The Program in Women's and Gender Studies welcomes Sekile Nzinga, chief equity officer for the State of Illinois. She will speak during Common Hour in Hayes Hall 109.

Prior to working as the director of the Women’s Center and as senior administrator at Northwestern, Nzinga was a professor of social work and women and gender studies for 18 years. Her engaged scholarship and teaching have centered on the intersections of race, class, and gender in reproduction and parenting; critical feminist university studies; and family centered employment policy. She is the author of "Lean Semesters: How the University Reproduces Inequality" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020) and the editor of "Laboring Positions: Black Women, Mothering and the Academy" (Demeter, 2013). She was the 2020-21 author in residence at Higher Ed Jobs.

In addition to her academic career, Nzinga is a social worker, a seasoned facilitator and a feminist leader. Her professional practice and engaged work have focused on health and educational policy; reproductive health and justice, and serving as an executive leader for progressive, social justice oriented and feminist not-for-profit organizations. She is the recipient of the 2019 Evanston-Northshore YWCA’s Women in Leadership Award.

Nzinga will also host a common hour discussion on Sept. 28 at 4:10 p.m. in the Community Foundation Theater entitled “Networks of Freedom: Mapping 50 Years of Reproductive Activism in Chicago.”