Grand Rapids Community College

“Immigration and the Future of Education ”

Dr. Suarez-Orozco is an esteemed lecturer and author whose interdisciplinary, comparative, and longitudinal work has made an incalculable contribution to the worldwide discussion on the far-reaching implications of immigration and globalization. The belief that globalization defines this era, has led him to examine the multitude of its affects particularly around immigration and education. He co-authored, Learning in a New Land, offering insights and constructive approaches to the challenge of educating a global generation of youth in a rapidly changing world. Dr. Suarez-Orozco is currently the Courtney Sale Ross University Professor of Globalization and Education at New York University. Additionally, as co-founder of the Harvard Immigration Projects, he also served as that school ’s tenured professor of Human Development and Psychology, as well as its Victor S. Thomas Professor of Education and Culture.

“Lessons from Abroad: The Opportunities of a Borderless World ”

Dr. Richard Heinzl understands that the world has become smaller in the past decade and no organization can afford to retreat behind its borders — geographic, economic, or intellectual —and hope to survive and prosper. Founder of Doctors without Borders, Canada, Dr. Heinzl was the first field volunteer in 1988,followed by hundreds of others offering their healing skills around the world. He tells the story of the humanitarian crisis during the Iraq war, when the organization faced supply shortages and minimal staffing. Dr. Heinzl ’s presentation moves audiences to a renewed optimism, a global outlook and a belief that people have the ability to make a true difference in this world. He is the Vice President of Vivid Health Solutions creating motion picture and new media solutions for the health sciences.

“Hiding in Plain Sight: Breaking the Cycle of Violence in our Society ”

Terri Jentz ’s goal is to make visible a central truth that underlies the lives of women. In 1977,Terri Jentz and her roommate pitch a tent in a desert in Oregon. As they slept, a man in a pick-up truck deliberately runs over their tent. He attacks them with an axe; somehow, they survive .Despite national news coverage, no one is ever arrested. Terri ’s critically acclaimed memoir, Strange Piece of Paradise, is a record of her journey from violence to hope, and a look at a culture that glorifies ubiquitous violence, especially against women. She believes that society is complicit in this violence because of passivity. Terri provides a window of understanding into the experience of how violence changes irrevocably the people it touches. Currently, Terri Jentz is a screenwriter living in Los Angeles.

“Environmental Justice/Environmental Racism ”

Dr. Bullard ’s scholarship has distinguished him as one of the leading experts on environmental justice and race and the environment. His work focuses attention on the racial discrimination in environmental policy making and the enforcement of environmental protection laws and regulations. He examines the access to economic opportunity and quality of life in American cities and metropolitan areas. Dr. Bullard has testified as an expert witness in civil rights cases over the past decade. He is one of the planners of the First and Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. He is the author of eleven books on environmental justice, urban land use, community reinvestment, housing, transportation, suburban sprawl, and smart growth. Dr. Bullard is Ware Professor of sociology and Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University.

For more information, please call (616) 234-3390.

• Free and open to the public

• On-campus parking $3.00

• Lectures begin at 7 p.m. at Fountain Street Church, 24 Fountain NE

• A book signing will follow each lecture.