Announcing the 2017 SAIS Global Women in Leadership Conference Keynote: Eleanor Blomstrom 



Featured Keynote Speaker Eleanor Blomstrom, Co-Director of Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO)

As Co-Director and Head of Office at WEDO, Eleanor manages internal and external relationships and partnerships, including with staff, funders and coalition and project partners. She works closely with program staff in strategic development, implementation and monitoring of WEDO programs and projects.

With a particular focus on sustainable development, climate change and urbanization, her work incorporates research, capacity building, and global-level advocacy at multiple UN fora, including the UNFCCC and related to the post-2015 development agenda.

Supporting WEDO’s long-standing role of facilitating space for women’s organizing and action, she represents WEDO as organizing partner of the Women’s Major Group for Sustainable Development. Prior to WEDO, Eleanor worked on climate change projects ranging from green roofs to waste management to adaptation with the Earth Institute, the Clinton Foundation and the World Bank.

She has community development experience in the areas of agriculture and women’s empowerment with organizations in Nicaragua and Nigeria. Her current work is informed by a professional background in bilingual elementary education with a focus on race and gender equity in public schools. Eleanor holds a Master of International Affairs in Urban and Environmental Policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelors degree in Environmental Sciences.

The fifth annual SAIS Global Women in Leadership Conference Securing a Sustainable Future: Women as Leaders in a Changing Climate will take place on April 21st, 2017 at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.and  provide a forum to examine the critical intersection between gender and climate change. 

For more information about opportunities for conference involvement and sponsorship, check out the GWL conference page.

To purchase tickets, please visit this site.

Date: Friday, April 21
Time: 8:15 AM - 4:30 PM
Location: SAIS, Kenney Auditorium
1740 Massachusetts Ave. NW
 

2017 SAIS Global Women in Leadership Conference Speaker Spotlight: Lauren Burnhill 



Lauren Burnhill is a seasoned emerging markets credit and investment professional, and a lifelong practitioner of multiple bottom line finance. Lauren’s work creates practical approaches to quantifying social and environmental impact, to using quantifiable metrics to design bankable and sustainable long-term financing programs for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and to structuring special purpose financing vehicles in health, affordable housing, clean water and sanitation, renewable energy, and basic infrastructure sectors. She will be a featured speaker and panelist at the fifth annual SAIS GWL Conference, Securing a Sustainable Future: Women as Leaders in a Changing Climate on the panel Risk, Reward, Resilience: Financing Gender-Inclusive Climate Solutions at 3:20 PM. 

Read her interview here.

New Practicum at SAIS

SAIS Women's Global Leadership Development Practicum



Are you interested in receiving further information and/or signing up for the year-long SAIS Women's Global Leadership Development Practicum that will launch in fall 2017?

What is the Practicum?
The Practicum is designed to provide students with action-oriented research and participation in projects on the ground that contribute to the economic, cultural, and political growth of developing countries through women’s advancement. Students have the opportunity to work with an external client on an ongoing project or innovative proposal designed by the students under the direction of SAIS faculty.

If you are interested in signing up for this Practicum for the 2017-2018 academic year, please fill out the following Google Form.

SAIS Women Lead will be offering an information session on all Practicum organizational and corporate partners at SAIS in DC on April 24th, and at SAIS in Bologna during Alumni Weekend at the end of April. If you answered "YES" to the question above, you will receive more information about this session and the Practicum partners in the coming weeks.