Speakers

For the month of October 2022, UM-Dearborn hosted Veronika Nikolaichik, a Belarusian human rights lawyer. Ms. Nikolaichik has worked in the human rights sector for more than seven years. Due to political unrest, she left Belarus in 2021 and now lives in Lithuania. Currently, Ms. Nikolaichik works for the Belarusian Women's Foundation which assists female political prisoners by providing access to resources including legal aid. Her residency at UM-Dearborn included discussions with faculty, students, and returning citizens about female empowerment, the American legal system, and advocacy.

In April 2022, OCEL invited two keynote speakers as part of the first annual Engaged Scholarship Showcase. Lina Dostilio is Vice Chancellor of Engagement and Community Affairs at University of Pittsburgh. Laura Dyszlewski works with Beaumont Health and serves as project manager of Healthy Dearborn. They spoke about the value of engaged scholarship and gave poignant examples of applying engaged scholarship in real life.

OCEL was honored to assist in coordinating the visit of H.E. Amre Moussa, the former Secretary-General of the Arab League, Egyptian Foreign Minister, and member of the Egyptian mission to the United Nations. September 2016, Secretary-General Moussa spoke on issues concerning both the Arab world and how Americans are impacted to students, faculty, and community members.

It was OCEL's great privilege to take the lead in planning an event at the Dearborn CIVIC Center in November 2011 where Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman spoke to an over-capacity crowd of local supporters and which was believed to be the largest ever gathering of Yemeni-Americans.  

OCEL helped host president of the US-Japan Council, Irene Hirano Inouye, in the fall of 2012. On September 10th, Ms. Inouye spoke about issues of inclusion in a post 9/11 world.