The Experiences of Incarcerated Women
Thursday, December 7, 2023
Recording: https://youtu.be/PkaNpqFTGNg
Panelists: David Singleton and Kimberly Jordan
David Singleton is a fierce advocate and lawyer who has dedicated his life’s work to helping those suffering from violations of law as prisoners and wrongly imprisoned. David is a graduate of Harvard Law School and he is currently an Associate Professor at the University of the DIstrict of Columbia where he teaches Criminal Procedure and Evidence. Before joining UCD in 2023, he served for 21 years as the executive director of the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, a non-profit public interest law firm that works to reform Ohio’s criminal legal system and provides free legal representation to over-punished people.
Kimberly Jordan entered the Ohio prison system for aggravated murder. Though she was involved in the robbery of the deceased victim, she was not the person who actually killed him. Kim protected the actual killer, the father of her son, and took the fall for both of them. Kim wound up spending the next 35 years of her life in prison. Despite the deprivations she experienced during her lengthy incarceration, Kim took advantage of the opportunity to transform herself. She obtained an education at Sinclair College, and completed numerous rehabilitative programs that helped her finally be proud of the person she saw in the mirror each day. Since being released earlier this year, Kim has worked as a home health aide and at a non-profit called “Women of Hope,” which helps formerly incarcerated women transition back to the community. Kim plans to dedicate the rest of her life to serving women returning to society after decades of imprisonment.
Summary: Ajla Glavasevic, AAUW PA’s Diversity & Inclusion Chair, talks with lawyer David Singleton and Kimberly Jordan, a formerly incarcerated woman, about women’s prisons across the United States, as well as Pennsylvania, the types of issues and discrimination women face in this space, and how we can advocate for women in prisons.
PA School Funding: Background and What’s Happening Now
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Recording: https://youtu.be/ZG2Wxxd1ylo
Event Organizer: AAUW Doylestown
Panelists:
Dr. Edward Fuller is a Professor of Education Leadership, Education Policy Studies, at Penn State University. His research interests include educator quality, preparation, turnover and career pathways; school improvement and evaluation; and charter schools. He serves as the Director of the Center for Evaluation and Policy Analysis in the College of Education at Penn State University.
Sandra Miller has been working for fair funding for public schools for over twenty years. She currently serves as the Advocacy Coordinator for Education Voters PA. She also works for the statewide coalition of educators called PA Schools Work, whose mission is to ensure that every child attending public school has the funds necessary to help them succeed. Miller was a School Director at Saucon Valley School District for sixteen years.
Summary: On February 7, 2023, in an historic victory for Pennsylvania’s public school students, Commonwealth Court ruled that Pennsylvania’s school funding system is unconstitutional and must be reformed. Our panel of experts provide us with a background and explain the current situation. Sandra Miller explains what revenue streams make up a school district budget and what “underfunded” means. Sharing his research findings, Ed Fuller explains the manifold consequences of our funding system upon teacher, principal and assistant principal turnover, access to school counselors, librarians and libraries, all factors affecting student outcomes.
Fighting for Working Mothers
Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Recording: https://youtu.be/BKJ66opWHQQ?si=Sk6F_Sse4JXAU_uo
Event Organizer: AAUW National
Panelists: Gloria Blackwell, CEO AAUW; Jennifer Turner, PhD, Senior Research Associate, Student-Parent Success, Institute for Women’s Policy Research; Debra Vagins, National Campaign Director and Director of Equal Pay Today, Equal Rights Advocates; and, Taylor Austin, Campaign Manager, Workplace Justice, MomsRising Together and MomsRising Education Fund
Summary: Working mothers face a variety of challenges to economic security. Between the “motherhood penalty,” a lack of paid leave and a persistent gender wage gap, mothers face additional challenges to economic empowerment. In this webinar, four distinguished panelists discuss these issues and policies that can help provide support for the working mothers of America.
Working mothers face a variety of challenges
How to Engage with Elected Officials
Thursday, April 27, 2023
Recording: https://youtu.be/ku_umqE6f2c
Event Organizer: AAUW National
Presenters: Barbara Price, AAUW Public Policy Committee co-chair; Becky Gaul, AAUW Lobby Corps chair; and members of the AAUW Lobby Corps.
Summary: Learn how to effectively engage on policy issues through meeting with elected officials and how to advocate for public policy priorities that are important for you. Topics covered include: ‘What is Grassroots Lobbying?’; the ‘3H Approach to Lobbying: Head, Heart, Hand’ (a simple way to remember about and approach lobbying); the importance of the ‘Ask’ and ‘Steps for a Successful Meeting’ with your legislator; AAUW resources on the national website (e.g. ‘Quick Facts’); ‘Successful Relationships, Successful Advocacy’; and, ‘What is the Capitol Hill Lobby Corps?’ Sharing their unique experiences, two Lobby Corps members explain what it’s like to lobby for AAUW on Capitol Hill, what keeps them going, and how to have fun and find the joy in lobbying. They emphasize the ‘power of being volunteer leaders,’ that is, of speaking on issues that we care about, rather than representing special interests.
New Pennsylvania Project
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Recording: https://youtu.be/xok4objJghI
Presenter: Kadida Kenner is the founding chief executive officer of the New Pennsylvania Project (NPP), a voting rights organization with a primary focus on civically engaging, registering, mobilizing and empowering often-ignored constituents. NPP centers the youth, immigrant communities and communities of color in rural, urban, and suburban Pennsylvania to transform and expand the electorate in the Commonwealth.
Kadida is a tireless advocate for social and economic justice issues and is motivated to empower and excite the electorate to enthusiastically vote in every election — all the way down the entire ballot. In addition to working on voting rights, Kadida also serves as co-chair of Why Courts Matter – Pennsylvania, an advocacy campaign seeking to protect the independence of our state and federal courts, and educate the electorate about their importance. The Temple University graduate resides in the Philly suburbs and counts civil rights organizing icon, and West Chester, Pennsylvania native Bayard Rustin as her hero.
Summary: March 7th, 2023 marks the 58th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement that helped lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A lot changed after that, but the work to register voters and protect voting rights continues. In this program, Ms. Kenner speaks about the NPP’s mission and its vital, year-round work canvassing, educating, empowering and mobilizing potential voters. She also shares her insights on the importance of the upcoming primaries and judicial elections, issues surrounding voter ID laws, and what we can do to strengthen and protect voting rights. This program is part of AAUW-PA’s Mission Critical series, which focuses on where our advocacy can make a difference.
War on Ukraine
Thursday, February 9, 2023
Recording: https://youtu.be/juDFgBAcvr4
Presenter: Dr. Lena Surzhko Harned is an Associate Teaching Professor of Political Science and the Associate Director of the Public Policy Fund at Penn State University, Behrend College. Her primary research interests are in the field of comparative politics, political behavior, European politics, and the politics of the post-Soviet space. She has authored several papers dealing with issues of nationalism and ethnic conflict, identity politics, electoral politics, comparative democratization, and political behavior in the post-communist states of Eastern Europe. Her co-authored book, Post-Soviet Legacies and Conflicting Values in Europe: Generation Why?, published by Lexington Books in December 2017, examines the intergenerational conflict and consequences in post-Soviet Ukraine. Dr. Surzhko-Harned holds an MA and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. Thank you to AAUW Erie for recommending Dr. Surzhko Harned.
Summary: As we near the one-year anniversary of the Russian War on Ukraine, many of us seek to better understand the causes of this grim conflict, the state of the war today, and whether peace is possible. Dr. Surzhko Harned provides an extensive analysis. She discusses the historical background, the nature and course of the war, its devastating impact upon the country, and how Ukrainians are coping on a day-to-day basis. Of the nearly 12 million Ukrainians who fled their country last Spring, most were women and children. Additionally, 14,000 Ukrainian children were forcibly deported to Russian “filtration” camps, many having been separated from their families. What can we do to help?
Bias of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in Hiring
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Recording: https://youtu.be/B-Ch_xJQJMA
Event Organizers: AAUW West Chester/Chester County
Presenter: Lori Andrews is a Distinguished Professor of Law at Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law and Director of IIT’s Institute for Science, Law and Technology. She was an adviser on technologies to Congress, WHO, NIH, CDC, and multiple other agencies. She chaired the federal ethics advisory committee to the Human Genome Project.
Andrews authored eleven nonfiction books and three mysteries. She has been interviewed extensively including CBS Morning News, The Today Show, Nightline, 60 Minutes, PBS NewsHour, and Oprah.
Professor Andrews’ path-breaking litigation about technologies caused the National Law Journal to list her as one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America. Professor Andrews has won humanitarian awards for her pro bono legal work, including a successful 10-year odyssey to the Supreme Court to invalidate the patent on the breast cancer gene. She received her B.A. summa cum laude from Yale College and her J.D. from Yale Law School
Summary: For a wide array of jobs, ranging from surgeon to investment banker to store clerk, employers use artificial intelligence and machine learning rather than humans to screen applicants. AI-based hiring technologies including resume-scans, one-way video interviews, and video games are relied upon by at least 407 companies within the Fortune 500 to rank and reject applicants. Because the AI is trained to find applicants similar to the highest-level existing employees (who are mostly male), they almost invariably discriminate against women. In fact, one machine-learning tool advised the employer to hire people named Jared who played lacrosse. A resume scanning tool developed by
Amazon rejected any applicant who had the word “women” on her resume, even in instances when it was a positive like “National Women’s Chess Champion” or “Captain, Women’s Soccer Team.” Employers claim that they can’t be held accountable for this type of discrimination because a computer made the decision, not them.
Are women protected against AI-related gender discrimination by existing employment laws or are new ones needed? How do you even know if AI-based screening was used against you? Professor Andrews discusses these critical issues with Deborah Liczwek, President of the AAUW West Chester-Chester County Branch.