To many people who pay attention to public policy in Wisconsin, the name Anne Arnesen is synonymous with child advocacy. Under Anne’s leadership, the Council grew from a small but influential agency into a full-blown professional advocacy organization with a double-digit staff and expertise on a broad range of child and family issues. She essentially laid the foundation upon which much of the work we do today is built. Anne retired from her position as executive director of WCCF at the end of 2003, but she has remained actively involved in the Counci's work. She was a member of the WCCF Foundation Board until the end of her term in December of 2008, and continues to work tirelessly on behalf of Wisconsin’s children and families in a variety of ways. In 2008, she helped raise a considerable sum to support the Council’s work by offering a $10,000 challenge grant that matched contributions made or raised by members of the Council and Foundation boards of directors. The boards worked throughout the year and successfully generated the match to Anne’s challenge donation.We are extremely grateful to Anne for her generosity and ongoing support of our mission.
Anne was born and raised in Allegan, Michigan, and she attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she graduated with a BA in English. She worked in New York City and then in San Francisco, where she married her husband, the late Dick Arnesen. Anne and Dick moved to Ann Arbor, where Anne taught elementary school, and then to Cleveland, where Dick attended medical school. In 1964 Dick’s residency in psychiatry brought the family (which by this time included daughter Katie) to Madison, and they never left. Their son Richard was born here.Anne quickly became an active advocate for the issues that were important to her. She got involved in the League of Women Voters, serving on the local and state boards of directors. In 1980 Anne became co-director, along with Eleanor McLean Fitch, of the Wisconsin Council on Human Concerns. When Eleanor left to take a job with the state, Anne took over the reins on her own, and guided the Council into the child advocacy era, including changing the organization’s name to the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. She served on the national board of the Council’s nationwide network, the National Association of Child Advocates, now known as Voices for America’s Children. Meanwhile, Anne remained active in local politics as well. She was elected to the Madison Board of Education in 1981 and served for three terms, spanning nine years. In 1996 Anne was named a Woman of Distinction by the YWCA.
Since her retirement from the Council, Anne has hardly disappeared quietly into the night. She keeps involved in WCCF affairs as a member of the WCCF Foundation Board. She has also served on the boards of the Madison Children’s Museum, the Mental Health Center of Dane County, the Children’s Trust Fund, the Foundation for Madison Public Schools, and NARAL Pro Choice Wisconsin. It is not an exaggeration to say there has been no more committed advocate for children and families in Wisconsin over the last few decades than Anne Arnesen.
