Wednesday, February 29, 2012, 7 pm

George G. Brown Center's Frazier Hall [campus map]

In 1991, Rosanne Haggerty established Common Ground Community, a nonprofit organization that has become the preeminent supportive housing provider in the country and an innovative developer of strategic solutions for the problem of homelessness. Common Ground has transformed derelict buildings in Times Square and other neighborhoods into supportive housing residences, where formerly homeless tenants are helped to rebuild their lives with links to employment, healthcare and the support of a community. In 2011, she established a new not-for-profit, Community Solutions, to expand her work nationally.

As a young student at Amherst College, Haggerty was on track to attend law school. But while researching her senior thesis -- on writer, social critic and Trappist monk Thomas Merton -- Haggerty began to think about ways she might use her abilities to more directly effect social change. After graduating, she began a career dedicated to serving poor and homeless citizens.

In 2001, Haggerty received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius award,” in recognition of her work.

In her presentation, Haggerty will reflect on Merton's writings on race in the context of homelessness in America. The lecture's sponsors are The Thomas Merton Center, Bellarmine's Office of Multicultural Affairs, Catholic Charities of Louisville, The Center for Interfaith Relations, The Coalition for the Homeless, Compassionate Louisville, Family Scholar House, Interfaith Paths to Peace, Metropolitan Housing Coalition, and the University of Louisville's Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research.

Oceanographer Sylvia Earle

Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 7:30 p.m.

George G. Brown Center's Frazier Hall [campus map] 

Sylvia A. Earle (Twitter: @sylviaearle), called "Her Deepness" by the New Yorker and the New York Times, and "Hero for the Planet" by Time Magazine, is an oceanographer, explorer, author and lecturer. She has experience as a field research scientist, government official, and director for corporate and non-profit organizations including the Kerr McGee Corporation, Dresser Industries and Ocean Conservancy.

Formerly Chief Scientist of NOAA, Dr. Earle is a National Geographic Explorer in Residence. She has a B.S. degree from Florida State University, and M.S. and PhD. from Duke University. She has authored more than 175 scientific, technical and popular publications including Exploring the Deep Frontier, Sea Change, Wild Ocean, Dive, The National Geographic Atlas of the Ocean and The World is Blue.

Dr. Earle has led more than 100 expeditions and logged nearly 7,000 hours underwater, with a record solo dive to 1,000 meters. She led the first team of women aquanauts during the Tektite Project. Her research concerns marine algae and deep water ecosystems with special reference to exploration, conservation and the development and use of new technologies for access and effective operations in the deep sea and other remote environments. 

She has been awarded more than 100 national and international honors, including the 2009 TED Prize.