The livestream will take place at 7 p.m. EST through the Liu Institute website, .

, Notre Dame’s Charles and Jill Fischer Provost and the University’s first woman and person of color in that role, will moderate the conversation, which is free and open to the public.��

“There couldn’t be a more ideal time to introduce an event to celebrate the contributions of and honor innovative, creative and effective Asian American leaders,” said , director of the Liu Institute. “Even as the visibility of Asian American leadership is growing, discrimination and violence toward the Asian community has risen during the pandemic, and Asian American women have faced higher unemployment than any other sector.

“The Liu Institute is determined to expand our traditional focus of Asia to include Asian Americans. We are honored to launch our new event with two women who are committed to social justice and creating real change in the world.”

Poo is a 2014 and was formerly named one of ” and one of She has served on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Partnership for Mobility from Poverty and currently serves on the Ford Foundation board of trustees. She is author of “The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America.”��

A daughter of Taiwanese immigrants and a lifelong activist, Poo’s advocacy for domestic workers — caregivers, house cleaners and nannies — began when she was a student at Columbia University and volunteering for an organization that focused on the Asian community. Upon learning about the difficulties of domestic workers, she started holding meetings with Filipina domestic workers. These meetings grew into a career spanning more than two decades.��

Describing domestic work as “the work that makes all other work possible,” Poo has successfully led efforts to bring fairness, dignity and protections to this fastest-growing yet “invisible” professional work sector, which is overwhelmingly represented by immigrants and women of color. Through efforts by the National Domestic Workers Alliance, nine states and two cities have passed a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights to offer paid overtime, sick time, safe working conditions and freedom from harassment, among other rights.

Poo has successfully partnered with politicians, activists and celebrities to advance the cause of domestic workers. In collaboration with then-Sen. Kamala Harris, the alliance introduced the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Act to the U.S. Congress in 2019. The alliance also worked with filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón to amplify his 2018 Academy Award-winning film, “Roma,” which portrays the life of a domestic worker.��

Marie Lynn Miranda joined Notre Dame in July as the University’s fifth provost and the first woman and person of color to hold the position. The daughter of immigrant parents, Miranda is a distinguished scholar in the field of children’s environmental health, and is especially recognized for her research on childhood lead exposure. She is the founding director of the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative, a research, education and outreach program committed to fostering environments where all people can prosper. Her interest in the joint effects of social and environmental exposures has led her to study the impact on health of racial residential segregation in particular.

In advance of Poo’s appearance, the film “Roma” will be discussed at 4 p.m. March 7 as part of the Higgins Labor Program’s Film Club.��

The Liu Institute for Asia and Asian 91��Ƶ provides integrated and multidisciplinary research and teaching on Asia. The institute also promotes general awareness, understanding and knowledge of Asia through public events and supporting student and faculty scholarship and engagement with partners in Asia. The institute, part of the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs, was established in 2010 by a gift from the RM Liu Foundation that supports the philanthropic activities of Robert and Mimi Liu and their children, Emily and Justin, both Notre Dame graduates.

Mirza’s extensive pedagogical and leadership experience includes serving as dean of faculty at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, America’s first accredited Muslim liberal arts college. Most recently, he served as the lead faculty member for , which equips Islamic religious leaders in India and Pakistan with the tools to confidently engage with pluralism, modern science��and new philosophies. The project is funded by a John Templeton Foundation grant.

“Professor Mirza brings impressive academic and administrative abilities to this critical leadership role, as well as important experience as a participant in interfaith dialogue and community engagement,” said Scott Appleby, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ. “His expertise in Islamic education and philosophy is complemented by his knowledge and appreciation of the humanities more generally. I am pleased that Mahan has accepted my invitation to help the Ansari Institute fulfill its ambitious and timely mission.”

Mirza joined Notre Dame in 2016 as professor of the practice for the Keough 91��Ƶ’s , a flagship program of the Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ.��

For the Madrasa Discourses project — housed under Contending Modernities — Mirza taught participants in India and Pakistan via distance learning and coordinated learning intensive sessions in India, Pakistan, Nepal��and Qatar, some of which allowed for intercultural exchanges between Notre Dame students, Madrasa Discourses participants��and participants from South Africa. Additionally, Mirza directed pedagogical videos, helped develop an online Urdu journal published in India��and led an effort to launch an interactive website to make the Madrasa Discourses curriculum publicly accessible.��

Mirza holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, a master's from Hartford Seminary, and a doctorate in religious studies from Yale University. He has taught courses and lectured on Arabic-Islamic studies, Western religions��and the history of science, along with foundational subjects in the liberal arts, including logic, rhetoric, astronomy, ethics��and politics. He has edited two special issues of The Muslim World and served as assistant editor for the Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought.

He is a fellow of the and will continue to serve as an adviser for Madrasa Discourses.

Launched in fall 2018, the Ansari Institute is dedicated to research, teaching, outreach��and interaction with religious communities locally and worldwide. The institute fulfills its mission through the study of how religions contribute to the common good and how they advance integral human development.

