Brooklyn College planned a conversation on its Midwood campus, drawing on decades of grassroots activism to discuss leadership and community building. Leymah Gbowee, who shared the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, was scheduled to appear alongside women's economic empowerment advocate Thelma Ekiyor for a conversation about activism, peace, and the responsibilities of leaders in times of crisis and change.
The planned event was part of the college's Presidential Lecture Series. Gbowee won her Nobel Prize for organizing the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, an interfaith coalition of Christian and Muslim women whose nonviolent protests helped end the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003, according to NobelPrize.org. That grassroots campaign remains a touchstone for peacebuilders worldwide, and it's part of why Brooklyn College leaders wanted her voice on campus during a week when the world's attention was already fixed on New York.
United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week
The 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week ran in New York City from September 18 to September 28 and focused international attention on multilateralism and peacebuilding, per UHC2030. The planned panel was to explore the role of grassroots movements in advancing peace, the importance of investing in women and communities, and the responsibilities of leaders during times of crisis.
Gbowee currently serves as founding executive director of the CUNY Institute on Gender, Law, and Transformative Peace, per Brooklyn Eagle's report. That institute was established in fall 2023 as a joint partnership between CUNY School of Law and Brooklyn College, according to Brooklyn College. Gbowee's relationship with the college predates the institute: she was announced as a planned honorary degree recipient in 2022, pending approval.
A Three-Decade Partnership Between Panelists
Gbowee and Ekiyor have spent decades advancing peacebuilding efforts together, the college says. Their shared history gave the conversation a personal dimension beyond the formal titles on stage. Ekiyor herself carries an extensive résumé in economic empowerment: she serves as International CEO of Women for Women International, the first Black woman and African to hold the position, according to Missing Perspectives.
Ekiyor also co-founded SME.NG, Nigeria's gender-lens impact investment platform, along with She Works Here, which operates as Nigeria's first all-female business accelerator program, per irad investment ltd. That combination of venture financing and grassroots organizing experience made her a natural counterpart to Gbowee's peacebuilding legacy in the planned conversation.
The Presidential Lecture Series supports civic engagement and thoughtful dialogue. For a campus in Midwood, the planned panel offered a chance to hear directly from a Nobel laureate whose activism helped end a civil war.
