Event Host: Provost's Discovery Themes
Short Description: Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, has gained international recognition as a leader on key global challenges, the environment, human rights, sustainable development, and global security issues.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, has gained international recognition as a leader on key global challenges, the environment, human rights, sustainable development, and global security issues. She will lecture on "Our Common Future: Global Sustainability in the 21st Century."
At age 41, Brundtland became the first woman Prime Minister of Norway—and the youngest person ever appointed. Her cabinet of eight women and nine men represented the highest level of gender equality in history as Brundtland continued to lead her country for more than a decade.
In 1998, Brundtland was elected as Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). During this time, she intensified the debate on global health as key to economic development, and began programs to curb malaria, tobacco use, tuberculosis, and AIDS, as well as a new focus on chronic diseases, diet, and nutrition.
In 2007, Brundtalnd became a founding member of the “Elders,” a group of 11 leaders called together by Nelson Mandela and chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who contribute their wisdom, independent leadership, and integrity to tackling the world’s toughest problems with the goal of conflict resolution and making the world a better place. She is a member of the Board of the “United Nations Foundation,” initiated by Ted Turner and his generous gift of $1 billion to the UN and its causes. She also served as a member of “The Independent Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.” In 2010 the UN Secretary General appointed her a member of his “High Level Global Sustainability Panel.”
