International Policy Perspective
03/04/2010 5:30 PM
Location: Moore College of Art & Design
Open to: Forum Members, Non-Forum Members
Event Type: Public Sector Leadership Programs
The Great Hall
20th & The Parkway
Philadelphia, PA
Speaker: Melissa Fitzgerald
Forum members and their guests are welcome!
5:30 - 7:30 PM
Event details
The Public Sector Leadership Committee of The Forum invites Forum members and their guests to join us for a special evening with actress, producer and social activist:
Melissa Fitzgerald (The West Wing)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Great Hall
Moore College of Art & Design
20th Street & The Parkway
Philadelphia, PA
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Members: $35.00
Guests: $40.00
(Must be a guest of a Forum member)
This is the only Public Sector Leadership program of the year that is open to guests of Forum members. Members are encouraged to bring guests who might be potential candidates for Forum membership. We also encourage you to bring a young woman as a guest - daughters, colleagues, mentees. We promise they will be inspired.
Melissa will be showing a portion of her soon to be released documentary film,
Voices of Uganda
Growing up in a political family in Philadelphia certainly prepared Melissa Fitzgerald for her role as Carol, C.J. Cregg’s assistant, on NBC’s Emmy Award-winning drama The West Wing. The daughter of a prominent judge, Melissa’s early aspirations were to follow in her father’s footsteps. However, after earning a degree in drama and literature from the University of Pennsylvania, she moved to New York City and continued her training at the Neighborhood Playhouse, where she studied with Sanford Meisner, and soon became an active member of the theatre community as both an actor and a producer.
Throughout her life Melissa has been dedicated to community service. In 1995 she founded Voices in Harmony, a non-profit youth arts organization committed to empowering at-risk teens by cultivating personal, academic and artistic excellence.
In the summer of 2006, Melissa witnessed firsthand the hardships facing the people in Uganda, particularly the children, when she volunteered in the relief effort with the International Medical Corps. As she prepared to leave Uganda, one of the displaced persons said to her, "Please don't let us die in this horrible place. Please tell America what is happening here." At that moment, Melissa promised herself to share the tales of the atrocities along with the stories of great hope and resilience in the face of insurmountable odds. Since then Melissa has been a passionate advocate for peace in northern Uganda and has spoken several times on Capitol Hill lobbying Congress to bring attention to the crisis.
Voices of Uganda is a compelling documentary film, narrated by Martin Sheen, that follows Melissa as she took her unique theater program to teenagers living in an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp in war-torn northern Uganda. Topics explored in the plays were HIV/AIDS and Peace Building and Reconciliation. The plays were then performed by the teenagers themselves for nearly one thousand people in their camp.
Please come to learn about what the United Nations Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs has called "the biggest forgotten neglected humanitarian crisis in the world today."
For additional information please link to
Forum Members - if you would like to be a greeter, please check yes when you register.
The Forum of Executive Women
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