UN Ambassador Power Town Hall Meeting

Thank you Mayor Brown and good afternoon everyone!

On behalf of the entire University at Buffalo community, I am delighted to welcome all of you to today’s town hall meeting with United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations and a Member of President Obama’s Cabinet, Samantha Power.

I know many members of our university community were excited for this opportunity to interact with Ambassador Power who is an internationally renowned scholar in her own right.

In addition to our elected officials who have joined us here today, I would like to thank and acknowledge several guests with us including:

• SUNY Board of Trustee Eunice Lewin;
• UB Council member Scott Friedman,
• Members of the Buffalo community—including our many partner organizations and agencies throughout the community;
• As well as the many UB faculty, staff, and students—including those who represent the 18 international student organizations on campus.

As a world premier public research university, UB is a truly international institution in both stature and global impact. At UB:

• We have close to 80 partnerships with international universities and the many study abroad programs we offer students and faculty;
• And UB is a leader in international enrollment with more than 5,500 students.

As a global university, we are also attracting more of the best and brightest faculty from around the world--scholars whose research and community engagement have a profound impact on the communities we serve, locally and globally. Let me give you a sampling of our faculty and students across the disciplines who work with our refugee community.

• Our UB’s Community of Excellence in Global Health Equity is partnering with community members, resettlement agencies, and health care providers to help refugee families start a new, healthy life in Western New York;
• And our School of Social Work’s Immigrant and Refugee Research Institute is conducting research and partners with community organizations to help improve the lives of refugees in our region;
• To the School of Public Health and Health Professions’ Office of Global Health Initiatives is focusing on improving health care for the refugee population in Buffalo
• UB’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership with the Buffalo Public Schools is working to enhance STEM education for immigrant and refugee students learning English.
• And Urban Planning, Medicine, and Architecture faculty are making sure WNY refugees have:
  • Access to healthy food;
  • Interpreters for health care visits;
  • And adequate short-term and long-term housing.

Speaking of UB faculty and students, I am pleased to introduce our two co-moderators for today—

• School of Social Work dean Nancy Smyth, and 
• UB alumna, Ms. Minahil Khan.

Dr. Nancy Smyth’s research focuses on trauma, substance abuse, and those recovering from these experiences. She is:

• A past president of the St. Louis Group, the national organization of social work deans at research universities;
• And co-chair for the Task Force on Disasters & Trauma in the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work.

Our second co-moderator is Ms. Minahil Khan. She is:

• A former student-representative to the UB Council,
• And former Student Association President who graduated from UB this past Spring;
• Ms. Khan also emigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan with her family when she was in grade school.

I want to thank Dean Smyth and Ms. Khan for their willingness to serve as our co-moderators today.

As for the format of today’s Town Hall meeting. After Ambassador Power gives her remarks, our two co-moderators will lead a Q & A session to give our audience a change to ask questions.

It is now my pleasure to introduce today’s distinguished guest. Since 2013, Ambassador Samantha Power has served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations and a Member of President Obama’s Cabinet.

Prior to this, Ambassador Power served as:

• Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights at the National Security Council;
• And was the Anna Lindh Professor of the Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government;
• She is also a Pulitzer Prize winning author for research on genocide and America’s response throughout the 20^th century;
• And she is an expert on U.S. foreign policy, human rights, and the refugee crisis.

Thank you, Ambassador Power, for your leadership and service, and for taking the time to visit our campus to speak with members of our university community, and the greater community we serve.

I want to thank all of you here today as well for participating in this event.

Please welcome Ambassador Samantha Power.