Speakers

BUSINESS TRACK: “FROM INVISIBLE TO INVINCIBLE: PUSHING HISTORICAL BOUNDARIES IN BUSINESS, COMMUNITY, AND EDUCATION” 

Jean Tate

Jean Tate: Perspectives as Business Owner

Jean Tate was born in  Yakima, Washington and graduated from Pacific University in 1951 with a major in theater and minor in English and girls’  PE. She has taught a number of subjects in a variety of locations, including English, girls’ P.E., and speech at Tillamook, Oregon; Weston, Massachusetts; Estacada, Oregon; Willamette High School, Eugene; and Hamlin Junior High School, Springfield.  For 12 years was an instructor in the college of business teaching a class in real estate. In 1969, Jean went into real estate and opened my own office in 1974,which became the top real estate office in Eugene for 14 years. She holds numerous volunteer positions, including the  President, Metropolitan Affordable Housing Corporation; founding director of Valley State Bank which merged with Centennial Bank and then Umqua Bank; Oregon State Commission for Women, Oregon State Ethics Commission, Willamette Livability Forum, and Trustee for Pacific University.

Etta Brew

Etta Brew: Perspectives from Educational Leadership

Etta Pearl Holmes Brew is a Retired Extension Home Economist and Parish Staff Chairman of the LSU Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service in St. Martin Parish. She completed 32 years of service teaching youth and homemakers throughout the parish. She was the first African/ American to hold the position as Parish Chairman in the state.

Etta Pearl, began the education for her career at Clarence elementary school and Natchitoches High School. She received Bachelor of Science Degree in Home Economics at Southern University in 1959 . She received her Master of Science Degree at Louisiana State in 1970. She also attended ULL and Prairie View universities. Etta Pearl was a member of the Louisiana Home Economic Association, American Home Economist Association, Epsilon Sigma Phi National Extension Honorary Fraternity and the St Martin Board Drug Free School. She also served on Southern University Board of Supervisors.

She is presently serving on the VITA board, the Cajun Area COA Board, St Martin Parish Southern University Alumni, RSVP volunteer, Sunday-School Teacher, Church Mission, and President of the Alphabettes.

Ginerva Ralph

Ginevra Ralph: Director of Education at the John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts and University of Oregon Board of Trustees Member

Ginevra Reed Ralph is the Director of Education and vice chair of the Board for The John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts, a performing arts and community music school organization which she co-founded in 1991 with her husband Jim. Originally from the Chicago area, she has lived in Eugene since 1971, where she received her B.A and M.A. from the UO. She taught students with profound cognitive and physical disabilities and pre-service teacher training at the UO, emphasizing inclusive curriculum design and school reform. She currently serves as Vice Chair of the UO Board of Trustees and as a Trustee of Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. She received Eugene’s 2015 First Citizen award and is a member of the International Women’s Forum. She has two children and four grandchildren and spends as much time in Taos, NM, as possible!

Bridget Kyerematen-Darko

Bridget Kyerematen-Darko: Executive Director of Aid to Artisans

Mrs. Bridget Darko is the Executive Director of Aid to Artisans, Ghana (ATAG), a non-governmental organization (NGO) that was established in 1989 to support the development of the Craft Industry in Ghana.

She read Development Planning for her first degree, and has a post-graduate diploma in Industrial Management from KNUST, Ghana. She subsequently acquired an MBA (Finance) from University of Ghana and completed the Programme on Investment Appraisal and Management (Harvard Institute for International Development). She has since then participated in a number of other training programs.

She has had extensive work experience in both the public and private sectors. She worked in the Cocoa Sector as a Projects Officer, and later joined the Ministry of Finance and worked with a team on its Private Sector Reform.

She left the Ministry to join ATAG in 1993, and has since headed the organization. She has assisted with the development of new products for the craft industry and search for new raw materials to sustain production. She has worked on the expansion of the external market for craft products, the infusion of new technology, including ICT into the industry, provision of credit facility for producers, industry collaboration with tertiary education and the enhancement of the human capacity and professionalism within the industry.

She is well traveled and has gained considerable experiences from her travels to USA, Canada, Holland, England, Israel, India, Honduras, Ecuador, Morocco, Bourkina Faso, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, Kenya, Benin, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Senegal, etc.

