International Women’s Day Panel to highlight global female leaders

KINGSTON, R.I. – March 7, 2022 – To celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, the University of Rhode Island will host a panel discussion involving seven distinguished leaders discussing their lives and experiences identifying as a woman.

The panel, to be held in the Memorial Union ballroom from 5 to 6:30 p.m., will be moderated by Kendall Moore, a journalism professor in the Harrington School of Communication and Media. Light refreshments will be served.

The panelists are:

Anna Santucci, faculty development specialist in URI’s Office for the Advancement of Teaching and learning
Alia Hadid, adjunct professor in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages master’s program
Katie Riedy, the event planning and education specialist at the Gender and Sexuality Center
Lorén M. Spears, executive director of the Tomaquag Museum
Mary Parlange, a writer, editor, translator and media relations professional with 20 years of experience in the United States, Switzerland and Australia
Ndaya Cynthia Malambi, a URI alumna and 2020 Fulbright awardee
Roberta C. Opara, a program coordinator and facilitator for the Diversity & Inclusion Badge Program within the URI Graduate School

Mary Parlange, a writer, editor, translator and media relations professional, is one of the event’s seven panelists. (URI Photo by Nora Lewis)

The event was organized by the Women’s Center graduate assistant Emily Haggett and her collaborators Kathleen McIntyre, associate director of the Honors Program and assistant professor of gender and women’s studies; Abigail Borchert, international student services advisor; and Christiana Molinski, coordinator for the Department of Public Safety and previous interim director of the Women’s Center.

It is sponsored by the Women’s Center, the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, the Office of International Students and Scholars, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Office of the President, the Honors Program and the Department of Africana Studies.

According to Haggett, they wanted to welcome an array of people from different backgrounds to emphasize the international part of the day.

Lorén M. Spears, executive director of the Tomaquag Museum, will serve as a panelist at the event. (URI Photo by Nora Lewis)

“We wanted to hear different women’s stories and experiences and emphasize the ‘international’ in ‘International Women’s Day,’” Haggett said. “This meant highlighting different women from many backgrounds and bringing them together so that students can hopefully either learn something from a different background or feel represented and seen by the people on the panel.”

Haggett has designed the panel to highlight each woman’s personal experiences rather than address specific questions. She hopes each panelist will bring their individual perspectives to form a group discussion.

“Why limit what each of the panelists can talk about? Each of them has different life experiences that are going to bring something different to the table. It’s really cool to hear different people’s stories and see how that resonates differently with different students,” Haggett said.

This event is the Women’s Center main event focused on celebrating Women’s History Month.

To Haggett, this event is an important reminder of the relevance and importance of women worldwide, even more so, because nearly 57 percent of students enrolled at URI in 2021 identified as women.

“It is so important to put these types of events on to make sure women here feel empowered and seen,” Haggett said. “We’re trying so hard to do this international panel because we have to understand that people have multiple identities. Intersectionality is also important to think about, here.”

Kate LeBlanc, a senior journalism and political science major at the University of Rhode Island and an intern in the Department of Communications and Marketing, wrote this press release.