Distinguished Women Speakers Series
2004 Dr. Karen Hitchcock
2003 Bina Srinivasan
2002 Dr. Helen Desfosses
2001 Dr. Mary Fances Berry
2000 Chrys Ingraham
1999 Ida Castro
1998 Dr. Urvashi Vaid
1997 Dr. Bernice Sandler
1996 Dr. Shirley Jones
1995 Judith Gillespie
1994 Catherine R. Stimpson
1993 Judy L. Genshaft
1992 Joanna Osburn-Bigfeather, Veronica Cruz, Alice Green, Carol Reichert
1991 Sandra Harding
1990 Mary Frances Berry
1989 Bella Azbug
1988 Toni Morrison
1987 Eudora Pettigrew
1986 Bernice Sandler
1985 Ruth Schmidt
Bina Srinivasan
Helen Desfosses has lived in Albany for over
twenty years, and is a parishioner at Holy Cross Church. She is a life-long
Democrat, having learned the importance of political involvement from her
mother, who chaired the Democratic Women's Club in their town in Maine when
Helen was growing up. Helen has one son, Adam, who is 30 and an energy consultant
in Washington DC.
In 1997, Helen was elected President of the Albany Common Council
for a four-year term. She was re-elected in 2001. Helen is also Associate
Dean for Educational Development at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs
and Policy, State University of New York at Albany, where she also serves
as Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy, and Africana Studies.
Dr. Desfosses has been a member and treasurer of the Albany
Port District Commission. She has served as a Trustee of the Albany Public
Library, and was Secretary, and then Vice President, of the Board for several
years. She has served as a member of the Albany Water Board and was Vice-Chair
of the Albany Civic Forum, an organization of community and business leaders.
She has served on the Board of the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. She
has been a member and Second Vice President of the Board of the Community
Foundation of the Capital Region. She has also been a member of the Board
of Directors of the Albany YWCA and the Center for Women in Government. She
served as President of the Board of Mercy House, an Albany shelter for homeless
women, and Chairperson of the Peace and Justice Commission for the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Albany. She has also been Chair of the President's Council of the
Sage Colleges, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Government Law
Center, Albany Law School. She served as Co-Director of "Working Together
in the Capital Region", a regionalization of government project co-sponsored
by the Rockefeller Institute,
the Albany Times Union, the Center for Economic Growth, and the New York Department
of State.
Helen has a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, an M.A. from
Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston University.
She is a frequent policy analyst for local television and public radio. She
is a regular bi-weekly political commentator on the noon news on WAMC public
radio, and is heard from time to time on KPFA public radio in San Francisco.
She is also a regular political commentator on "51%", the award-winning
public radio show on women, and shared in the EMMA, the Exceptional Merit
in Media Award, which the show received twice from the National Women's Political
Caucus.
Dr. Desfosses is the author of several books and articles
on national and international policy issues. The Ford Foundation, the American
Association of University Women, the National Academy of Sciences, the US
Department of State, and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University have
supported her research. Her most recent book, Designs for Democratic Stability,
which she co-edited, was published in 1997.
Helen has served as a facilitator at the Aspen Institute
Executive Seminar Program, and as an organizational development consultant
to the Refugee Policy Center and Business Executives for National Security,
to name a few. She has also conducted two multi-national lecture tours for
the United States Information Agency in Sub-Saharan Africa, and has served
as a legislative consultant in Africa, South America and the Middle East.
Helen has received the Coretta Scott King Fellowship of the
American Association of University Women, and the Faculty Fellowship at Stanford
University's Hoover Institution. She was a winner of the 1992 Albany YWCA
Tribute to Women Award and SUNY-Albany's
Collins Medallion for extraordinary service to the university. She
also received the 1992 Capital Leadership Program Alumni Award presented by
the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce, and the Woman of Vision Award from
the Schenectady YWCA. In 1993, she received the Woman in the News Award from
the Women's Press Club of New York State, and the Making Waves Award from
the Albany Chapter of the National Organization for Women, In 1998, she received
the Citizen of the University Award from the University at Albany Alumni Association,
and the Jim Perry Progressive Leadership Award from Capital District Citizen
Action. In June 2000, Helen received
the Women of Excellence Award from the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of
Commerce.
