Institute for Leadership and Service at Valpo Announces Spring 2017 Speaker Series

Valparaiso University’s Institute for Leadership and Service announces its spring 2017 Pathways to Purpose speaker series, featuring speakers and topics focusing on professional development.

The speaker series invites to campus field experts and service-based leaders who respond to the deepest challenges of our time and help to inspire students to pursue purposeful work. All events will be held at 5:30 p.m. in Valpo’s Helge Center, adjacent to the Chapel.

Topics include:

Deborah Fisher: “Art and Civic Life: Becoming a Creative Activist,” Jan. 25. As executive director of A Blade of Grass, Deborah Fisher works to further her company’s mission of supporting individual artists who use their talents to enact social change in their communities. As a practicing artist, she has worked in many capacities of socially engaged art in New York City.

Janice Phillips: “First Do No Harm: Health Policy for Better Healthcare,” Feb. 22. Janice Phillips, Ph.D., M.S., RN, FAAN boasts a wide array of key roles in health care, from nurse researcher, academician, international scholar, clinician, consultant, project director and program director to her current position as director of government and regulatory affairs for CGFNS International Inc. She has stimulated and overseen health disparities research and will use her extensive experience to discuss the role of policy in creating better health systems and practice.

Hannah Cartwright ’08: “Advocating for the Immigrant: How One Alum Became a Lawyer for the Marginalized,” March 29. Hannah Cartwright ’08, staff attorney in the Detained Programs for the Pennsylvania Immigration, works to provide holistic legal services to immigrants and victims of trauma. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and serves as co-chair of the Philadelphia AILA Pro Bono Liaison Committee for 2015–2017.

Amy Sample Ward ’05: “Making Non-Profits Next-Level: Using Technology for Lasting Change,” April 5. Amy Sample Ward ’05, CEO of NTEN and author of “Social Change Anytime Everywhere: How to implement online multichannel strategies to spark advocacy, raise money, and engage your community,” works to facilitate the nonprofit technology sector’s transition into a movement-based force for positive change.

Rev. Eugene Cho: “Overrated: Are We More in Love With the Idea of Changing the World than Actually Changing the World?” April 19. Rev. Eugene Cho is both founder and lead pastor at Quest Church as well as founder of One Day’s Wages, a “grassroots movement of people, stories, and actions to alleviate extreme global poverty.” He also recently released his first book, “Overrated: Are We More in Love with the Idea of Changing the World than Actually Changing the World?”

All events are free and open to the public. Visit valpo.edu/leadserve for additional information about the Institute for Leadership and Service and its programs.