Martha's Table CEO to Give Gstalder Lecture on April 23

Patricia Stonesifer and Professor Marcia Chatelain

Join the Library Associates and the Center for Social Justice on Thursday, April 23 to welcome Martha’s Table C.E.O and former Gates Foundation C.E.O. Patricia Stonesifer for a conversation on the working poor with Professor Marcia Chatelain. Stonesifer is the honored speaker for this year’s annual Ellen Catherine Gstalder (C’98) Memorial Lecture.

Stonesifer joined Martha’s Table as President & C.E.O. in April 2013. Through healthy food, affordable clothing and quality education, her focus is on deepening and expanding Martha’s Table’s programs to reach more than 15 locations around the city to help kids succeed in school, and to help parents contribute to their children’s success.

Stonesifer previously advised business, nonprofit and government leaders on strategies for reducing inequity, and was appointed in 2010 by President Obama to serve as the Chair of the White House Council for Community Solutions. She was the founding C.E.O. of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a position she held for ten years. Before joining the Gates Foundation, Stonesifer spent two decades working in technology, with her final role as Senior Vice President at Microsoft Corporation leading the Consumer and Interactive Products Division.  Learn more about Stonesifer and her impressive record of philanthropic work here.

Stonesifer will be joined by History Department Assistant Professor Marcia Chatelain, an expert in a wide array of issues in African-American history. Chatelain writes and teaches about African-American migration, women's and girls' history, and race and food. She is a member of the British Council's Transatlantic Network 2020, a 2000 Harry S. Truman Scholar, an alumna and honoree of the Sue Shear Institute for Women in Public Life, a 2011 German Marshall Fund of the U.S. Fellow, and a recipient of the Dorothy M. Brown Teaching Award. In 2012, Chatelain was awarded an American Association of University Women Postdoctoral Fellowship and a Ford Foundation Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2014, Dr. Chatelain created #fergusonsyllabus to encourage educators to discuss the national crisis in Ferguson, Missouri.

The lecture will be held in the Healey Family Student Center Social Room at 6:00 PM on Thursday, April 23.

The Ellen Catherine Gstalder (C’98) Memorial Lecture Fund supports an annual lecture on significant social issues in America. The lecture was founded in 2007 to honor the memory of Ellen Gstalder (C’98). The lecture is cosponsored by the Center for Social Justice.