 

ACADEMIC TRACK: “PLAY TO WIN: MASTERING POLITICS AND TRANSFORMING THE ACADEMY”  

Dr. Belle Wheelan

Belle Wheelan: President, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, USA

Dr. Belle Wheelan currently serves as President of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and is the first African American and the first woman to serve in this capacity.  Her career spans 40 years and includes the roles of faculty member, chief student services officer, campus provost, college president and Secretary of Education.  In several of those roles she was the first African American and/or woman to serve in those capacities.  Dr. Wheelan received her Bachelor’s degree from Trinity University in Texas (1972) with a double major in Psychology and Sociology; her Master’s from Louisiana State University (1974) in Developmental Educational Psychology; and her Doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin (1984) in Educational Administration with a special concentration in community college leadership.  

Liana Zhou

Liana Zhou: Archivist, Director of Library Archives, Kinsey Institute, Indiana University-Bloomington, USA.

Liana Zhou, a full rank librarian at Indiana University Libraries, serves as Director of Library and Special Collections at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. She received a Masters degree in Library Science from Indiana University, a B. A. in Philosophy in Sichuan University (China), and pursued graduate studies Earlham School of Religion, Richmond, Indiana. Kinsey Institute Collections are internationally known resources for sexuality, gender and reproduction. As Director of Library and Archives, she is responsible for organization, access and digitization programs for library, archives, art, and film collections. She served as an interim Director of Development for Kinsey Institute. During her tenure at Kinsey, she has successfully established a number of endowment funds and fellowship funds; she also successfully acquired collections from prominent sex researchers and scholars such as Drs. Harry Benjamin, John Money, Masters and Johnson, Helen Fisher and Elaine Hatfield.

She received many grants and awards including Chinese American Librarians’ Association (CALA) President Award (2005), CALA's Distinguished Services Award (2006), American Library Association Equality Award (2008), Indiana University’s The Critical Difference Grant (2011), and Joint Conference of Librarians of Color’s Advocacy Award (2012).

She wrote articles on sexuality, sex education, sex politics, sex resources and library management, which appeared in journals in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China and U.S.  Her research and presentation topics include diversity, leadership, women, strategic planning, fundraising and collection development. She was elected and served as Councilors-at-large for American Library Association. She served on the Joint Conference of Librarian of Color’s Steering Committee. She also served as Chinese American Librarians’ Association President. She currently chairs IU Asian Pacific Americans Faculty and Staff Council.

Portia Maultsby

Portia Maultsby: Laura Bolten Professor Emerita, Indiana University-Bloomington Campus, USA.

Portia K. Maultsby is the Laura Boulton Professor Emerita of Ethnomusicology in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and Founding Director (1991-2013) of the Archives of African American Music and Culture at Indiana University. She received the Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Wisconsin.

Dr. Portia Maultsby, a specialist in African American music, has lectured and conducted workshops on Black religious and popular music throughout the United States, in England, The Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. She is widely published in national and international journals and is co-editor of African American Music: An Introduction, 2nd ed. Routledge Press (2015) and African American Music: Power, Gender, Race, Representation Routledge Press (forthcoming 2017),and developer of an interactive timeline on African American music permanently featured on Carnegie Hall’s website (Honor program) 

Dr. Maultsby also has been involved in multimedia productions for museums as well as film and radio productions including PBS, BBC and NPR. She currently serves as senior scholar and co-chair of the storyline for the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville (scheduled to open in 2018). Dr. Maultsby is recipient of many awards and honors, including the 2013 the Indiana University President’s Medal and, in 2012, she presented the Charles Seeger Lecture, the centerpiece of the annual meeting of the Society of Ethnomusicology and one of the highest honors in the field.  

Akosua Adomako Ampofo

Akosua Adomako Ampofo: Professor, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana (currently Fulbright Scholar at Concordia University, Irvine, CA., USA)

Akosua Adomako Ampofo is a Professor of African and Gender Studies at the University of Ghana, and is currently a Visiting Senior Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at Concordia University, Irvine.  She has been a Research Fellow of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, since 1989, and until July 2015 was its Director.  Adomako Ampofo was also the founding Director of the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy, CEGENSA, at the University of Ghana (2005-2009).  She is a member of CODESRIA, the (US) African Studies Association, Co-President of the Research Committee on Women and Society of the International Sociological Association, Founding Vice-president of the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA), Co-Editor, Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa blog, and an honorary member of the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa.   Her teaching, research and advocacy address issues of African Knowledge systems; Higher education; Identity Politics; Gender-based Violence; Women's work; Masculinities; and Gender Representations in Popular Culture (music and religion).

