8th Annual Distinguished Lecture

Michéle Duvivier Pierre-Louis , a graduate of the Sorbonne, has spent the last 20 years in her native Haiti working with a variety of grassroots organizations to build civil society. In 1991 she was a consultant to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on government structure and land reform. A major thrust of her work has been to promote literacy. In 1993 Japan’s Yoko TadaFoundation for Human Rights awarded her its Human Rights Prize. Currently she is executive director of the Fondation Connaissance et Liberté, the Soros Foundation in Port-au-Prince.

In the 1997 Mortenson Distinguished Lecture, “Haiti: Reading the Minds of Democracy,” Ms.Pierre-Louis reflected on Haiti’s difficult history, the heavy burden of illiteracy, and the importance of libraries and education for the country’s future.