Half the Sky: Salon Screening and Discussion | March 8, 2013
March 8, 2013: Salon Screening and Discussion at the University at Albany
In partnership with the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society at the University at Albany, SUNY, and Holding Our Own, Inc., WMHT is excited to announce a Salon Screening and Discussion for Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women.
When: March 8, 2013, 6 - 8pm
Where: Milne Hall, Room 200 on the University at Albany Downtown Campus, 135 Western Avenue, Albany
Additional Information & to RSVP: We hope you will plan now to join us for this dynamic event, and please feel free to share this announcement and information with your communities. Seating will be limited. For further information, and to
Click here to read panelist bios.
Click here to view the invitation
This screening is made possible by a grant from Independent Television Service (ITVS). Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is part of the Women and Girls Lead initiative, spearheaded by ITVS in partnership with CPB and PBS. For more information about the film, visit http://www.halftheskymovement.org
Panelist Bios
Jean Fei
Jean has over 30 years of experience in nonprofit management, including 20 years in grant administration, special events and development in non-traditional adult higher education. She is the founding director of the NYS Victim Assistance Academy where she designs and offers college level programs for crime victim service providers, and works to end violence against women. Jean is committed to working for social justice and has developed racism awareness and people of color empowerment and trainings on sexual assault. One of Jean’s goals is to increase awareness of the many forms of oppression in a way that brings people together rather than driving them apart. In addition to her work with the Dismantling Racism Project and her longtime service to the Social Justice Center, she has also worked for NYSCASA working to end sexual violence, training crime victim service providers. She co-founded SEAD, Saratogians for Equality And Diversity which sponsored an Annual Diversity Day, offered youth multicultural arts programs and promoted affordable housing in Saratoga County, helped found a statewide Native American coalition to end violence against women and organized creative writing workshops for women in transition.
Nadya Lawson
Nadya has the singular distinction of being the longest serving member of both the Holding Our Own (HOO) and Women’s Building (WB) board of directors. Beginning with a stint on the WB Coordinating Council from 1996-1999, rejoining in 2005 to the present; she joined the HOO board in 2001, serving as its co-president and then president from 2003 until earlier this year. She has helped to lead the organizations through harder and quieter times, facilitating the challenging transition of leadership and locale. She has been a major pillar in keeping those organizations alive and functioning as the heart of feminism/women’s community in the Albany area, even through the “lean” periods, even with the responsibility of raising her son. Nadya is a facilitator, trainer and mediator and she’s been involved with the women’s/ feminist community for so long; teaching in SUNYA’s Women ’s Studies Teaching Collective as an undergraduate, working with the Sisters of Color Writing Collective, the Feminist Action Network and as staff at the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault; through these organizations as well as the Social Justice Center and its Dismantling Racism Project and In Our Own Voices, she has been a standard bearer for “the beloved community”: holding space for all across lines of difference.
Wilma Alvarado-Little
Wilma received a grant from the National Institutes of Health in May 2009 as part of an award to the University's Center for Elimination of Minority Health Disparities, to support research to identify access and barriers to health care for populations in smaller cities and currently is the Director of Community Engagement/Outreach. She is a medical interpreter, trainer and language access advocate with over 25 years of experience in the healthcare field. Ms. Alvarado-Little has provided guidance for the implementation of hospital and clinic based language access programs and educates healthcare institutions on the importance of language access services. She serves on the Board of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care and is the Chair of the NCIHC Policy and Research Committee. She is a member of the National Project Advisory Committee for the Review of the CLAS Standards, HHS Office of Minority Health, the Institute of Medicine Health Literacy Roundtable, New York State Office of Mental Health Multicultural Advisory Committee and also serves on boards at the state and local levels.
She has a Master of Arts degree in Social Work, a Masters of Arts in Spanish Literature and Bachelor Degrees in Spanish and Psychology.
Loretta Pyles
Loretta is an engaged scholar who is concerned with transformative social change. Her scholarship centers on the ways that individuals, organizations and communities resist and respond to poverty, violence and disasters in a policy context of neoliberal economic globalization and social welfare retrenchment. Dr. Pyles has a diverse academic background with undergraduate degrees in sociology and philosophy, a Master's degree in philosophy and a Ph.D. in Social Work. She spent three years as a faculty member at Tulane University School of Social Work in New Orleans, LA where she focused on post-Hurricane Katrina recovery, policy and development. Since joining the faculty at the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY), School of Social Welfare in 2008, Dr. Pyles' research continues to be concerned with post-disaster recovery and development. More information about Dr. Pyle can be found here.