THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
June Zeitlin
“My life’s work is my hobby.”
A leader on women’s issues including domestic violence. Expert on public policy in the United States and globally. Law degree from New York University School of Law, 1973. Worked for Congresswoman Bella Abzug. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Director of the Office on Domestic Violence. Director of Human Rights Policy at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Leadership Conference Education Fund. Special Representative of the Office of Security and Cooperation in Europe. Chairperson-in-Office on Gender Issues; and Executive Director of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), which helped lead a successful global campaign for a new, stronger UN women’s agency (UN Women) and to gain international recognition of the gender dimensions of climate change. Director of the Office on Domestic Violence of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Director of intergovernmental relations for New York City’s Office of Management and Budget and Human Resources Administration. National Women’s Law Center.
Interviewed by Judy Waxman, Oral Historian, March 2024

Photo. The Special Representative of the Swiss Chairperson-in-Office on Gender Issues, June Zeitlin, chairing the High Level Opening Panel of the Conference 2014. (Photo by Mickey Kroell, OSCE)
More About June:
- Statement of June Zeitlin, Director of Human Rights Policy, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund, July 2017
- Ford Foundation records, Governance and Public Policy (GPP), Office Files of June Zeitlen and William Diaz
- The Satya Interview with June Zeitlin, February 2007
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Strategies to Address the Impact of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 on the Availability of Child Care for Low-Income Families, by June H. Zeitlin and Nancy Duff Campbell.