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ABOUT Joanne Alter

Joanne Alter was a pioneering leader in Chicago politics—the first woman Democrat elected to public office in Cook County, she founded the Illinois Women's Political Caucus and twice headed the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. She served as trustee for her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, and co-founded Working in the Schools, the largest tutoring program for at-risk youth in Chicago. Joanne became a beacon for women who wanted to make a difference through social action and public service.

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ABOUT Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi is the Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress. From 2007 to 2011, she served as the first woman Speaker of the House and is also the first woman in American history to lead a major political party in Congress, having served as House Democratic Leader from 2003 to 2007. Leader Pelosi will mark her 25th year of service in the House representing San Francisco, California's Eighth District, in 2012.
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ABOUT Cornelia Grumman

Cornelia Grumman is the executive director of the First Five Years Fund (FFYF) and oversees the organization's advocacy, communications, and alliance-building strategies. Prior to joining FFYF in January 2008, Grumman served on the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, where she wrote mainly about education, politics, criminal justice, and other social policy issues. Grumman won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for her series of editorials calling for death penalty reform.
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March 3, 2012: The third annual Joanne H. Alter Women in Government Lecture features Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. A member of the House since 1987, she is a Democrat representing California’s Eighth Congressional District, which comprises most of the city and county of San Francisco. The highest-ranking female politician in US history, Pelosi reflects on the challenges and rewards women face in American politics. Cornelia Grumman interviews Leader Pelosi and moderates questions at the program's conclusion.

In the highlight below, Leader Pelosi speaks about the importance of the humanities, quoting poet Percy Bysshe Shelly and the Book of Solomon. She concludes that both imagination and humility are important for the soul of the nation.

This annual lecture honors the late Joanne H. Alter’s pioneering work on behalf of women interested in social action and public service.

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Lecture

Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Elizabeth Warren most recently served as the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University and Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel to investigate the Trouble Assets Relief Program (TARP). She will talk about the state of consumer financial protection and give her perspective on the role of women in government.