NAFSA 2019 Annual Conference & Expo

Join peers and experts at the premier global professional learning and networking event for all international educators and organizations that support international education for the NAFSA 2019 Annual Conference & Expo, "Global Leadership, Learning, and Change."

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Tawakkol Karman

Friday, May 29

3:00 p.m.-4:15 p.m.

As one of the youngest Nobel peace laureates to date, Tawakkol Karman advocates for the safety of women and for women’s rights in her native Yemen.

Karman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 in recognition of her non-violent, peace-building work. Upon being awarded the prize, Karman became the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

Bold and outspoken, Karman has been imprisoned for her pro-democracy, pro-human rights protests. She is a human rights activist, journalist, politician, and founder of Women Journalists Without Chains, as well as a mother of three.

Known as the “mother of the revolution” and “the iron woman” amongst Yemen’s youth movement, Karman continues to support female journalists and rally Yemenis against government corruption and injustice. Fiercely committed, she spends the majority of her time in a tent in Change Square, where she continues her peaceful protests for justice and freedom.

Q&A Moderated by Jon Sawyer

jon sawyerJon Sawyer is Executive Director of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, an innovative award-winning non-profit journalism organization dedicated to supporting the independent international journalism that U.S. media organizations are increasingly less able to undertake. The Center focuses on under-reported topics, promoting high-quality international reporting and creating platforms that reach broad and diverse audiences.

The Center's educational programs provide students with fresh information on global issues, help them think critically about the creation and dissemination of news, and inspire them to become active consumers and producers of information.

Sawyer’s projects for the Pulitzer Center have included reporting from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Bangladesh, China, Haiti, and the Caucasus. His work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, al Jazeera English, Nieman Reports, To the Point, and PBS NewsHour. Jon was the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Washington bureau chief from 1993 through 2005.