Nipissing CIC offers distinguished panel

The Nipissing Branch of the Canadian International Council (CIC) and the Poverty Awareness Network Nipissing (PANN) are pleased to welcome Dr. Lanyan Chen, Mrs. Suzanne Brooks and Ms. Katie Scott, who will be speaking on the subject of Rethinking Gender and Poverty at Home and Abroad. Drawing on their experience as scholars, practitioners, activists and volunteers, the three panelists will examine some of the challenges of contemporary world poverty.The talk will be held on Thursday, February 27, 2014, from 7 – 8:30 p.m. in Room A246 at Nipissing University.  This event is free and open to the public. Everyone is welcome!
Dr. Lanyan Chen is an Associate Professor of Social Welfare at Nipissing University.  Prior to her appointment at Nipissing, Dr. Chen was Foreign Expert/Professor at the Institute of Gender and Social Development at Tianjin Normal University.  She has also taught at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, Beijing University, Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Simon Fraser University and at the University of Victoria. Chen is also a practitioner having worked for the United Nations Development Program, the Canadian International Development Agency, the United Nations Population Fund and United Nations Development Fund for Women. Chen has a PhD from the University of British Columbia in Sociology, a MA from Simon Fraser University and a BA in English Literature from Inner Mongolia University in China.
During 28 years as a bookseller, Suzanne Brooks was intimately and enthusiastically involved in the immediate community, serving on the boards of the Downtown Improvement Association, Callander Public Library, Capitol Centre, and North Bay Area Arts Council. She continues to work to promote Canadian and especially local writers within the community. In addition to local involvement, Brooks served as president of the Canadian Booksellers Association, and past chair of the Book and Periodical Council. In 2012 she received an honorary doctorate from Nipissing University. Brooks is an active member of the North Bay Grandmothers for Africa group, one of 250 groups of Grandmothers to Grandmothers across Canada that raise funds and awareness to support the work of the Stephen Lewis Foundation in Africa. In May 2010 Brooks travelled to Swaziland to participate in the first international conference on HIV/AIDS and women’s issues in Africa representing grandmothers from this area. She also serves on the Steering Committee for GRAN: Grandmothers Advocacy Network, a national organization which recently won an Award for Action on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights. GRAN is currently engaged in action on three key areas: sexual violence against women (currently focused on conflict mining); education, and access to medicines.
Katie (Kay) Cupper Scott is this year’s Community Coordinator for the Nipissing University Gender Equity Centre which many of you may know as its old name of the Nipissing University Women’s Centre. She is also the Educational Director for Pride On Campus. She has also been involved with a number of the Poverty Awareness Network of Nipissing's campaigns, including a homeless awareness sleep-out in 2011. She will graduate in April with a diploma in Early Childhood Education. Her passion is queer rights and activism and she hopes that she can be a daycare educator who enables children to live as free as possible from society’s binary concept of gender. Scott wishes to educate and enable adults and children alike to recognize the power in allowing oneself and others to express, explore, and embrace a diversity of gender identities, expressions and ideas without prejudice or stigma.
The Canadian International Council is a non-partisan, non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering the engagement of Canadians in Canadian foreign policy and in international issues generally.
For more information about this event or the Canadian International Council please contact: John Allison at 705-474-3450 ext 4582 or johna@nipissingu.ca