Mona Shaw
Mona Shaw became a member of the Des Moines Catholic Worker Community in August,
2007. A well-


In the 1990s her experience s with class bigotry, especially within academic institutions,
led her to develop workshops on class as a cultural construction or, as she calls
it, “American Apartheid.” After becoming disillusioned with electoral politics
and witnessing increasing corruption and greed within social justice and other non-
In 2005, she founded the School for Moral Courage as a place that would foster these teachings as a basis for life and work, and, the following year she adopted a lifestyle of voluntary poverty to more fully practice those principles.
Shaw is also a writer and currently divides her time between living and working in the Des Moines Community as well as living and continuing her work in Iowa City. She is the mother of two grown sons and a grandmother.


Some of Shaw’s Writings
a blog that appears on the Iowa City Press-
Links to some past columns written by Mona are on this site.
Shaw with Renee Espeland (on the left) and Carla Dawson (on the right) at the occupation of Hillary Clinton’s campaign headquarters, Nov. 2007.
(Photo by Sean Michael Gillespie.)
Renee Espeland and Mona Shaw holding signs at the Jefferson-
(Photo by Sean Megan.)
Mona at the occupation of Mike Huckabee’s campaign headquarters, Dec. 31, 2007.