Sept. 9, 2019
MILWAUKEE — Dr. Monica White, associate professor of environmental justice at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and Rev. Dr. William Barber II, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, will serve as keynote speakers at the 2019 Summit on Poverty and SWIM Conference hosted by the Social Development Commission and Marquette University, Oct. 7-8, at the Wisconsin Center.
White and Barber join previously announced speakers Dr. Shaili Jain and Dr. Marc Lamont Hill as the conference’s keynotes. The lineup will address the conference theme of self-reflection, hope and collective impact.
Early bird registration for the Summit on Poverty and SWIM Conference is now open and goes until Sept. 13. Early bird registration saves attendees $25; scholarships for the conference are available.
White holds a joint appointment in the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology. Her research investigates Black, Latinx and Indigenous grassroots organizations engaged in the development of sustainable, community food systems as a strategy to respond to issues of hunger and food inaccessibility. Her first book, “Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement, 1880-2010,” contextualizes new forms of contemporary urban agriculture within the historical legacies of African American farmers who fought to acquire and stay on the land.
A doctoral graduate of Western Michigan University, White’s expertise and community work has earned her several grants, including a multi-year, multi-million dollar USDA research grant to study food insecurity in Michigan. She was also appointed to the Food Justice Task Force sponsored by the Institute for Agricultural Trade Policy.
With Repairers of the Breach, Barber seeks to establish a moral agenda rooted in a framework that uplifts the deepest moral and constitutional values of love, justice and mercy. He founded the organization in 2015 and offers a training institute that provides moral activists with the support and tools they need to engage moral analysis, moral articulation and moral activism regarding public policy.
A former Mel King Fellow at MIT, Barber is currently visiting professor of public theology and activism at Union Theological Seminary and is a senior fellow at Auburn Seminary. He has served as president of the North Carolina NAACP and currently sits on the National NAACP Board of Directors. He is the author of three books: “Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing;” “The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement;” and “Forward Together: A Moral Message for the Nation.”
Jain is an internationally recognized psychiatrist and PTSD specialist who currently serves as the medical director for integrated care at the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System. She is a trauma scientist with the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, a consortium which is widely regarded as the world's leading center of excellence on PTSD, and a clinical associate professor affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Her debut nonfiction book, “The Unspeakable Mind,” is a textured portrait of PTSD, a widely misunderstood yet crushing condition that afflicts millions. “The Unspeakable Mind” stands as the definitive guide to PTSD and offers lasting hope to sufferers, their loved ones, and health care providers everywhere.
Trained as an anthropologist of education, Hill holds a doctorate (with distinction) from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a professor of media studies and urban education at Temple University. His research specifically focuses on the intersections between culture, politics, and education in the United States and the Middle East.
Hill is the author or co-author of four books: the award-winning “Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity;” “The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America;” the New York Times bestseller “Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on The Vulnerable from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond;” and “Gentrifier.” He has lectured widely and provides regular commentary for media outlets like NPR, Washington Post, Essence and the New York Times.
For more information on the 2019 Summit on Poverty and SWIM Conference hosted by the Social Development Commission and Marquette University, contact Kevin Conway, associate director of university communication at Marquette, or Kim Brooks, SDC marketing and communications specialist, at (414) 906-2744 or kdawsonbrooks@cr-sdc.org.
Kevin is the associate director for university communication in the Office of University Relations. Contact Kevin at (414) 288-4745 or kevin.m.conway@marquette.edu.
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