Caroline Cottom

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - A California Lutheran University alumna and former director of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign will talk about the political role of unconditionallove and her experiences in the halls of Congress, the United Nations and the former Soviet Union at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17.

Caroline Cottom will discuss her book “Love Changes Things … Even in the World of Politics,” which will be released April 9, in CLU’s Samuelson Chapel. Light refreshments and a book signing will follow.

Cottom also directed the campaign to end nuclear test explosions in the Nevada desert, an effort involving 75 national organizations that brought an end to U.S. nuclear testing in 1992.

Among the students who enrolled at CLU in its first year, Cottom was chosen as Outstanding Female Student in 1962 and 1964 and was involved in student government, editing the annual, contributing to the literary journal and organizing a service project that included one-fourth of the student body.

After graduating magna cum laude with a degree in English literature in CLU’s first commencement in 1964, Cottom became a classroom teacher and writer. In 1978, she obtained a doctorate in educational policy and worked with the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools system as well as Common Cause-Tennessee.

In time, quite unexpectedly, she found herself in Washington, D.C., involved in the politics of nuclear arms control. Led by dreams and a sense of God calling to her, Cottom began building relationships with members of Congress and two U.S. administrations, defense analysts, Soviet officials and others including Al Gore in his roles as U.S. representative, senator and finally vice president. These relationships, which Cottom describes as based on unconditional love, were crucial to the campaign's success. The U.S. signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996.

Since then, Cottom has carried her spiritual-political work to Ecuador, Fiji, Mexico and other countries, creating projects and character-development programs. She received the CLU Alumni Association’s Humanitarian Concerns award in 1989.

CLU’s Master of Public Policy and Administration program and Alumni Relations office are sponsoring the free event.

The chapel is located south of Olsen Road near Campus Drive on the ThousandOaks campus.

For more information, contact Rebecca Cardone at rcardone@callutheran.edu or 713-492-4231.