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Jennifer Frenzer-Knowlton

After graduating from the U of Michigan in economics, Jennifer Frenzer-Knowlton spent three years on Wall Street. "I saw the avarice of capitalism," she says. "It became apparent I had to follow my heart." She returned to her home town of Columbus, Ohio, for a law degree. "I felt that a woman needed teeth in her credentials," she notes. She also got married, and when her physician husband took a job on the Macah Reservation in Neah Bay, Washington, she was hired by the tribe. "I worked on economic development," she says. "We built a marina for fishermen that had been in the works for 35 years." In 1997, shortly after the birth of her son Benjamin, the family moved to Eugene. A stay-at-home mom for several years, Frenzer-Knowlton worked with Betsy Steffensen in planning the Million Mom March against gun violence in 2000. Since 9/11, she has been active in the peace movement through the Justice Not War Coalition and the Eugene Friends Meeting. "Most of my activism has been faith-based," she says. "I learned from the tribe that activism comes from cultural and spiritual roots."

happening people

photograph and story by Paul Neevel

Eugene Weekly / 14 February 2008

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