In 2010 Adomako Ampofo was awarded the Feminist Activism Award by Sociologists for Women and Society, SWS; in 2014 she was a Mellon Fellow at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town and in 2015 she delivered the African Studies Review Distinguished lecture at the African Studies Association meetings held in San Diego.


COMMUNITY TRACK: “WOMEN OF POWER: RE-ENVISIONING ACTIVISM”

Shelia Stickel

Shelia Stickel: Advocacy Group, Seattle, Washington

Sheila Stickel’s company the Advocacy Group specializes in building momentum and alliances for issues, companies and campaigns, and has worked with a wide variety of public affairs and public relations clients in the Pacific Northwest. With more than twenty years of successful community relation’s initiatives, Stickel's professional background includes extensive experience in coalition-building as well as political organizing, effective mobilization, problem-solving and communications.  An ability to motivate action from grassroots networks is a hallmark of Stickel’s approach. Her energy and experience working with elected officials, issues, promoting events, and generating support for issues make her among the top in her field.

Stickel’s talent was used to help manage Washington’s history making same-sex marriage campaign in 2012. She has also managed everything from professional sports campaigns to a multitude of local issue political and candidate campaigns, including: healthcare issues including patient advocacy  (government relations in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska); energy (solar, wind, bio mass, CNG, and LNG); health plans and foundations (Idaho, Oregon and Washington), transportation issues (Oregon and Washington), telecommunications, and trade groups. 

A Northwest native, Stickel lives in Seattle, but grew up in Boise, Idaho.  She attended the University of Oregon where she was the (co)student body president in 1991.  She currently serves on the University of Oregon Alumni Association Board of Directors, works with National Patient Advocate Foundation, and leads her daughter’s Girls Scout Brownie troop.

Maria Chavez-Haroldson

Maria Chavez-Haroldson: Director, Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations, Oregon Youth Authority

Maria Chavez-Haroldson currently serves as an Executive  Cabinet member and  Administrator for the Oregon Youth Authority which serves incarcerated youth in Oregon. Maria obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources, and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration at Western International University.  She is in her third year as a doctoral student at Antioch University’s PHD in Leadership and Change Program. She served as the Co-Director ot the Center for Latino/a Studies at OSU.  Maria served Benton county children in foster care as the Executive Director of CASA – Voices for Children (Court Appointed Special Advocates). Maria has worked and advocated for victims of crime for over twenty years, offered testimony in federal court for women held in bondage and worked for the Oregon Judicial Department. She also worked as a Mental Health Specialist and formerly the Crime Victim’s Unit Director for the Yamhill District Attorney’s Office.  Maria is a national/International trainer for CWAG (Central Western Attorney General’s Conference), training foreign nationals (investigators, prosecutors & judges) on topics of victim’s rights, trial/court advocacy, and judicial reform.  She served a four-year term as a board member of the Oregon Crime Victim Law Center. Maria came to the U.S. as an immigrant and obtained her U.S. Citizenship in 2001.  She is a mother of four, has nine siblings, several adorable rescued pets, and loves to cook, dance and eat salsa.  Her passion is in leading social justice change for racial equity and inclusion with her life partner, John Haroldson.

Diana Pei Wu

Diana Pei Wu: Executive Director, Portland Jobs With Justice

Diana Pei Wu (pronouns: their name; they / them / theirs) was born in New York City and grew up in a small Chinese community in adjacent Fairfield County. One of Diana’s first civil disobedience actions was supporting hotel workers fighting for a living wage in Emeryville, CA. Most recently, Diana contributed significantly to the successful campaign preventing the detention and deportation of a local undocumented community labor leader in Portland, and is honored to serve social movements for economic, racial, and gender justice as the Executive Director of Portland Jobs with Justice.

Diana holds a PhD from UC Berkeley (2006), where their dissertation work explored the contributions of youth organizing against environmental racism in immigrant communities as deep, transformative intellectual and cultural work in its own right. Diana has taught at the University of California, Berkeley; Amherst College; Antioch University Los Angeles; and the California State University at Dominguez Hills, as well as guest lectured throughout the United States and internationally. They have authored numerous reports and articles on youth organizing, environmental racism, popular education, immigrant rights, and speak Mandarin, Spanish, and some French and Portuguese.

