PAT WAAK

Chair, Colorado Democratic Party

Topic: 21st Century Peacemaking

Pat Waak has been chair of the Colorado Democratic Party since March 2005. As the chair, she is a member of the Democratic National Committee and a member of the DNC executive committee. She also serves on the executive committee of the Association of State Democratic Chairs. She is a delegate to the upcoming Democratic National Convention and is the Chair of the Colorado Delegation.

Pat’s political credentials are long and numerous. Those credentials include serving as the Deputy Campaign Manager for Sargent Shriver’s 1976 presidential campaign. She was appointed by President Carter to the U.S. Agency for International Development during his administration. She has worked as a volunteer for every Democratic Presidential nominee thereafter.

Pat spent 17 years at the National Audubon Society where she headed the Population and Habitat campaign. Her management experience includes several years as Assistant Director for the Center for Population and Family Health at Columbia University. Pat also was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil.

Pat served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the 1994 U.N. International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and was the U.S. Focal Point for the 1999 ICPD plus Five Conference in The Hague, Netherlands. For eleven years, she chaired the population and environment technical committee for the Commission on Environmental Strategies and Planning (CESP) of the World Conservation Union-IUCN. She is the executive producer of video films including the award winning “Finding the Balance” and is the author of a number of publications.