Cleo Askew dies
RDLN Leader Cleo Askew died November 6 of an apparent heart attack. He was the Housing Specialist for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in Epes, Alabama, and, through his development and advocacy work, helped more than 300 families gain safe and affordable housing in that area.

Cleo was a master's degree candidate in the RDLN program and a much loved member of the Network. As his mentor John Zippert said, "Cleo never turned anyone away. He was always ready to help. He always gave hope. Sometimes he worked with people for years just to get their credit in shape so they would become eligible to buy a home."


Julie Moss elected
RDLN Leader Julie Moss was elected Treasurer of the United Keetoowah Band of the Cherokee Nation in an election held November 7. She has been Director of Federal Programs for the band, where she began working in October 1997 immediately after the graduation ceremony at the RDLN Assembly in Texas where she was awarded her master's degree through Antioch University. She is currently a participant in the RDLN Ph.D. pilot
group with the Union Institute.


Meredith Dean gives birth
On October 26, at 7:33 am, RDLN graduate Meredith Dean delivered a son, a "real sweetheart," Caden Sky Dean-Sauter, weighing 8 lb.. 9 3/4 oz. He is living with his parents in Floyd, Virginia, where his mother coordinates the Appalachian Women's Alliance.


Rural Women's Products Promoted
Products made by rural women in poor communities are for sale through RDLN's website. You will receive a postcard soon directing you to the page rural development.org/prod.html, where photos are displayed of quilts by the Freedom Quilting Bee, coasters by Artes del Valle, quillows (pillows that turn into blankets) by Mujeres Unidas, gourd vases by Native Women's Cooperative Project, and many other beautiful items.


RDLN Receives Sister Fund Grant
RDLN has been notified of a grant award for $20,000 for general support from the Sister Fund, based in New York (November 2000).


Shirley Sherrod Returns from Africa
RDLN graduate and board member returned in early November from Ghana where she traveled with a group of Historically Black College representatives to look at the potential role of biotechnology in agriculture there. On October 28, she helped lead a celebration of the work of her husband Charles Sherrod in Albany, Georgia, where he had been a SNCC leader in the sixties. Five hundred people attended the celebration, where the work of "foot soldiers" in the area was also honored. Shirley is director of the Georgia Field Office of
the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in Albany, Georgia.


Mily Treviño-Sauceda attends Ms. Grantee meeting in New York
RDLN Leader Mily Treviño-Sauceda was in New York with her colleague Raquel Sotelo to attend a meeting of Ms. Foundation grantees working with youth. They represent Lideres Campesinas, a statewide farmworker women's group in California (headed by Mily) which has been growing by leaps and bounds since she first entered the RDLN
program several years ago.

Beverly Brown co-edits oral history

RDLN graduate Beverly Brown and Agueda Marin-Hernández have edited Voices from the Woods: Lives and Experiences of Non-Timber Forest Workers published by the Jefferson Center for Education and Research. Bev is Director and founder of the Jefferson Center, which provides a "forum for discussion and analysis of issues among low-income people seeking a just and democratic future." Developing the Center was her RDLN Field Project. For a copy, write Jefferson Center, P.0. Box 279, Wolf Creek, OR 97497.

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