Speakers

Keynote Speaker

Lani Guinier, Bennett Boskey Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, is a civil rights lawyer and scholar, and a leading expert on possibilities for revitalizing voting in the United States and creating a truly democratic electoral process. She is the author of numerous books, most recently The Miner's Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy (with Gerald Torres, 2002). The first black woman to gain tenure at Harvard Law School, Guinier was Assistant Counsel and Head of the Voting Rights Project for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the 1980s and worked in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department in the late 1970s. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Sacks-Freund Teaching Award from Harvard Law School Class of 2002, the 1995 Margaret Brent Woman Lawyers of Achievement Award, the Champion of Democracy Award, and eight honorary degrees.

Panelists

Nancy Abudu is staff counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project in Atlanta, GA, where she litigates civil rights cases in federal and state court.

Liz Krueger was first elected to the New York State Senate in February 2002, and is currently the Chair of Minority Program Development and the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Standing Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development. Senator Krueger is a strong advocate for tenants' rights, affordable housing, improved access to health care and prescription drug coverage, social services more open government and campaign finance reform, more equitable funding for public education, including higher education, and animal welfare.

Sally Kohn is the director of the Movement Vision Project of the Center for Community Change, which is interviewing hundreds of activists across the country to build coalitions and determine the progressive vision for the future of the United States.

Christine Marie Sierra is Professor of Political Science at the University of New Mexico. Her publications focus on U.S. Latino politics, Latino mobilization on immigration reform, Hispanic political behavior in New Mexico and Chicana/Latina politics. She co-wrote and co-produced the 1999 video documentary, "'This Town is Not For Sale!': The 1994 Santa Fe Mayoral Election," featuring the election of Debbie Jaramillo as Santa Fe's first woman mayor.

Signe Wilkinson is the Editorial Cartoonist at the Philadelphia Daily News, and her cartoons have been syndicated by the Washington Post Writer's Group. In 1992, she became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartoons.

Workshop Organizations

ART (Activist Response Team), a New York based artist's collective that coordinates anti-war and anti-violence protest actions using visual and artistic displays.

Code Pink, a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq and encourage the redirecting of resources into healthcare and education.

Make the Road New York, a Brooklyn-based community organization promoting economic justice and democratic accountability to low-income people.

The White House Project, a national, nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that aims to advance women's leadership in all communities and sectors, up to the U.S. presidency.