Janice Zagorin

The oldest of six kids raised in Detroit, where her father worked for Ford, Janice Zagorin left home (and the bedroom she shared with two sisters) for good after high school. She studied history at Michigan State, intending to be a teacher, but instead moved west with her daughter Laura, eventually landing in Eugene, where the only person she knew was her ex. From 1975 until 2002 she worked for the State of Oregon, supervising 16 collectors of student loans. "I was an activist on-and-off," says Zagorin, who joined CISCAP at its beginning. "I went to Cuba in 1980 with the Venceremos Brigade and taught a SEARCH class at the UO." Since 2001, she has been active in Women's Action for New Directions (WAND), focusing on redirection of excess military spending to social and environmental needs. On Thursday, May 13, at 7pm, in the Agate Hall Auditorium (Agate and 18th), WAND will partner with the UO Women's Studies Department and Women's Center in a "counter couture" fashion show: Fashioning Resistance to Militarism. "I'll be dressed as Daritha Vader," says Zagorin, displaying her military-budget-pie-chart lapel pin, "with a Blackwater bear claw emblem, boots and a machine gun." Learn more at wandoregon.org.