Featured Speaker: Thelma Awori
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2017 | 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Talk and Reception: International Center, 427 North Shaw Lane, East Lansing, MI 48824
African Women Post Independence: Economic Empowerment, Peace, and Security
Thelma Awori
Founding Chair and Co-President, Sustainable Market Women's Fund, Liberia
Thelma Awori is former assistant secretary general of the United Nations and director of the Regional Bureau for Africa of the UN Development Programme. She served the United Nations for 12 years, as deputy director for UNIFEM and as resident coordinator of the UN System in Zimbabwe.
Awori is an activist for women's rights and economic empowerment. She is the founding co-chair and president emeritus of the Sustainable Market Women's Fund (formerly, Sirleaf Market Women's Fund), which has directly and indirectly empowered over 15,000 market women in Liberia. Her work with market women has expanded to Uganda through the Institute for Social Transformation; she is also a founder of that organization.
Awori is an active member of the Gender Is My Agenda Campaign, where she promotes an inclusive agenda for the voices of marginalized majorities, market women, and rural women. She also serves on a number of intergovernmental, private sector, and civil society boards globally and in Uganda. She was educated at Harvard University (B.A. cum laude), University of California Berkeley (M.A.), and Teachers College, Columbia University, New York (Ed.D.). She is a highly skilled and experienced facilitator.