East Stroudsburg Native and Winner of 2004 Gandhi Peace Award To Speak at East Stroudsburg University.

Dr. David Cortright, a graduate of East Stroudsburg High School, will be the featured speaker on Friday, September 17, 2004, 7:00 p.m., at Beers Lecture Hall, East Stroudsburg University. 

The ESU Women’s Center and Pocono Progressives are honored to cosponsor this presentation by one of America’s preeminent advocates for peace on the eve of his acceptance of the prestigious Gandhi Peace Award, in New Haven, CT.  An organization called Promoting Enduring Peace bestows this annual award to individuals who have contributed significantly to world peace.  Previous recipients include Eleanor Roosevelt, Benjamin Spock, Rev. William Sloane Coffin, U Thant, Cesar Chavez, and Ramsey Clark.    

Dr. Cortright is president of the Fourth Freedom Forum in Goshen, IN, and a research fellow at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.  He recently coauthored a policy report entitled Toward a More Secure America: Grounding U.S. Policy in Global Realities, which makes recommendations for multilateral cooperation to win the campaign against terrorism.  The report was prepared in conjunction with the Secure America project, a consortium of researchers and experts on foreign policy issues that includes former ambassadors and military officials who cooperated to examine international security and current U.S. policy.   

Hailing from East Stroudsburg, David Cortright was executive director of SANE, the largest U.S. peace organization, from 1977 to 1987, and received a research and writing award for peace and international cooperation from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  Dr. Cortright is the author or editor of 12 books and numerous articles about peace issues in scholarly and popular journals.  He has served as consultant or adviser to various agencies of the United Nations, the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, and the International Peace Academy.

Dr. Cortright will be interviewed by Rob McKenzie, professor of communications studies at ESU, on his weekly radio program “The Talk Show.”  The interview will air on WESS (90.3 FM) on Tuesday, September 14, at 5:00 p.m.   

The mission of East Stroudsburg University’s Women’s Center and Women’s Studies program is to elucidate the impact of gender, race, class, and sexuality on people’s lives and to advocate for social changes to enhance women’s lives.  The Women’s Center/Women’s Studies program is cosponsoring David Cortright’s presentation as a means of collaborating with other social movements to promote global peace and nonviolence.

Pocono Progressives is a nonpartisan grassroots activist organization that is working to elect a government that will commit itself to diplomatic solutions to conflict, protect and preserve the environment, defend civil liberties, support social-service programs, and respect and respond to the values and concerns of its citizenry and the global community.