Bolivia Staffer Nancy Ann Pettis dies in Virginia - was president and chief executive officer of VOICE International, an information clearinghouse and technical assistance network
Nancy Ann Pettis VOICE Founder
Nancy Ann Pettis, 64, the founder, president and chief executive officer of VOICE International, an information clearinghouse and technical assistance network, died of breast cancer Nov. 18 at the Hospice of Northern Virginia.
In the early 1990s, Ms. Pettis founded VOICE International, which promoted the growth and development of nongovernmental organizations in the emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia and the nations of the former Soviet Union.
Ms. Pettis, a resident of Arlington, was born in Portland, Maine, and moved to the Washington area as a child. She graduated from Wakefield High School in Arlington, attended Bennington College in Vermont and graduated from George Washington University.
She served on the administrative staff of the Peace Corps in Bolivia. Later, she worked in anti-poverty programs in Washington. These included training and research evaluation for community action programs; special programs for Native Americans and migrant and seasonal farmworkers; Save the Children; the National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity; and the National Urban Coalition.
As president and chief executive of VOICE, she published two books: "Funding for Civil Society," a funding guide for nations, and "To Protect and Promote Women's Human Rights: A Handbook of Mobilization Strategies."
Survivors include her husband, William H. Robinson of Arlington; their daughter, Diana Alicia Hurd of Falls Church; three stepchildren, Tamra Sami of Fairfax, Steven Robinson of Reston and Randle Robinson of Alexandria; her mother, Alice Pettis of Falls Church; her brother, Andrew Pettis of Fairfax; and five grandchildren.
