Keynote Speaker
NWMUN 2010 Keynote Speaker: Dan O'Neill, Founder of Mercy Corps
"We are all part of the human family and we should be about doing what
all good families do - caring for our less fortunate brothers and sisters. "
- Dan O'Neill, Founder of Mercy Corps
Dan O'Neill, born in Olympia, WA, graduated from the University of Washington in 1972. From the humble beginnings as an Assistant Manager at a local Fred Meyer store, he has progressed to accomplish great things in the humanitarian field, and inspired and continues to inspire many throughout the Northwest, the US, and abroad. He has worked and volunteered in numerous countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Switzerland, and Germany, during the Munich Olympics. He also volunteered in Israel at Kibbutz Ginosar and photographed the Golan Heights battlefield during the Yom Kippur War. He Co-founded Save The Refugees Fund in 1979, a humanitarian task-force providing emergency aid to Cambodian and Vietnamese Refugees. Save the Refugees has since become Mercy Corps, the global humanitarian aid organization headquartered in Portland, OR.
Since the founding of Mercy Corps, Dan O'Neill has traveled and worked in Central America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Africa, and Asia, during many refugee crises, famines, and in war zones. He has had meetings and consultations with world religious and political leaders such as Pope John Paul II and Yasser Arafat and has been a White House conference and dinner guest during the Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations. In 2007 Mercy Corps was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and continues to work to alleviate poverty, suffering and oppression worldwide in over 40 countries.
For more information on Dan O'Neill and some of his writings, please see the links below.