Originally published by Christine Cox at on July 1.

Following the lecture, , associate dean for policy and practice at the , will speak with Ban about his career and current work. John Hewko, general secretary of Rotary International, will moderate the event.

Tickets are sold out. However, a video board at Midfield Commons in the Duncan Student Center will broadcast the event. Reserved tickets may be picked up one hour prior to the event. All unclaimed tickets will be released 15 minutes before the start of the event.

“It is a singular honor to host Secretary Ban for our Asia Leadership Forum,” said , director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian 91��Ƶ. “An inspiring humanitarian, he has boldly addressed critical challenges of our time: climate change, poverty, gender inequality and global health crises. This type of leadership — for the greater good of the world — reflects the mission of the Liu Institute, the Keough 91��Ƶ and the University.”

A citizen of South Korea, Ban served as secretary-general from 2007 to 2016. He was the first East Asian elected to the U.N.’s top role. Ban attributed his interest in international cooperation to turbulent life experiences. “I grew up in war and saw the United Nations help my country to recover and rebuild,” he has said. “That experience was a big part of what led me to pursue a career in public service.”

Born in 1944 in a small farming village in South Korea, Ban received a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Seoul National University in 1970. In 1985, he earned a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy 91��Ƶ of Government at Harvard University.

Ban continues his humanitarian efforts through the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, established with former Austrian president Heinz Fischer in 2017. Working within the framework of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, the Vienna-based center aims to empower youth and women.

Sievers formerly led developing-country policy and advocacy efforts for the Global Health Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and directed centers on sustainable development at Columbia and Harvard universities. Her work focuses on poverty reduction through evidence-based policy solutions in partnership with national governments in Africa and Asia. ��

As Rotary general secretary, Hewko leads a staff of 800 at Rotary International’s world headquarters in Evanston, Illinois. He is the former vice president of operations and compact development at the Millennium Challenge Corp., a U.S. government agency established to deliver foreign assistance to countries in need. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Asia Leadership Forum is the flagship event of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian 91��Ƶ, which is housed at the Keough 91��Ƶ. The forum invites world leaders from Asia to discuss relevant topics within a global context. The forum began in 2015 with a lecture by former Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. In 2016, Ma Ying-jeou, the former president of Taiwan, delivered the keynote address.

The Liu Institute for Asia and Asian 91��Ƶ promotes awareness, understanding and knowledge of Asia through administering a supplementary major and minor in Asian studies, supporting student and faculty scholarship, organizing public events and facilitating interaction and exchanges with partners in Asia.

For more information about Ban’s lecture, contact the Liu Institute at or 574-631-3222.

Marking the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement among the Irish and British governments and political parties of Northern Ireland, the event will discuss lessons from that peace process as well as the Colombian peace accord.

The forum is free and open to the public. Advance registration is available at .

Ireland’s former Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore, who currently serves as the European Union’s special envoy to the peace process in Colombia, will deliver the keynote address. Gilmore served as Ireland’s deputy prime minister (tánaiste) and minister for foreign affairs and trade from 2011 to 2014. He represented the Irish government in the Northern Ireland peace process.

A panel discussion will follow, featuring H.E. Camilo Reyes, Colombia’s ambassador to the United States; Ambassador Barbara Stephenson, president of the American Foreign Service Association and former U.S. Consul General, Belfast; Norman Houston, director of the Northern Ireland Bureau, Washington, D.C.; and , director of the Peace Accords Matrix at Notre Dame’s .

Ambassador of Ireland to the U.S.��Daniel Mulhall, co-host of the event, offered his reflections on the forum’s significance. “I am delighted that Notre Dame is partnering with the Embassy of Ireland for its inaugural event at the Keough 91��Ƶ’s Washington office,” said Mulhall.��“Despite current difficulties, the Good��Friday��Agreement has been a great success in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and providing a positive framework for its future. While every conflict is unique in character, there are lessons to be drawn from the Northern Ireland peace process, that may have application elsewhere, including in Colombia.”

“Convening such accomplished peacebuilders is an honor and privilege,” said , Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. “We are delighted to be partnering with the Embassy of Ireland to celebrate progress toward stability and peace in Northern Ireland, Colombia and elsewhere. And we all know that there is much hard work ahead.”

The opened in 2017. In keeping with Notre Dame’s mission to place scholarship in service to the common good, the Keough 91��Ƶ advances integral human development through research, policy and practice, transformative educational programs, and partnerships for global engagement.

The Keough 91��Ƶ’s Washington office opened in late April of this year. The facility, located in the DuPont Circle neighborhood in northwest Washington, serves the University of Notre Dame for teaching, research, policy events and alumni engagement.

The Kroc Institute for International Peace 91��Ƶ, an integral part of the new Keough 91��Ƶ, holds primary responsibility for verification and monitoring of implementation of the Colombia peace accord through the Peace Accords Matrix Barometer Initiative. It is the first time a university-based research center has played such a role and the first time researchers have measured the implementation of a peace accord in real time.

