**Kip Tiernan**, founder of Rosie's Place, the country's first drop-in emergency shelter for women and **Betty Burkes**, a world-renown peace educator, were both nominated in 2005 for the Nobel Peace Prize. The two women from New England talk about women worldwide engaged in the cause of peace and human dignity. In 2005, one thousand women from more than 150 countries around the world were jointly nominated for the famous Nobel Peace Prize under the initiative [**PeaceWomen Across the Globe.**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeaceWomen_Across_the_Globe "PeaceWomen") The nominated women, from all religious, cultural and class backgrounds, work daily in small villages and big cities to further the cause of peace and justice, often under difficult circumstances.
She arrived in Boston in her early 20's and embarked on a career in advertising, writing direct mail programs and TV commercials. She began writing articles for the "Catholic Left" which appeared in *The Boston Globe*, *The Phoenix* and *Boston After Dark*. In the 60's she discovered St. Philips/Warwick House, a Boston based Catholic civil rights and anti war movement ministry. On Easter Sunday in 1974, Kip founded Rosie's Place, the country's first drop-in emergency shelter for women. Today, Rosie's Place has evolved from providing shelter, to offering solutions. In addition to founding Rosie's Place, Kip was a founder of the Boston Food Bank, the Boston Women's Fund, and Healthcare for the Homeless. In 1980, Kip and Fran Froehlich co-founded the Poor People's United Fund and they have been working as a team ever since. In 1981 they co-founded Community Works, from 1988 to 1990 they were fellows at the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College and from 1993 through 2002 they taught a class in Ethics, Moral Principles and Social Policy at UMASS, Boston. Kip has been the recipient of many awards and honorary degrees over the years, and today she works tirelessly, continuing to focus her energies on eliminating the root causes of poverty. She continues to work closely with the Board of Directors and staff at Rosie's Place, and with Fran Froehlich, continues as Co-Director of Poor People's United Fund. Kip is a founding member of the Ethical Policy Project.
Betty Burkes is a life-long educator and activist. Her work as an educator has included the Peace Corps in Africa, public schools in California and private schools in England. She founded and coordinated the Montessori Paradise pre-school on Cape Cod for 12 years offering young children an environment in which peace-making and social justice mingled with the affirmation of childhood. Betty co-founded and ran a Summer Arts and Music program from 1986-1999. Her activism and grassroots organizing has taken place internationally and nationally with the Womens International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) where she was president of the US Section of WILPF for 3 years and served on the National Board from 1989-2002, conducting workshops on educating and organizing for action around oppression issues. From 2002-2006, Betty worked with a joint project of the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs and The Hague Appeal for Peace. The HAP/DDA project involved supporting the local initiation of peace education projects in 4 communities internationally (in Cambodia, Albania, Peru and Niger) in which weapons reduction projects were launched. Those projects have been sustained beyond the end of the project due to the full integration and leadership within the local communities.
Renée Loth is an opinion columnist for The Boston Globe. Loth has been a presidential campaign reporter, political editor, and editor of the Globe’s editorial page, where for nine years she was the highest-ranking woman at the newspaper. She is currently an adjunct lecturer in public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and was twice a judge for the Pulitzer prizes in journalism. Through traveling awards and fellowships, she has reported from 14 countries.