LEADING WITH SPIRITUALITY

WFWP USA President Angelika Selle with her daughter Tanya

Tanya Selle is the daughter of WFWP USA President Angelika Selle. She wrote the following profile to satisfy a requirement of a college journalism course she is taking. We are including it to give readers a better sense of the background and character of WFWP USA's chief executive.

A European woman is president of a women's organization for peace in the USA and works with spirit. Sitting on the newly carpeted floor of room 1026B at the New Yorker Hotel, Angelika Selle, President of Women's Federation for World Peace (WFWP) USA, types away furiously on her Smartphone. It's 10 PM. Her nights often wind down with a flurry of emails and phone calls to people who were not available earlier in the day.

The rush of Christmas shoppers continues outside the windows of the huge hotel irrespective of the lateness and the cold, rainy evening. Mrs. Selle looks out at the bustling scene. It's a vastly different sight from her small hometown in Germany. But then, her life now is a 180 degree difference from her old life in Europe. She is now President of WFWP USA and Vice President of WFWP International.

WFWP is an NGO geared towards educating and empowering women to becoming facilitators and leaders of peace. Its motto is "Living by the Logic of Love." Mrs. Selle took office in 2010.

But Mrs. Selle was not always the picture of leadership. In fact, she characterizes herself as shy when she was young, but that her shyness gave way to a more sensitive, caring nature. Mrs. Selle recalls, "I had many different kinds of aspirations as a younger girl and I wasn't really sure what my direction would be. But I always loved people, I loved different cultures and I loved God, and I wanted to make a difference in people's lives through my personality."

This calling to be a livewire for a higher purpose started with her Catholic background, which gave Mrs. Selle the beginnings of an unwavering faith. And it led her to meet her American husband, Robert Selle. "I felt that America was a very special nation where all cultures come together and where there are lots of opportunities and freedom, and so I felt I really want to apply myself here."

But back when she first arrived in the US, Mrs. Selle noticed that America was not fulfilling many of its ideals - the ones she had fallen in love with. Through joining the Unification faith, a movement founded by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Mrs. Selle led many international projects, worked with the movement's public relations and was Editor in Chief of Today's World, a church magazine. These ventures tested and molded her passion and talents as she gradually grew more confident.

"At heart I'm actually an educator," says Mrs. Selle. "I like to enlighten others about certain things like truth for their lives, and how deeper truths apply in their lives."

Mrs. Selle's prior work as an ordained pastor further provided her the opportunity to bring spirituality into her WFWP work, because, according to Mrs. Selle, without spirituality an organization cannot really make a difference for the better in society.

"That's why WFWP [is] so inspiring - because it promotes and supports the motherly heart that has compassion, that nurtures and uplifts and that understands, while very strongly following the conscience," she explains.

At the beginning of her workday in noisy New York City, Mrs. Selle shares a moment of spirituality with her employees in the New Yorker Hotel - a prayer or spiritual reading - and makes sure everyone is connected through conversations and reports. "I can be easily excited and joyful," Mrs. Selle notes. And it shows in the WFWP office.

"I'm working with a lot of different people in any given day," says Mrs. Selle, energy in her voice. For example, she makes plans with people nationally and internationally for future events and articles, and she also takes care of the chairwomen of the 35 WFWP chapters in the US.

In the course of working with so many people, Mrs. Selle faces the challenge of making decisions based on a higher purpose, which can be painful to make. Therefore, she often goes the extra mile to not hurt anyone's heart in the process. In fact, she notes hurting others' hearts as one of her biggest failures. "It's different when you mess up a document or something - you can always fix it. But hurting someone's heart by mistake is very difficult to fix. I would call that my challenge."

However, Mrs. Selle tends to look at the brighter side of any situation, explaining that in a way there is no such thing as failure as long as we take responsibility and don't give up. She explains, "If I try to keep to my conscience and do the best that I can, and I'm not purposely hurting someone else or doing something bad, it cannot become a failure, really."

According to Mrs. Selle, her weaknesses are being too critical, impatient, judgmental, and a perfectionist, though she is very good in not letting those aspects taint her final decisions of people or projects. In fact she usually prays to seek higher council before acting on them. However, Robert Selle, her husband of 32 years, says that she "is a model of selflessness," and that "she also has the ability to give people joy in whatever she does both professionally and at home, which rubs off and helps other people to be the same way."

Mr. Selle further explains how his wife often makes time for the family no matter what, making a special meal or dessert. She also sets aside time for weekly conference calls with the chairwomen, where she shares stories, anecdotes, spiritual guidance, family guidance, the works.

"Angelika is a person of relationships. She really is an expert and a champion of relationships in terms of making them, transforming them and improving them," Mr. Selle says proudly.

Indeed, Mrs. Selle is one to cry for others' pain and exult in their joy. "I used to cry when my mother told her stories. I'm a little bit of a melancholic or dramatic." She loves Korean dramas for this reason, and also because they depict incredible depth of heart in the intimate husband-wife relationships. "[The couples] don't jump right into bed together [laughter]. I like that the heart comes first, and sometimes they don't need a lot of words."

She employs this natural sensitivity in her daily encounters with people, hoping to set an example of positive feminine leadership with the aim of establishing peace. "My vision for 2020 is to get five million women educated in the philosophy of peace and also in leadership of the heart," she declares.

Mrs. Selle hopes to continue doing public work even ten years from now, maybe writing or even public speaking once in a while. "I also hope to be healthy and to spend time with my grandchildren. I hope to have lots of them in different countries - so I see myself traveling."

Working towards peace is indeed more than a job - it is a lifestyle. And Mrs. Selle intends to live it.