Contact: Amanda Skofstad, assistant director of media relations, skofstad@nd.edu

Tweed came to Notre Dame in 2013 as the Harold and Martha Welch Professor of American 91��Ƶ and professor of history, roles he will retain. He is the former president of the American Academy of Religion, the largest society for scholars of religion in the world, and has also served on the international advisory board for Notre Dame’s Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem.

A widely published scholar with a longstanding interest in ecumenical and interreligious engagement, Tweed earned doctorate and master’s degrees in religious studies from Stanford University and a master’s degree in theological studies from Harvard University.

“Tom Tweed is not only an esteemed scholar of the religions of the Americas, he is also devoted to serving the wider public beyond the academy,” said��, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs. “He will be an outstanding inaugural director of an institute whose mission could not be more important, especially as it considers the crucial questions of how religions can and do contribute to human flourishing.”

The Ansari Institute is dedicated to the study of religion around the world and will be a center of public deliberation and education through research, teaching, outreach��and interaction with religious communities worldwide. Ansari Institute faculty will study how religious teachings and practice inform the shifting patterns of global migration, conflict and peacebuilding, political culture, and human development.

Scheduled to open in fall 2018, the Ansari Institute was established from a gift by South Bend physicians and Muslim philanthropists Rafat and Zoreen Ansari. Their gift was highlighted in��

Tweed’s research especially aligns with the mission of the Ansari Institute in focusing on the ways that global flows of migrants and religions have shaped modern social, cultural��and political life.

His public service has included advising high school teachers on how to include Islam and Buddhism in the curriculum; collaborating with a newspaper on covering religion and religious issues; writing an invited article for physicians about religion and healing; and consulting with the Directors of Chaplaincy for State and Federal Prisons on how to accommodate prisoners’ diverse spiritual needs.

Tweed’s most notable books include "Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion"��(Harvard University Press, 2006), which is used in college classrooms; "Asian Religions in America"��(Oxford University Press, 1999), named an outstanding academic book by��Choice��magazine; and "Our Lady of the Exile: Diasporic Religion at a Cuban Catholic Shrine in Miami"��(Oxford University Press, 1997), which won the American Academy of Religion’s book award.

Tweed is a faculty fellow of the����the����and the��

You don’t see a LinkedIn page like Mike Chapple’s every day. : Air Force computer scientist, C-suite professional, cybersecurity author, university administrator.

Now��Chapple leads the Notre Dame in Chicago, where he shares insight on optimizing the intersection of business and analytics. And he’s a perfect example of someone whose career has evolved by adapting to changes in technology and meeting the corresponding challenges.

Here, Chapple discusses his background and vision for the MSBA.

What appealed to you about the MSBA directorship?
The��MSBA is exciting because it focuses on an important, growing area. Organizations are poised to achieve tremendous value through analytics in the next few years because of the confluence of three factors: we now have large amounts of data available to us, the storage capacity to maintain it, and the computing power to process it. Combined, these factors are driving the business analytics revolution, and it’s exciting to be a part of it!

How did you become interested in computers and analytics?
��’v����always been interested in math, engineering and technology. I had a Commodore 64 as a kid and that’s how I learned to program in BASIC. From there, ��’v�� just always adopted new technology at every stage of my life, education, and career. It’s my passion.

What was your career path?How did you become interested in computers and analytics?
��’v����always been interested in math, engineering and technology. I had a Commodore 64 as a kid and that’s how I learned to program in BASIC. From there, ��’v�� just always adopted new technology at every stage of my life, education, and career. It’s my passion.

I studied computer science with a focus on cybersecurity. After graduating from Notre Dame, I was assigned to the National Security Agency as an Air Force intelligence officer. While I was there, I had the opportunity to get involved in the early days of the data science field by applying statistical modeling techniques in the then-emerging field of cybersecurity.

From there I went to a marketing firm as executive vice president and chief information officer. In that role, I had the pleasure of working with a wide variety of firms in both the pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods industries. Our primary focus was on the development of strong brands and I specialized in marketing research, applying analytic techniques to create value for our clients.

��’v�� been back at Notre Dame for the past 12 years, in a variety of roles in both information technology and the administration. Throughout that time, ��’v�� always carved out time to teach undergraduate courses. I love spending time in the classroom!

What does the MSBA program offer to potential students?
The Notre Dame MSBA program creates business leaders who are able to bridge the two worlds of data science and business. We help our students develop an analytics mindset, learn the tools and techniques of data science, and understand the ethical considerations facing analytics leaders.

We��do this in a format that’s accessible to working professionals. We offer classes on Fridays and Saturdays twice a month at our downtown Chicago campus, combined with several residencies in South Bend. Notre Dame faculty travel to Chicago to teach courses in their areas of expertise and we also provide our students with the opportunity to learn from Chicago-based business leaders.

This format provides a great advantage to our students — they can continue working in their full-time jobs while they’re working on their master’s degree. In 12 months, they complete the program and are ready to put their new skills to work.

Contact Mike Chapple at mchapple@nd.edu

Originally published by Christine Cox at on September 27, 2017.