The 2023 Justice For Women Lecture will be presented by Patrícia Campos Mello of Brazil. Patrícia is an award winning journalist with more than 25 years experience covering international relations, economics, and human rights. She will present her lecture, Sexism, Lies and the Fight for Truth: A Reporter's Story on April 26, 2023 at Hannaford Hall, located in the Abromson Community Education Center on the USM campus.
Event Information
Reserved Seating
The balcony of Hannaford Hall has been reserved for people who wish to sit socially distant. All attendees in the balcony section are asked to wear a face covering while attending the lecture.
Livestream
If you're unable to attend the event in person, we will stream the lecture on our YouTube channel. Please register to receive the link.
Patrícia Campos Mello
Patrícia Campos Mello is a reporter-at-large and columnist at Folha de São Paulo newspaper. For over 25 years, she has been covering international relations, economics and human rights, and has reported from over 50 countries. She was awarded the Columbia University Maria Moors Cabot award in 2020, the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2019, the Vladimir Herzog Special Award for Democracy and Justice in 2019, the International Committee of the Red Cross Prize for Humanitarian Journalism in 2017, the King of Spain Journalism Prize in 2018, and the Petrobras Prize in 2017 and 2018 (the main award in Brazil).
In 2020, she was awarded the Ordre National du Mérite by the French president Emmanuel Macron. In the same year, she published the best-selling book A máquina do ódio - notas de uma repórter sobre fake news e violência digital (Companhia das Letras), about disinformation campaigns by populist leaders in Brazil, India and the US, intimidation of journalists led by the Bolsonaro administration and the erosion of freedom of the press in Brazil.
She published a series of stories about illegal use of WhatsApp mass messaging to send fake news and propaganda to manipulate public opinion during the 2018 Brazilian electoral campaign, with illegal financing from businessmen and use of foreign marketing agencies, and other disinformation campaigns. In October 2019, Whats App admitted to the irregular use of the platform in the 2018 elections. The stories led the judicial system to change electoral regulations and ban, in 2019, mass messaging by WhatsApp.
Patrícia has a degree in Journalism from the University of São Paulo and a Master’s in Business and Economic Reporting from New York University, where she received a university scholarship. She has reported on refugees in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Turkey, Lebanon and Kenya, and she was responsible for the project Mundo de Muros (World of Walls) that depicts the migration crisis on four continents. She was the only Brazilian reporter to cover the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone in 2014 and 2015. In 2017 she published her book Lua de Mel em Kobane (Honeymoon in Kobane) with Companhia das Letras, in which she tells the story of the war against Islamic State in Syria through the eyes of a refugee couple that she met there.
Courage is Contagious Award
The 2023 Courage is Contagious Award recipients are Claudette Ndayininahaze and Abusana Micky Bondo of the non-proft In Her Presence. The mission of their organization is to bring together immigrant women from across communities and generations to ensure that Maine's economic agenda includes the aspirations and needs of immigrant women.
Claudette Ndayininahaze
Claudette has extensive experience as a culture broker in intercultural communication in both for-profit and non-profit sectors. As Executive Director of In Her Presence, she sits on multiple boards in Portland and is deeply connected to community-based initiatives across the city. As a community leader who has herself gone through the immigration process, she has a unique ability to anticipate challenges new Mainers face and utilizes her professional expertise to empower people and communities. A highly proficient negotiator, both intuitive and resourceful, she collaborates with executive leadership in businesses and develops organizational capacity and culture to promote opportunities for new Mainer success.
Abusana Micky Bondo
Micky is serving as the Program Director for In Her Presence. She is also the current Portland Public School District 1 Board member. She was born in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Educated and trained in Belgium with a master’s in Biochemistry, she also holds two Associates Degrees in Business Administration and Education. Bondo arrived in the U.S. in 1996 and later in Portland, in 2009. Since arriving in Portland, Bondo, who is fluent in English, French, and Lingala, has served as a medical interpreter, assisted the City of Portland Schools Multicultural Office, and currently serves as a parent lead for Portland Empowered. In addition, she runs the non-profit, In Her Presence, an organization she co-founded, that focuses on empowering immigrant women. Bondo also serves on the board of Opportunity Alliance and is involved with United Way’s Thrive 2027 effort. Member of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation Speaker Bureau, she travels across the country, offering a variety of perspective workshops from community advocates and parents to lend their voice and leadership in advocating to make learning more student-centered.
Justice For Women Lecture Series
The Justice For Women Lecture Series brings a distinguished speaker to Maine annually to present a public lecture and to contribute to a global conversation about justice for women and girls. Maine Law established the Series in 2011 with the support and leadership of Catherine Lee of Lee International. The Justice For Women Lecture Fund is an endowed fund of the University of Maine School of Law Foundation. It is supported by generous gifts from the Maine Law community and the friends of Justice For Women.