Patti Buss: One Hope, Eugene, Oregon

Patti Buss has lived in Eugene 21 years and has been actively involved in the community through education, youth work, and various service initiatives.   Patti graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Technical Journalism and worked in the Community Services offices of CSU, connecting students with community needs.   Before moving to Eugene, she and her husband did missions work throughout the former Soviet Union, Uganda, South Africa, Israel, and many other eastern European nations.  She currently works with the non-profit organization, One Hope, engaging the public and private sector to collaborate and provide solutions for various needs in Lane County.  Part of their work includes annual Thanksgiving Meal distribution, and Project Hope, which serves 30-40 schools, and 3,000 children and their families.  She loves music, walking or running, enjoying the outdoors, travel, and being with good friends.  Patti is married to Steve Buss and has two grown sons, Daniel and Michael.


ACADEMIC TRACK: “WOMEN OF POWER, RECASTING K-12 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS”

Chair: Anselmo Villanueva, Ph.D., Chairperson, Board of Directors, Lane Education Service District (ESD)

Shadiin Garcia

Shadiin Garcia: Chief Education Office, Salem, Oregon

Shadiin is the Research and Policy Deputy Director for the Chief Education Office in Oregon.  She is Chicana and Laguna Pueblo from New Mexico and has lived in Oregon with her sons since 2001.  Her current projects include developing a statewide agency research agenda, operationalizing the Oregon Equity Lens, supporting all regional initiatives, and elevating P20 plans like the re-design of the statewide GED program and the Oregon American Indian/Alaska Native Education State Plan.  She has been in the field of education for 20 years as a teacher, administrator, and consultant.  Shadiin believes system change has to be rooted in community via an asset-based paradigm.   In her spare time, she studies ways to revolutionize classrooms with co-constructed curriculum developed to meet community goals of sovereignty and culturally sustaining educational practices.

Charlene Williams

Charlene Williams: Senior Director, Roosevelt Cluster, Portland, Oregon

Dr. Charlene Williams enthusiastically embraces her roles as a wife, a mother and a professional. Dr. Williams is happily married to Frank Williams and the proud mother of two beautiful daughters, Naleigha and Zaria.  After family, leading for achievement is her priority. Dr. Williams has over fifteen years experience in education including multiple leadership roles throughout her career.  She has worked in public and private educational settings and is experienced in middle, high school and college settings.  Her calling to the field of education is to ensure that every child, regardless of gender, ethnicity or past educational experience, has the requisite skills to advance successfully along the education continuum.  She is passionate about working with students who have not been successful in school and empowering staff members with the tools, support and motivation needed to make a significant, measurable difference.   Dr. Williams has served as Principal at Roosevelt High School helping to increase reading, mathematics and graduation rates.  She now serves as Senior Director of the Roosevelt Cluster for Portland Public Schools where she continuously labors with educators to improve student opportunities and outcomes.  

Kathleen Jonathan

Kathleen Jonathan: Community School Outreach Coordinator, Salem-Keizer Public Schools

Kathleen Jonathan is a native of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.  She and her family left the islands in order for her to pursue her undergraduate studies at the University of Hawaii in Hilo.  After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree, she and her family moved to Oregon.  Shortly after, she landed a part-time job with the Salem-Keizer Public Schools as an Instructional Assistant.

Kathleen still works for the Salem-Keizer Public Schools but as a Community School Outreach Coordinator (CSOC), working with English Language Learners (ELLs) from the Marshall Islands.  Her position was created in 2004 due to cultural misunderstandings and misconceptions between Marshallese students, their families, and the school district.  As part of her work, Kathleen shares cultural insights and/or presentations with school staff and shares the school culture and expectations with students and families to help bridge cultural differences.

Kathleen joined the Oregon Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs (OCAPIA) as one of its commissioners in June 2014.  She has also been involved with the Asian and Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) as a volunteer at some of its state-wide and local events and recently became a part-time ELL Parent Organizer for the organization in July 2015.  Having experienced similar issues that the ELLs are experiencing, Kathleen is very passionate about her work as an educator and as a volunteer.  She hopes that her efforts and contribution will help to increase the opportunity gap for all students of color.

Diane Gordon Hanks

Diane Hanks: Retired Principal, Bloomington Public Schools

Diane Gordon Hanks is a native of Cheraw, South Carolina. She was educated in the public schools of Chesterfield County, South Carolina. She received a Bachelor of Science in Education from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts and a Masters of Education in Curriculum and Leadership at Auburn University in Alabama. She has completed additional graduate studies at historical Tuskegee University in Alabama and Indiana University.

She spent her entire career working as an educator. She recently retired after twenty four years as an administrator in the Monroe County Community School Corporation in Bloomington, Indiana. Mrs. Hanks undying belief is that every child should be given every opportunity to succeed academically, regardless of their race or class.  Until this belief becomes a reality, we will never realize our fullest potential as a nation. It is this belief that has driven her to spend many hours working and advocating for students and parents who have not always had a positive experience with schools.  It is also her belief that every child needs to feel that they matter and that their teachers, believe in them wholeheartedly.

In her retirement, Mrs. Hanks will continue to work with schools to advocate for children and parents and work with new administrators.  Her passion will always be helping and working with children and parents, especially, those who are marginalized in the educational system.


FAITH TRACK: “MUSLIM WOMEN IN TRANSNATIONAL FEMINISM: DISMANTLING STEREOTYPES AND BUILDING NEW REALITIES

Chair: Andrew Riley, Ph.D., Visiting Professor, Religious Studies

Irum Shiekh

Irum Shiekh: Visiting Professor, Ethnic Studies

Irum Shiekh, Ph.D., is a visiting professor in the department of Ethnic Studies. Her research examines the intersections of race and gender at local and transnational levels and promotes the integration of arts and oral history in the advancement of social justice.  Her book Detained Without Cause (Palgrave, 2011) provides oral histories of Muslims wrongfully detained/deported in connection with the September 11 attacks. Her documentary Matrilineal Muslim Women of Minang (work in progress) presents interviews of Muslim women wearing the veil and contributes towards disassociating the largely misunderstood image of the oppression of women within Islam.  Her photo exhibit Palestinians Envision Life Without Occupation (2016) combines oral histories with portraits to examine the power of imagination as a resistance strategy for Palestinians living under occupation.  She has completed fieldwork in Egypt, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru. South Africa, and Trinidad.

  Faten Arfaoui

Faten Arfaoui: Instructor, Religious Studies

Last year the department of Religious Studies welcomed Career NTTF Faten Arfaoui to our Arabic language instructional team.

Faten spent her early childhood in the city of Kairouan in the center of Tunisia.  It has a large historical mosque built by the Aghlabids.  At age 11, her family moved to the capital city, Tunis.  She attended Ibn Charaf University there, with a degree in both English and International Relations.  In 2008, she received a Fulbright to come to the U.S. to study at Texas Tech, where she ultimately completed a Master’s degree and began work on a Ph.D.  Coming to America was the fulfillment of a dream.  She has made many friends, teaching them about her culture and learning about theirs.  This “cultural exchange” continues with her students at the U of O.

Faten is a big fan of the novels of Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz, especially his Khan al-Khalili.  She also loves a novel she recently read called Awza Atajawwaz.  As for favorite films, she says that she loves any romance movies, especially those with actress Sandra Bullock.  She particularly likes “The Proposal,” “The Net,” and “While You Were Sleeping.”

Hadeel Abu Hmeid

Hadeel Abu Hmeid: Student, Nonprofit Management Program

Hadil Abuhmaid is a second year student in the Master of Nonprofit Management Program at the University of Oregon with a focus on Art Administration. Born to a Palestinian refugee family in Jordan, Hadil holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Bir-Zeit University, Palestine. Since 2009, she has been promoting arts for community and cultural development. Currently, she serves on the board of the Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity and acts as a cultural liaison for Arab students.

Selam Wako

Selam Wako: Student, Prevention Science Program, College of Education

Selam Wako is a graduate student in the Prevention Science Program through the College of Education at the University of Oregon.

 

COMMUNITY TRACK: “EMPOWERING WOMEN AND VULNERABLE SOCIETIES”

Peyi Soyinka-Airewele

Peyi Soyinka-Airewele: Professor of Political Science, Ithaca College, Ithaca, USA.

