The Circle of Women began in 2002 when Judith Lockhart-Radtke and Pia Scognamiglio, a Swiss-Mexican midwife, joined to help the women of Oaxaca build healthy and viable communities.

Our staff and volunteers are professionals from varied cultural backgrounds working in the fields of community organization and development, social work, education, midwifery and women's health. We are chartered as a non-profit organization in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Judith Lockhart-Radtke is a Clinical Social Worker with 40 years of experience and a midwife with seven years of experience. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, Simmons College School of Social Work and Birthwise Midwifery School. Judith has been passionate about the women of the world since she began her clinical work but especially since she traveled with Oxfam America and Grassroots International looking at their projects through out the developing world. She has studied work with women on five continents. The Mixteca women captured her imagination when she was working with Rebecca Ratcliff, MD doing health and empowerment trainings in the mountains of Oaxaca. She has attended the Women’s Conference in Beijing, World Social Forum in Puerto Allegre, Brazil and Midwifery and Social Work conferences in many areas. She is a wife, mother of three and grandmother of five.

Teacher, Literacy Program

Edith Espana is a key member of the Mixteca community of weavers.  She is the talented literacy teacher who ushered 10 women into level two and is now taking them on to the next level.  She is the administrator of the weaving project and is currently taking training in computers.  She is a new and beautiful weaver.  Additionally, she is on the Circle Oaxaca where she clearly and candidly presents the Mixteca women’s point of view.

Edith is a single mother of two lovely daughters.  She grew up in Miramar where her Mother is a fine weaver.  She is a high school graduate and has done training as a nurse.

TEACHER, LITERACY PROGRAM

AUGUSTINA GARCIA LOPEZ joined the Mixteca literacy program to work with a number of new students who want to achieve basic literacy – older women who never had the opportunity to attend school.  Born and raised in the mountain village of Miramar, she attended high school in a neighboring village and has completed part of her university degree. 

 Augustina brings a natural creativity and enthusiasm to her classes and has enjoyed the opportunity to meet with other teachers from neighboring towns. 

ANTHROPOLOGIST, Oaxaca

MARTHA PATRICIA TOVAR ALVAREZ is a social anthropologist with an interdisciplinary background including studies in communication, aesthetics, sociolinguistics, education, and art therapy.  Since she was very young she has been interested in philosophy, research and the arts. Her vocation and interests have led her to focus on the relationship between art and learning as a field of study.

Presently, she works with the Circle of Women in the community of Guadalupe Miramar in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca. She is designing an educational project that includes the literacy program “Reading with all the Senses” working with older women and a community library project as a center of cultural development of the town. 

Pia Scognamiglio is a Swiss trained midwife with more than twenty years of experience. She is a graduate of college in Switzerland and came to Mexico twenty years ago to learn Spanish. She married Reuben Langle and has three daughters. Pia has extensive experience in leading groups, midwifery education, women’s empowerment and creatively administering on behalf of women so that their interests are protected and grown. She has attended seminars in the U.S. on leadership and the psychology of women.

Volunteer, Translator

Bernadette Orr has worked in a variety of professional positions over the past 20 years in the broad field of international development, mostly within philanthropic organizations and private foundations. Since her first trip to the Dominican Republic while in graduate school, serving as translator and logistics coordinator for a medical team, her particular area of interest has always been to contribute in whatever way she can to improving the lives of rural women in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America.

"I have been touched and inspired repeatedly by the women I have met with and visited throughout the region: their warmth; their love of home and family; their selfless giving to better their communities; their desire to organize and work collaboratively for the good of all. I had the opportunity in 2004 to spend a month in Oaxaca, and have visited communities throughout the Mixteca, where the beautiful work produced by the women stands in stark contrast to the dire poverty that characterizes their everyday reality. The Women’s Circle, with its multi-faceted approach to improving these humble and hard-working women’s lives, has already helped to make a difference for them. It does this not only by bringing in desperately needed income, but by providing an opportunity for learning, for self-improvement, for increased pride that the women can take in their accomplishments.   It is really a very great pleasure for me to be contributing as a volunteer to the wonderful work of the Women’s Circle."

Coordinator, Boston

Jennifer Lemire has an MA in International Development from Clark University and, in addition to her work with the Circle, is the Program Coordinator for the Middle East and Horn of Africa at Grassroots International.

Web consultant

Bill Bennett has a Ph.D. in English from Harvard University, and is the webmaster for New England Aquarium in Boston, in addition to doing consulting work and building websites for a number of organizations including the Circle of Women.

OUR CIRCLE OF ADVISORS

In addition to our staff and consultants, we are fortunate to have a Board of Advisiors both in Oaxaca and Boston.

THE CIRCLE OF WOMEN - OAXACA

Joan Anyon

Edith Espana

Areceli Garcia

Mary Ann Garrett

Carlos Hernandez

Hilda Hernandez

Judith Lockhart-Radtke

Pia Scognamiglio

THE CIRCLE OF WOMEN - BOSTON

Myrna Balk

Susan Carman

Joan Cassidy

Anuradha Desai

Howard Kilguss

Bernadette Orr

Monica Palacio

Constance Perry

Charles Rodgers

Lynne Rowe

Sue Whitwell

Judith Zabin