Nobel Peace Prize Winner to Speak at Central

April 16, 2008

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Wangari Muta Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, activist, educator and author will be speaking on "Women, Environment and the Politics of Empowerment" Monday, April 28, 2008, at 4 p.m. in the Central Washington University Student Union Ballroom. Maathai is known internationally for her persistent campaign for democracy, civil and women's rights and environmental conservation.

"It's an amazing opportunity to see a Nobel Peace Prize winner," says Mal Stewman, program support supervisor for the Center for Student Empowerment. "She is a profound individual in our time."

Born in Nyeri, Kenya, Maathai was the first woman in east and central Africa to earn a doctoral degree, and was one of the first women elected to the University of Nairobi's Academic Staff Association, which inspired her to become an activist for women's rights.

In 1980 she became chairwoman of the National Council of Women of Kenya where she introduced her tree-planting plan and developed it into the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots environmental conservation organization combating the devastating effects of deforestation and desertification. The movement has helped women's groups plant 30 million trees and has since expanded and taught more people from other African countries about conservation and community building. Some of them have been so inspired, they've gone on to start their own tree-planting projects and create plans to improve conservation efforts in their own countries.

According to Maathai, the Green Belt Movement grew from a tree-planting program into one that planted ideas as well. She stated that the connection between the symptoms of environmental degradation and their causes – deforestation, de-vegetation, unsustainable agriculture and soil loss – were self-evident. Something had to be done to get to the root causes of those problems.

Maathai was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work on the Green Peace Movement and received many other awards, among them, France's highest honor, the Legion d'Honneur. Listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by "Time" magazine and one of the 100 most influential women in the world by "Forbes" magazine, Maathai has addressed the United Nations, the General Assembly for the five-year review of the 1992 Earth Summit and has served on the United Nations Commission for Global Governance and the Commission of the Future.

Maathai's visit is sponsored by The Symposium Group at CWU. Tickets are free with a limit of two per person and will be available to the campus community Wednesday, April 16 at the Student Union Box Office or by calling 509-963-1301. Tickets for the general public will be available Monday, April 21. Priority seating for ticket holders will be honored until 3:40 p.m. followed by open seating on a first come first served basis.

For more information, or to make arrangements for disability accommodations, please call the Center for Student Empowerment at 509-963-2122 or (for hearing impaired) TDD 509-963-2143.

Media Contact: Mindy Holliday, CWU Publicity Center, 509-963-1993, holliday@cwu.edu
Teri Olin, CWU Public Relations & Marketing, 509-963-1416, olint@cwu.edu.

Central Washington University is a master's degree-granting institution with approximately 10,000 students and 1,500 faculty and staff. More than 160 undergraduate and master's degrees are offered. Founded in 1891, the Ellensburg campus is located in the heart of Washington State, nestled between the Cascade Mountains and the Columbia River. Since 1975, CWU has served the needs of place bound students at six university centers throughout the state. CWU is an AA/EEO Title IX Institution.