In September 2007, Ameerah Haq '71 was appointed Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan and the United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan. In February -- escorted by United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) peacekeepers -- she led a team of UN humanitarian agencies to the Western Darfur village of Sirba, to further coordinate the response to the humanitarian crisis in the area. Talking to UNAMID reporters, Ameerah emphasized the importance of seeing firsthand "the stark reality" of what she and others had been reading in reports. While her agencies can provide some immediate humanitarian relief in the form of food, shelter and medical assistance, she realizes that what people really want and need -- security -- is in the distant future.

A native of Bangladesh, Ameerah has previously served as the Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan responsible for Relief, Recovery and Reconstruction, as well as the UNDP Resident Representative, Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan. She was formerly the Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Director of the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery at UNDP Headquarters in New York. Our featured speaker at the Reunion 2007 Kumler Chapel gathering, Ameerah took her text from a poem by turn-of-the-century Greek poet Constantine Cavafy: When setting out upon your way to Ithaca, wish always that your course be long ...

Susan Brasier '86  was honored at last year's Miami Valley Access to Justice Awards celebration, recognizing outstanding contributions in promoting and providing access to justice for the underprivileged and underserved. Susan received the Lloyd O'Hara Public Interest Law Award for her two decades of commitment and advocacy on behalf of victims of domestic violence. An alumna of Western and University of Dayton School of Law, Susan is an attorney with Falke and Dunphy LLC, Dayton, Ohio. Since 1988, she has served as a pro bono panel attorney with Artemis Center for Alternatives to Domestic Violence, as well as a city prosecutor for the City of Riverside. During her tenure there, she helped develop protocols that have become a model throughout the state and managed to obtain a significant number of convictions in cases where victims -- fearing retaliation from their abusers -- failed to testify.

In a recent WCAA Bulletin, Susan shared her belief that the award "seemed to be an affirmation of Western's aspirations for us: that our lives would contribute to our communities and that we would use our education for the public good." In other words, she sees this award as "one of those moments when we acknowledge that the Western message hit its mark."