Moderator & Panelists
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WOMEN AS AGENTS OF CHANGE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 3.8.2019 MODERATOR & PANELISTS VIRGINIA PRESCOTT MODERATOR RAZIA JAN Virginia Prescott is the Gracie Award-winning host of On Second Thought for Georgia Public Broadcasting. Before joining GPB, she was host of Word of Mouth, Writers on A New England Stage, and the iTunes Top Ten Podcasts Civics 101 and The 10-Minute Writers Workshop on New Hampshire Public Radio. Prior to joining NHPR, she was editor, producer, and director on NPR programs On Point and Here & Now, and Director of Interactive Media for New York Public Radio. Throughout her radio career, Virginia has worked to build sustainable indepen- dent radio in the developing world and has trained journalists in post-conflict zones from Sierra Leone to the Balkans. She was a member of the Peabody Award-winning production team for Jazz from Lincoln Center with Ed Bradley and the recipient of a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University. Abigail E. Disney is a filmmaker, philanthropist, activist, and the Emmy-winning director of The Armor of Light. As President and CEO of the documentary production company Fork Films, she produced the groundbreaking Pray the Devil Back to Hell and co-created the subsequent ABIGAIL E. DISNEY PBS series Women, War & Peace. She is also the Chair and Co-Founder of Level Forward, a new ELVIA RAQUEC breed storytelling company focused on systemic change through creative excellence. The companies and stories that have most meaning for Abigail are the ones which foster human understanding. She has executive produced and supported over 100 projects through Fork Films’ funding program and created the nonprofit Peace is Loud, which uses storytelling to advance social movements, focusing on women’s rights and gender justice. Razia Jan, a native Afghan and award-winning humanitarian, is the founder of Razia’s Ray of Hope Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2007 that improves the lives of young women and girls through community-based education in the rural district of Deh’Subz, Afghanistan. Razia has worked for many years to forge connections between Afghans and Americans. Her humanitarian efforts are honored in First Lady Laura Bush’s 2016 book We Are Afghan Women. Razia has received many awards including a 2012 CNN Top 10 Hero award. Today, in order to continue her humanitarian work, school administration, fundraising efforts, and spending time with EVENT PARTNERS family, Razia travels between Afghanistan and the United States. Elvia Raquec is the Programs Director for the Women’s Justice Initiative (WJI) and has worked with WJI since its founding in 2011. Elvia’s work implementing and overseeing women’s rights programs in indigenous rural communities is fueling social change in Guatemala. Over the past eight years, Elvia has played a critical role in the development and execution of initiatives to empower Maya women and girls through programs focused on access to legal services, women’s rights education, and leadership development. In 2015, Elvia was selected as a Centroamérica Adelante Fellow, a leadership development program that supports high-impact Dining for Women is the world’s largest giving circle leaders driving change in Central America. She was awarded the Women’s dedicated to transforming lives and eradicating poverty World Summit Foundation Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life in among women and girls in the developing world. Through 2018 for her work promoting Maya women’s rights. Elvia was one of ten member education and engagement, as well as the power women around the globe to win the prize. of collective giving, DFW funds grassroots organizations that empower women and girls and promote gender equality. Peace is Loud uses storytelling to advance social justice The original, groundbreaking documentary series Women, War & Peace movement building, with a focus on women’s rights, premiered on PBS in 2011. Women, War & Peace II, executive produced by gender justice, peace, and security. Founded by filmmaker Abigail Disney and Gini Reticker for Fork Films and Stephen Segaller for and philanthropist Abigail Disney, the organization THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET, will air on PBS on March 25 and 26, highlights the stories of women who are leading their 2019. In Georgia, the series will air on May 12 (Mother’s Day). communities in confronting violence, from acts of war to systemic injustices. Women, War & Peace II demonstrates how some of the biggest international stories of recent memory are shaped by women. An all-female cast of directors present four never-before-told stories about women who risked their lives for peace, changing history in the process. A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES: PEACEKEEPERS // Follows one of the world’s few all-female peacekeeping units. As 160 Bangladeshi women embark on a UN peacekeeping mission to Haiti following the devastating 2011 earthquake, they confront extreme poverty and devastated The Association of Junior Leagues International healthcare systems in their effort to build peace. is an organization of female civic leaders who set bold goals, open their circles and disrupt convention. Today, WAVE GOODBYE TO DINOSAURS // Follows the all-female political party Junior League members work alongside influential in Northern Ireland, where years of violent strife compel a group of community and corporate partners, government officials Catholic and Protestant women to demand a seat at the negotiating and dedicated change-makers to create communities table for the Good Friday Agreement—a deal that stands to this day. where every individual can thrive. NAILA AND THE UPRISING // Revolves around the tragic and remarkable story of Naila Ayesh, a student organizer and activist who joins a secret network of women in a non-violent movement that brings together the disparate organizations protesting Israeli occupation. THE TRIALS OF SPRING // Follows the journeys of three Egyptian women as they fight for the goals of the popular movement: “bread, freedom Georgia Public Broadcasting creates, produces, and and social justice” for all. But caught between the military and the distributes high quality programs and services that educate, Muslim Brotherhood, the women soon find themselves being inform and entertain their audiences and enrich the quality pushed backwards. of their lives..