Linda Kroon’s drive to stand up for others began in childhood and propels her work today as the director of the Women’s Resource and Action Center, or WRAC.

Kroon, whose younger brother has Down syndrome, spoke about the prejudice against people who have disabilities in her community at that time.

“Looking back, that was the beginning of my awareness that there are some people in the world who others treat as though they’re less,” Kroon said. “And that’s wrong. My baby brother wasn’t less.”

However, Kroon did not initially pursue advocacy as a career. With aspirations to be a conductor, she earned her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and a graduate degree from the University of Iowa. Her path shifted when her work in music opened her eyes to a local marginalized community.

“I had an opportunity to work with folks who wanted to create a local LGBTQ+ community chorus,” Kroon said. “That brought back my memory of people that other folks might not be treating well.”

Looking to become more involved in advocacy, Kroon began working with WRAC as a volunteer in the late 1980s. She was hired as a staff member in the early 1990s and became the center’s director in 2011.

WRAC was founded in 1971 by women seeking to address shared experiences of oppression and discuss solutions. Kroon said in the years since its formation, the center has expanded its focus to become more inclusive.

“Our mission is greater equity for individuals and communities of all identities with a particular focus on women, but we understand it quite broadly,” Kroon said.

The center offers a variety of resources and services, such as individual counseling, violence prevention programs, leadership development, and diversity and inclusion initiatives.

As part of its violence prevention work, the center partners with the UI Greek Life councils to facilitate mandatory workshops on interpersonal and sexual violence as well as bystander intervention.

“The majority of the work that we do in violence prevention is with that community,” Kroon said.“Not because that community is a problem, but because that community is a fantastic partner to create change.”

Further emphasizing this mission, the center participates annually in Take Back the Night, a global movement against sexual violence. WRAC hosts an annual Take Back the Night rally on campus, featuring a march for awareness and an opportunity for survivors to speak out.

Morgan Fisher, a UI fourth-year student who has worked with the center as a peer educator and volunteer for two years, helped organize and advertise the 2024 rally.

“I had the opportunity to read my own poems about my own experience of sexual violence,” Fisher wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan. “To see that many people who have either experienced sexual violence or haven’t but are there to support them was really powerful.”

Kroon said the rally also provided an opportunity for the center’s staff to take care of one another, acknowledging their work often takes a heavy emotional toll.

Kroon emphasized the importance of supporting staff members as a philosophy. Grounded in the center’s mission and shaped by her early experiences as a conductor.

“You can stand in front of an orchestra and wave a baton around, play a bunch of pieces, and the audience claps, and the conductor has not made one note of music. It’s the musicians who make music,” Kroon said. “That’s my concept of leadership. I’m here to support each one of those people in being the best version of themselves.”