KIM CAMPBELL,
CANADA'S FIRST WOMAN PRIME MINISTER,
TO SPEAK AT MOUNT HOLYOKE'S 167th COMMENCEMENT

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – Kim Campbell, who in 1993 became the first woman to serve as prime minister of Canada, will speak at Mount Holyoke's 167th commencement, Sunday, May 23. Campbell will be joined by three other honorary degree recipients: Nadine Strossen, the president of the American Civil Liberties Union; Dorothy J. Height, a leader in the liberation struggle of African American women; and Nancy Skinner Nordhoff '54, philanthropist and founder of the Hedgebrook writer's colony for women.

Before becoming prime minister, Campbell held cabinet positions as Minister of State for Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, and Minister of National Defence and Veterans’ Affairs. She was the first woman to hold the Justice and Defence positions, and the first woman to be Defence Minister of a NATO country. Campbell participated in major international meetings including the Commonwealth, NATO, the G-7 Summit and the United Nations General Assembly. In September 2000, Campbell completed a four-year term as Consul General of Canada in Los Angeles serving the states of California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and the Territory of Guam. She is currently a Lecturer in Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

A long-standing champion of women’s rights, Campbell chaired the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL) from 1999 to 2003. Based at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the Council’s membership consists of women who hold or have held the office of President or Prime Minister in their own country. In October 2003, Campbell was named president of the International Women's Forum, a global organization of women of significant and diverse achievement. On January 1, 2004 she assumed the position of Secretary General of the Club of Madrid, an organization of former heads of government and state who work to promote democratization through peer relations with leaders of transitional democracies.

Campbell was educated at the University of British Columbia (BA, 1969, LLB, 1983) and the London School of Economics (Doctoral studies in Soviet Government, ABD, 1970-73). She has held fellowships at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and UCLA, is an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics and was a Regents’ Lecturer at the University of California, Irvine. Her best-selling political memoir Time and Chance was published in 1996 by Doubleday Canada.

Dorothy J. Height
For more than half a century, Dorothy Height's leadership has advanced the liberation struggle of black women. A national leader in the Civil Rights movement, Height has worked for 70 years towards racial and gender equality. She served for more than 30 years as the president of the National Council of Negro Women and held leadership positions at the YWCA, where she pushed for racial inclusiveness. Her work has helped countless women in America and around the world participate in democratic reform resulting in new opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities. She received the Citizens Medal Award from President Ronald Reagan in 1989 and the Medal of Freedom from President William Clinton in 1994, and on March 24 of this year was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony at the US Capitol.

Nancy Skinner Nordhoff '54
Nancy Nordhoff devoted herself to fundraising and philanthropy in the Seattle, Washington, area for 25 years before founding Hedgebrook, a retreat for women writers on Whidbey Island, Washington. Hedgebrook is open to women writers around the world and, since 1988, has welcomed more than eight hundred women, ranging in age from seventeen to eighty-two, from Barbados, Canada, England, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, the United States, and Zimbabwe.

Nadine Strossen
Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law at New York Law School, has written, lectured and practiced extensively in the areas of constitutional law, civil liberties and international human rights. Since 1991, she has served as President of the American Civil Liberties Union, the first woman to head the nation's largest and oldest civil liberties organization. (Because the ACLU presidency is a non-paid, volunteer post, Strossen continues in her faculty position as well.) The National Law Journal has twice named Strossen one of "The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America." In 1996, Working Woman magazine listed her among the "350 Women Who Changed the World 1976-1996."

Ceremonies begin at 10:30 AM in Gettell Amphitheater. In the event of rain, the event will be held in the Kendall Field House.