FPIF Advisory Committee Member*

Joe Volk

Executive Secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation
contact via email

Joe Volk is the Executive Secretary of the Washington, DC-based Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) and is a registered lobbyist. FCNL is a Quaker lobby in the public interest and is the first registered national religious lobby in the U.S. FCNL was founded in 1943 to bring the spiritual values of Friends into the public policy process. It currently represents 26 yearly meetings of the Religious Society of Friends. Joe helped to found the Arms Transfers Working Group (ATWG - pronounced "a twig") in 1990 and 91. ATWG developed the legislation and campaign for a U.S. Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers. He is a past chair of and current member of the Steering Committee of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL). Prior to joining FCNL in 1990, Joe worked 18 years for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and served as National Secretary for Peace Education from 1982 to 1990. He taught junior high and high school. He began a career in the peace movement when in 1967 he refused a deferment from the draft and went into the Army to try to organize troops to refuse deployment to Vietnam. In 1968, he refused to go with his mechanized cavalry unit to Vietnam. Although convicted in a court martial on AWOL charges, he received an honorable discharge, after doing a short time in an Army stockade. He has an BA from Miami University (OH) in comparative religions. He resides with his wife, Beth, in Arlington, VA, and commutes to work by bicycle. Their three children reside in California and Oregon.

Friends Committee on National Legislation
245 Second Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202-547-6000
Toll free: 1-800-630-1330
Fax: 202-547-6019
Website: www.fcnl.org

Commentaries and Other Pieces
Authored by This Member

Other Pieces by Joe Volk on FPIF's website:

(not a complete listing)

* Note from the FPIF Editor: Although the Advisory Committee shares FPIF's broad principles of internationalism, human rights, anti-militarism, and sustainable development, FPIF doesn't expect all members necessarily to agree with or endorse all the policy prescriptions that we publish.