Q & A With Sr. Marlene Weisenbeck On Collaboration In Anti-Trafficking Work

November 9, 2018

For the last five years, Sr. Marlene Weisenbeck has been raising awareness about human trafficking through the Task Force to Eradicate Modern Slavery, based in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Over the summer, the Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration and former president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious was named the 2018 recipient of the Women’s Fund of Greater La Crosse’s annual Roberta Zurn Outstanding Woman in Leadership Award.

Weisenbeck spoke with Global Sisters Report about winning the award and the particular role women religious can play in ending human trafficking.

GSR: How did you find out you had won the Roberta Zurn Award?

Weisenbeck: The executive director from the Women’s Fund of Greater La Crosse gave me a phone call. That’s how I found out about it. And, of course, I was very pleased about it — who wouldn’t be? I’m really happy that women and women’s organizations are taking up the cause of human trafficking. I think that they raise the issue through the awards that they give and the efforts they support.

Roberta Zurn was an educator. I never knew her, but it impresses me that she was an educator, and I think that highlighting the issue of human trafficking by giving the award to someone who’s involved in that work supports her goal of education in the world. Education is so important.

To read the full story by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins on Global Sisters Report: Click Here

Category: The Alliance to End Human Trafficking