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Empowering the Poor in the Fight against Hunger - Sir Fazle Hasan Abed
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Sir Fazle Hasan Abed is the 2015 World Food Prize Laureate and founder and chairperson of BRAC, the world's largest anti-poverty organization. Through BRAC, known originally as the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee, Sir Fazle pioneered a new approach to development that addresses the connection between hunger and poverty. He has also been a leader in empowering women as agents of change through microfinance, education, and healthcare. Sir Fazle worked as a corporate executive until 1971, when he resigned and formed BRAC to assist the people of his native Bangladesh after a devastating tropical storm and war with Pakistan. BRAC has since spread its antipoverty solutions to ten other developing countries, including Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Haiti. 2015 Norman Borlaug Lecture and part of the World Affairs Series A reception and student poster display will precede the lecture from 7 to 8 p.m. in the South Ballroom, Memorial Union. Posters will address world food issues and are submitted by undergraduate and graduate students.

Learning with Migrant Youth: Mirrors and Manifestos - Leigh Patel
5:30 PM – 1210 LeBaron - Leigh Patel is a sociologist, writer, and educator based at Boston College. She is the author of the award-winning Youth Held at the Border: Immigration, Education, and the Politics of Inclusion. Her work addresses the ways education acts as a site of social reproduction and a constant site of potential transformation. This talk will address how schools and societies use social categories to organize people and how some youth are agitating those categories. In addition to her academic work, Leigh Patel is a national board member of the Education for Liberation network.

Stopping Child Slavery in Ghana - James Kofi Annan
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - James Kofi Annan is a former child slave and leads West Africa's most prominent children's rights organization, Challenging Heights. The organization has rescued more than 1,400 children from slavery and supported thousands more through education and other empowerment programs. Annan was sold at age six to work in the dangerous fishing industry in Ghana's Lake Volta, where for years he was forced to dive deep into muddy waters to untangle nets, while facing sickness, starvation, and torture. Escaping as a teen, illiterate and without resources, he worked his way through basic schooling and later earned a university degree. In 2007 Annan resigned from a lucrative career in banking to dedicate himself to the mission of Challenging Heights. Part of the World Affairs Series: Redefining Global Security.

Where Is the Good, the Bad, and the Boring Variation in Maize - Edward Buckler
4:10 PM – 2050 Agronomy Hall - Edward Buckler is a USDA-ARS research geneticist who leads the Buckler Lab for Maize Genetics and Diversity at Cornell University. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Buckler uses genomics and statistical genetics to understand and dissect complex traits in maize, biofuel grasses, cassava and grapes. In the lab, he and colleagues exploit the natural diversity of plant genomes to identify sets of genes and single genes responsible for genetic variation. His group also develops software tools to improve analyses. Buckler served as an assistant professor of genetics at North Carolina State University before starting at the USDA/ARS Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health at Cornell in 2003. His many honors and awards include the USDA Secretary's Honor Award for developing the science for improving agricultural productivity. He is also an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Part of the Presidential Distinguished Seminar Series A reception will precede the talk, 3:30-4:00pm, in the Agronomy Hall Commons (2nd Floor). Limited metered parking is available in lot 45, off of Wallace Road, and lot 40, off of Osborne Drive: Map.

How Baling Hay Prepared Me to Become the Coffee 'Bean Baron' - Danny O'Neill
6:30 PM – Dolezal Auditorium, 127 Curtiss Hall - Danny O'Neill is the owner and founder of The Roasterie Coffee, Inc., and a graduate of Iowa State. He credits a trip to Costa Rica as a high school foreign exchange student as the event that inspired his career path. O'Neill graduated from Iowa State with a double major in International Studies and Political Science and for the next ten years worked in sales and marketing, including with a large multinational corporation. He then took the leap and started roasting coffee in the basement of his home in 1995. The specialty coffee roasting company now services espresso bars and coffee houses, fine restaurants, high-end grocers, offices and retail accounts and includes three Roasterie Cafes. William K Deal Leadership Lecture and part of CALS Week.

American Nations: The Eleven Rival Regions of North America - Colin Woodard
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Colin Woodard is an award-winning journalist and author of American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, a history of North America that explodes the red state-blue state myth and explains away partisanship with the claim that our culture wars are inevitable. North America was settled by groups with distinct political and religious values - and we haven't had a moment's peace since. His other books include The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier; Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas; and The Republic of Pirates, the basis of the NBC series "Crossbones." Woodard is the State & National Affairs Writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. National Affairs Series: When American Values Are in Conflict

Wage Inequality: Why It Matters and What to Do About It - Heidi Shierholz
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Heidi Shierholz is the chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor. She was previously with the Economic Policy Institute, where she coauthored two editions of The State of Working America. Shierholz has researched and spoken widely on the economy and economic policy as it affects middle- and low-income families, especially with regard to unemployment, labor force participation, compensation, income and wealth inequality, young workers, and the minimum wage, and she has repeatedly been called to testify in Congress. She completed her undergraduate degree at Grinnell College and earned an MS in statistics from Iowa State. She holds an MA and PhD in economics from the University of Michigan. Part of the Iowa State Economics Forum and National Affairs Series: When American Values Are in Conflict

A New Chapter in the Living Legacy of George Washington Carver - Xavier Cavazos
8:00 PM – Brunnier Art Museum, Scheman Building, Iowa State Center - Xavier Cavazos, a 2013 graduate of Iowa State's MFA Program in Creative Writing and the Environment, will read from his new book of poetry, Diamond Grove Slave Tree. The collection is a product of Cavazos's time at Iowa State and inspired by stories of the life and times of one of the university's most distinguished alums, George Washington Carver. Diamond Grove Slave Tree won the inaugural Prairie Seed Poetry Prize from Ice Cube Press. Cavazos is also the author of Barbarian at the Gate and served as poetry editor for Flyway: Journal of Creative Writing and the Environment. He currently teaches in the Central Washington Writing Project, Africana and Black Studies, and the Professional and Creative Writing Programs at Central Washington University. Book signing and reception to follow

Battling Ebola: How Technology is Transforming the Response to Global Epidemics - Steven VanRoekel
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Steven VanRoekel recently stepped down as the USAID chief innovation officer, where he was responsible for advising the agency on using technology and data in its response to the ebola epidemic. Previously, he served as Chief Information Officer of the United States. VanRoekel is a graduate of Iowa State, with a degree in management of information systems. Prior to his position in the White House he led digital communications programs at USAID and was managing director of the Federal Communications Commission, FCC, where he oversaw all operational, technical, financial, and human resource aspects of the agency. He worked at Microsoft Corporation from 1994 to 2009, including as a senior director in the Windows Server and Tools Division. World Affairs Series: Redefining Global Security

Future of Healthy Families Lecture - Velma McBride Murry
4:00 PM – 2019 Morrill Hall - Velma McBride Murry is the Lois Autrey Betts Chair in Education and Human Development and professor of Human and Organizational Development in Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on the significance of context in studies of African-American families and youth, in particular the impact of racism on family functioning. 2015 Helen LeBaron Hilton Endowed Chair Lecture Series