Founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of the New York Times bestseller and memoir Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson has received national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color. He will be the guest speaker in chapel on Tuesday, March 28, at 11:10 a.m. in Brougham Pavilion on campus. The event is free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible. Seating is limited, and doors open at 10:10 a.m.
Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer and New York University School of Law professor who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults. He has successfully argued several cases in the United States Supreme Court, and recently won an historic ruling banning mandatory life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger. EJI has also initiated major new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts challenging the legacy of racial inequality in America.
Stevenson has won numerous awards including the American Bar Association Wisdom Award for Public Service, the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award Prize, the Olaf Palme International Prize, the ACLU National Medal Of Liberty, the National Public Interest Lawyer of the Year Award, and the Gruber Prize for International Justice and the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award. In 2015, he was named to the Time 100, recognizing the world’s most influential people. Recently, he was named in Fortune’s 2016 World’s Greatest Leaders list.
An inspiring and unflinchingly honest speaker, Stevenson will share stories that motivate audiences to make a change. He comes to Seattle as part of Seattle Arts & Lectures series. His evening lecture, co-presented by SPU, Seattle University, and the University of Washington, is sold out.
To request disability accommodation, contact 206-281-2272, TTY 206-281-2224, or dss@spu.edu.
Posted: Monday, March 27, 2017