About Me

Lisa Rainwater moved to New York City five years ago to shut down a nuclear power plant. She approaches her work not as the proverbial anti-nuker but as a concerned citizen who believes the health, safety, and welfare of her community and the environment should be more important than $2 million a day profits by an out-of-state corporation that has received tax-payer subsidies for decades. Her work has galvanized a community opposed to the continued operation of the aging facility, garnered support from elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels, and put a spotlight on grave safety problems, lack of security, and poor oversight of the nuclear industry by federal agencies.

Her work has been featured in national broadcasts, publications, and numerous media outlets. She is a published author and translator.

Redefining Eco-Feminism
Lisa Rainwater believes that critical issues facing our environment interconnect with key issues affecting women -- pollution and health; consumerism and women’s economic power; population growth and reproductive care; protection of green space and protection of family. She seeks to provide communities with the tools needed to create the greatest impact for social and political change through community organizing and empowerment.

Education
Lisa Rainwater received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 2002, where she studied German and European cultural, social, and political movements. Her dissertation, “The Rosa Myth: Representations of a Revolutionary in 20th Century German Culture,” is an exploration into how Rosa Luxemburg, her work, and her charisma became political and cultural fodder for German artists, writers, scholars, musicians, community organizers, and politicians during the tumultuous 20th century.

Rainwater honed her public speaking skills while teaching at the University of Oregon and the University of Wisconsin for nearly a decade with courses on German language and culture, Scandinavian literature, writing and composition, and folklore. Her research has won awards and been published in a variety of national and international scholarly journals.

She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (German Studies), her M.A. from the University of Oregon (German), and her B.A. from Winona State University (Psychology/German).

Civic Democracy
In the 1990s, Lisa Rainwater was catapulted into the world of civic action while serving as Student Senate Vice President at Winona State University in Minnesota. She actively organized students to fight to keep the costs of higher education affordable and lobbied against cuts in student grants and loans in the Halls of Congress. In graduate school, she represented teaching fellows and graduate student teachers with their respective unions to ensure equitable pay scales and affordable health care across the board.

In 2000 Lisa Rainwater embarked on her career as a community organizer and promoter of civic action, when she was elected President of the Madison NOW (National Organization for Women) chapter. During her tenure she revitalized the defunct chapter, organized a street performance/rally for women’s reproductive rights at the Capitol, and founded an Eco-Feminist taskforce, which educated women on the interconnected relationships between women’s and children’s health and the health of the environment. She was a member of the Wisconsin NOW Executive Committee, a delegate to the 2002 National Conference for the National Organization for Women, and served as an advisor to the Wisconsin Women’s Network.

In 2002 she was a spokesperson for Cities for People!, a coalition of organizations and community groups that objected to the corporatization of the US Mayors’ Conference in 2002. In this capacity, she assisted in the organization of a People’s Conference which addressed community concerns such as health care, child care, reproductive rights, environmental protections, development and sprawl, and labor. The conference was open to the public and to mayors from across the country.

Rainwater moved to New York in the fall of 2002 to take a job as Project Coordinator for the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition (IPSEC), comprised of 72 citizen, environmental, public health, and public interest groups working to close the Indian Point nuclear power plant, located 24 miles north of New York City. In this capacity, she worked with local community groups to develop direct actions, organized public events, oversaw fundraising efforts, spearheaded public outreach campaigns, including a documentary film, and developed messaging for various media campaigns. In addition, she served as spokesperson for the coalition and worked with local, state and federal elected officials on policy and legislative initiatives.

Currently, Rainwater works as Indian Point Campaign Director for the New York environmental group, Riverkeeper, where she combines her revolutionary spirit with her commitment to civic action and democratic participation to lead the efforts to shut down the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Her work includes community strategizing, policy and legislative initiatives, lobbying, serving as campaign spokesperson for radio, television, print, and documentary films, fundraising, and message development.

Rainwater also serves as a consultant to a variety of community groups and organizations seeking to create better communities -- locally, nationally and globally.

In 2004 Rainwater served as an environmental advisor to NY, America’s Imagine Festival, a Festival of Arts, Issues and Ideas, which coincided with the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City.

Since 2003, Rainwater has been a board member of PAVE (Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment), a multi-chapter organization that uses social, educational, and legislative tactics to shatter the silence of sexual violence. From September 2005-August 2006 she was a member of the Executive Committee for the New York Physicians for Social Responsibility.

In July 2006 Rainwater launched with her friend and colleague, Angela Rose, The Binding Project, which seeks to unite people across the United States by empowering them to take ownership over zip tie bindings and other forms of restraint often used by perpetrators as a means of control and power. Anchored in Chicago and New York City, The Binding Project blends education, art, and dialogue to establish a community of empowerment by creating a focal point for the shared healing and strength of those dedicated to shattering the silence of sexual violence.

Links

the binding project
waterfordchocolate blog