This year’s honoree, Ambassador Prudence Bushnell, has seen up close the kind of horrific events that few of us could ever imagine. As the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya when the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi was bombed, and having spent time in Rwanda as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs just before the genocide began, Bushnell has been on the front lines of U.S. international policy. She will speak on the challenges of the 21st century and what we, as active involved citizens, can do to meet them.

The Rising Voice of Woman Award was established to honor the memory of eight IWA members who died in a bus accident on October 1, 2003. We remember: Sonia Aladjem, Peg Albert, Olga Buenz, Ce Ellis, Jane Hand, Marita Landa, Jeanet Notardonato, and Irma Oppenheimer. First given in 2005 to an internationally recognized woman working in socially significant programs, this year’s award is the fourth given since that time.