Jodie Evans (born September 22, 1954) is a political activist, author, and documentary film producer. She characterizes her activism as working for peace and justice, environmental causes and women’s rights. She has traveled extensively promoting what she terms the conflict resolution by peaceful means—including leading "citizen diplomacy" delegations to Iran, the Gaza Strip, and Afghanistan.[1][2][3][4] She served in California Governor Jerry Brown’s cabinet and managed his 1992 campaign for the presidency.[5] She also became a co-founder of the left-wing activist organization, Code Pink. Evans currently serves as the chairperson of the board of the Women's Media Center, an organization that describes its goals as working to amplify the voices of women in the media through advocacy, media and leadership training, and creation of original content.
She was married to Max Palevsky until his death and currently lives in Venice, California.
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Evans was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. She first became interested in social justice activism when she worked as a maid in a major Las Vegas hotel as a teenager—as her coworkers organized, she marched in favor of what she termed a living wage. [6]
Her Code Pink protest actions include disrupting Sarah Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention in 2008,[7][8] and, in 2009, leading a protest in Santa Monica against Israeli cosmetics company Ahava.[9] Upon returning from Afghanistan, she delivered signatures from women in that country and the US to President Obama asking him to send no new troops into the conflict there.[10][11] In March, 2010, during a book signing by Karl Rove, she and other Code Pink members caused disruptions. At one point, Evans charged the stage towards Rove with a pair of handcuffs, declaring that she was making a citizen's arrest.[12]
In the summer of 2010, controversy arose over Evans' alleged 2008 remark to Debbie Lee, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq that “Your son deserved to die in Iraq if he was stupid enough to go over there.” [13] Republican candidate Meg Whitman repeated this charge in her 2010 California gubernatorial campaign, demanding that Jerry Brown return money from a fundraiser that Evans hosted. Later during the controversy, Lee told the San Francisco Chronicle that she could not identify Evans and was not sure who made the insulting remark.[14]
On January 30, 2011, Evans was arrested for disruptive behavior at a Rancho Mirage hotel where she was leading a protest against David H. Koch and Charles G. Koch over their financial involvement in the Tea Party Movement.[15]
Evans is a member of a number of organizations and boards including: