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Additionally, the Center is pleased to welcome Sekile Nzinga-Johnson as its new director.
She joined the Women's Center in September after 15 years of working as a professor in the fields of social work, gender, women's studies and psychology.
The Open House event offers an opportunity to connect with the Women’s Center staff and to converse about gender equity at Northwestern as well as to launch the yearlong 30th anniversary celebration. A light lunch will be served.
The Chicago Open House is Monday, Oct. 30, noon to 2 p.m. in Abbott Hall, Suite 1400, 710 Lake Shore Drive. Admission is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required. For more information, visit the Women’s Center website.
“We are excited to host our second open house in Chicago. The women’s center has played a critical role in advancing gender equity on our campus and has been an incubator and partner for many other initiatives on campus that support diversity and inclusion for over three decades,” Nzinga-Johnson said.
“My hope is to build upon the Women’s Center’s rich history of leadership, advocacy and activism by using an intersectional, feminist perspective to strengthen our programming and deepen our impact here at Northwestern.”
About the New Director
Nzinga-Johnson is a founding faculty member of Nazareth College's Masters of Social Work program and the founding director of Nazareth College's Women and Gender Studies Bachelor of Arts program. She is the editor of “Laboring Positions: Black Women, Mothering and the Academy” (Demeter, 2013) and is completing her second book, “Lean Semesters: The University as Hyper Producer of Inequity” for Johns Hopkins University Press, Critical University Studies Series. My hope is to build upon the Women’s Center’s rich history of leadership, advocacy and activism ... .”
director, Women's Center
Nzinga-Johnson’s social work practice and activist work have focused on Black women's and girls' health and mental health, reproductive health care access, healing from sexual trauma, teen parenting, maternal and infant mortality, youth sexual development, program evaluation, progressive not-for-profit management and university-community collaborations.
She holds a doctorate in human development from University of Maryland, a master’s degree in social work from Ohio State University and a bachelor’s of science in social work from Morgan State University.
She currently serves as the board chair for the Chicago Abortion Fund and is a member of the Campaign to Save Our Mothers and Babies (CSOMB).
She is a past recipient of the University of Illinois at Chicago's Institute for Race, Research and Public Policy Faculty Fellowship and a former member for the New York State Midwifery Board.
