign Up - LinkedIn". linkedin.com.
- ^ "J/P HRO - Bringing sustainable programs to the Haitian people quickly and effectively". jphro.org.
- ^ "Board of Directors". rodaleinstitute.org.
- ^ "GMO OMG : Press and Events". gmofilm.com.
- ^ "ZeroHotWater - Home". zerohotwater.com.
- ^ "Vanity Fair Magazine names Elizabeth Kucinich among nation's "best dressed" political wives".
- ^ "Clothes Shopping with Mrs. Kucinich".
- ^ "Our Most Interesting People".
- ^ "The Sexiest Women in Congress".
- ^ Petri, Alexandra (7 March 2012). "Good-bye to Mrs. Kucinich-and to the man with her". The Washington Post.
- ^ Copeland, Libby (5 December 2007). "The Love Song of Dennis Kucinich". The Washington Post.
- ^ "How Kucinich Found Love".
- ^ "Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich: What's next?". The Washington Post. 8 March 2012.
- ^ "Rep.Kucinich spotted canoodling with wife at Train Station".
- ^ "Rep. Kucinich spotted canoodling with wife at Train Station".
- ^ "Dennis Kucinich gets some love on an escalator".
External links
- 1977 births
- Living people
- Alumni of Coventry University
- Alumni of the University of Kent
- English expatriates in the United States
- Dennis Kucinich
- English humanitarians
- People from North Ockendon
- People educated at Coopers' Company and Coborn School
- Spouses of members of the United States House of Representatives
- Spouses of Ohio politicians