Peyi Soyinka-Airewele is Professor of International and Comparative Politics at Ithaca College, New York, and founder of the Alliance for Community Transformation. She received her Ph.D. in International Studies from the University of Birmingham, U.K and has served as the first female president of the Association of Third World Studies, Inc., co-Vice president of the Ithaca City of Asylum, and president of the African Studies and Research Forum Inc. Her research on democratic development, gender, the politics of memory and trauma and the socio-political discourses of African cinema has been published in several journals including the Journal of Asian and African Studies, Journal of Third World Studies, and West Africa Review. Her published books include, Reframing Contemporary Africa (CQ Press, 2009, with Kiki Edozie); and Socio-Political Scaffolding and the Construction of Change (Africa World Press, 2008, with Kelechi Kalu). Peyi recently worked in Nigeria as a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow and currently serves as co-president of the African Women’s Initiative (AWI). She serves as an ambassador for the Stephen’s Children’s Home, a center for children orphaned by the Boko Haram terrorist assaults in Nigeria and as a mentor to junior and female scholars in African universities.

Nancy Nti-Asare

Nancy Nti-Asare: Attorney, U.S. Department of State

Nancy Sharp Nti Asare received her Juris Doctorate from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon in 1987.  After her graduation, she continued her study of international law in the Peoples Republic of China, and the University of Stockholm in Sweden. She is an International Lawyer with over 20 years of substantial and varied international development experience dedicated to vulnerable groups, women, and children in areas of civil society, justice and security reform, and institutional capacity building. This includes project management and advisory experience in conflict-affected, post-conflict, fragile and transitional states.  Her extensive experience extends primarily to the Middle East and Africa.

As a diplomat and senior level advisor, she provided strategy and tactical development guidance, to the EU, DFID, UK AID, British Embassy (Foreign Commonwealth Office), USAID, MEPI and US Department of State implementing reforms and conducting field work in over 70 countries, world-wide. With over 10 years  experience as a Professor of Law and Legal Studies in the US, Mexico, and Estonia, she is a specialist in legal education reform, international and comparative law, human rights, and advocacy.  She and her husband, Nana Darko Ofori II, successfully raised three children, Lydia, Isak and Anna Malaika.

Susan Sygall

Susan Sygall: Founder, Mobility International-USA

Susan Sygall is an internationally-recognized expert in the area of international development, educational exchange and leadership programs for persons with disabilities, having co-founded the national non-profit organization Mobility International USA in 1981. MIUSA’s mission is to empower people with disabilities around the world to achieve their human rights through international exchange and international development. Its signature program, the Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability, has provided leadership training and capacity-building activities for over 200 women leaders with disabilities from around the world.

Ms. Sygall is also recognized for her work on issues related to women with disabilities and has co-authored numerous publications in this area, including Brilliant and Resilient: Celebrating the Power of Disabled Women Activists. Most recently, she published a memoir, No Ordinary Days, which highlights the creation of Mobility International USA and the impact that international exchange can have on everyone, including people with disabilities. Ms. Sygall has also received numerous awards in recognition of her passionate advocacy for disability rights, including the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2000 and an Ashoka Fellowship in 2013.

Ms. Sygall earned her M.S. from the University of Oregon in 1981 and now teaches an undergraduate and graduate level UO course called Global Perspectives on Disability. In addition, Ms. Sygall serves on the President’s Diversity Advisory Community Council (PDACC) at the University of Oregon to carry out the university's mission in ways that enhance access, retention, and opportunity for traditionally underrepresented groups, including people with disabilities.

Bassey Irele

Bassey Irele: Librarian, Sub-Saharan Africa, Harvard University

Bassey Irele is the Collection Development Librarian for Sub-Saharan Africa in the Widener Library of Harvard University.  She holds Master’s degrees in French (Ibadan University, Nigeria), Foreign Language Education (Ohio State University), and Information and Library Studies (Kent State University, Ohio). She worked for many years as a Yoruba Language Instructor, first in the Ohio State University and afterwards in the African and African American Studies Department of Harvard University (Cambridge, MA). She began the first four years of her career in librarianship working as a Youth Services Librarian in Columbus Metropolitan Library (Columbus, Ohio).    

In her current role as a librarian, Bassey Irele serves as a subject specialist  for African Studies. Her primary responsibilities include developing and maintaining a strong base of research resources originating from Africa, south of the Sahara, providing specialized reference services for faculty and students in the humanities and social sciences, as well as participating in outreach programs and bibliographic collaborations within her home institution and beyond.