Top
Dr. Mary Frances Berry Dr. Berry became Chairperson
of the US Commission on Civil Rights on November 19, 1993. An Independent
she was reappointed to the Commission in February 1993 by the Speaker of the
House to serve a six-year term.
Dr. Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and
Professor of History at the Unversity of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She
was a Vice Chair of the Civil Rights Commission in 1980-82., and has been
a Commissioner since that time.
Dr. Berry was the 1990-91 president of the Organization of American Historians.
She served as the Assistant SEcretary for Education in the US Department of
Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) from April 1977 until January 1980. For
a period she also served as Acting US Commissioner on Education.
Dr. Berry was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She earned bachelor's and master's
degrees at Howard University, a doctorate in history from the University of
Michican, and the juris doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law
School. She has held faculty appointments at Central Michigan University,
Eastern Michigan University, the University of Maryland, College Park, the
University of Michigan and Howard University in Washington DC. She has authored
a number of articles and essays as well as six books including Long Memory:
The Black Experience in America, Why ERA Failed: Politics, Women's Rights
and the Amending Process of the Constution, and The Politics of Parenthood:
Child Care, Women's Rights and the Myth.
Top
Chrys Ingraham
Associate Professor, Sociology, Russell Sage College for Women
Ida Castro
was featured in the October 1998 issue of Hispanic
Business amongst the listing of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics.
Ms Castro is the first female to serve as the Chairperson of the United
States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a position
that she was nominated for by President Bill Clinton, and was sworn
into on October 23, 1998.
Among her other accomplishments, Ms Castro served as the Acting
Director of the Women's Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor, from
1994-1996, she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Department
of Labor and the Director ofthe Office of Workers' Compensations
Programs. At the age of 20, she became the youngest, and only, female
city cabinet member in Carolina, Puerto Rico. The first Hispanic woman
to earn tenure as an Associate Professor at Rutgers College, Ms Castro
developed and taught courses on sexual harassment in the workplace,
equal employment opportunity, employment law, and alternative
dispute resolution methods.
She is an accomplished attorney, she founded the first Hispanic
women's group in New Jersey and was the first Hispanic appointed by
that state's Governor to the New Jersey Commission on the Status of
Women. Among the numerous awards she has received, for her
advocacy on behalf of minorities and women, is the "Outstanding
Leadership Award" from the Puerto Rican Legal and Education Fund.
Top
Dr. Bernice Sandler
is a nationally prominent scholar and activist on behalf of women in higher
education. Dr. Sandler is currently a Senior Scholar in Residence
at the National Association for Women in Education in Washington, D.C., where
she consults with numerous institutions about achieving equity for women
and writes a quarterly newsletter, About Women on Campus. She is
nationally known for her expertise in women's educational equity, as well as
sexual harassment, campus peer harassment, policiese and programs affecting
women on campus, and the "chilly" classroom climate for female students-how
men and women are treated different in the classroom.
Dr. Sandler played a major role in the development and passage of Title IX
and other laws prohibiting discrimination in education. She has pioneered
these efforts since the early 70's, and has authored an extensive list of
publications and reports. Throughout her carreer, she has received nine
honorary doctorates and a host of other awards.
Urvashi Vaid
has been involved in the gay/lesbian movement for almost 20 years
at both community-based and national levels of advocacy. A graduate of Vassar
College and Northeastern University School of Law, Urvashi has contributed
through her thinking, knowledge, and work to the development of policy and
research on issues concerning gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
perspectives.An author of numerous publications including "Virtual Equality:
TheMainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation," Vaid has left a lasting
impact on the political realm. Her work is both motivational and inspirational. |
