Laurel Weldon
Please join me in congratulating Laurel Weldon, distinguished professor of political science and Director of the Purdue Policy Research Institute, on being given the opportunity to be part of a Gates Foundation event on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, an event headlining President Barack Obama, Malala Yousafzai and Bill and Melinda Gates, yesterday in New York City. Weldon was a part of a conversation with Melinda Gates, Nicholas Kristof, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Prize winner from Liberia, and they participated in the panel discussion on women and girls.
At the event, the Foundation announced a new portfolio of grants investing almost $450,000 in women’s movements and local women’s organizations, including a research project led by Weldon aimed at deepening our understanding of women’s movements and their impact.
Last year, Laurel won the College’s Discovery Excellence Award, and in 2015, she held the O’Brien Residential Fellowship in the Center for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism in the Faculty of Law at McGill University in Canada. She is co-editor of the journal Politics, Groups and Identities and was founding Director of the Center for Research on Diversity and Inclusion (2012-2015), Interim Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs (2013-2014), and Acting Provost (2014).
Congratulations, Professor Weldon!
David A. Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts