Ambassador King to speak on women in government and politics

Ambassador Betty Boyea-King will be the featured speaker at the ninth lecture in the Girls’ High School (GHS) Centenary Lecture Series.{{more}}

Boyea-King, who is a past student of the GHS, is the Ambassador of the United States to the Office of the United Nations (UN) and other International Organizations in Geneva.

Ambassador King will speak on the topic ‘Women in Government & Politics’, at the lecture which will be held on Thursday, January 6, at 8:00 p.m., at Frenches House in Kingstown.

Boyea-King, who was nominated to serve in Geneva by President Barack Obama, also served as the United States’ Representative to the Economic and Social Council of the UN, under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Boyea-King, who is originally from the Central Windward coastal village of Byera, is the sister of local businessmen Ken and Keith Boyea and Stilly Fraser, and hotelier Ann Joshua.

While on the Economic and Social Council of the UN, King worked on human rights, children, development, aging and population issues. She was the principal U.S. negotiator on the Millennium Development Goals.

Ambassador King has an extensive background in philanthropy, having served as the Vice President of the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland, the Senior Advisor to the CEO of the California Endowment in Los Angeles, CA, and an advisor to the Atlantic Philanthropies in New York. She was the Deputy Commissioner of Mental Health in the District of Columbia, the Executive Director of the Southwest Society on Aging, the Director of the Arkansas Department on Aging and an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas.

She currently serves on the boards of Refugees International, the United Nations Association of the United States, Phoenix House, and on the Advisory Board of the Annenberg School of Public Diplomacy.

Boyea-King earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, a Master’s degree at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and was a National Humanities Fellow at Harvard University.

Thursday evening’s lecture will be hosted by Public Relations Officer of the 100th Anniversary Centenary celebrations Theresa Daniel.

The centenary celebrations of the GHS, which began on May 7, 2010, will climax on May 8, 2011.