Theresa Betancourt, a 1991 Linfield College graduate and internationally known advocate for child health and human rights, will present the keynote address at opening convocation Friday, Aug. 28, at 9 a.m. in the Ted Wilson Gymnasium at Linfield College.
Betancourt will present “Chance favors the prepared mind.” As director of the Research Program on Children and Global Adversity at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University, Betancourt works with former child soldiers, AIDS orphans and refugees documenting factors contributing to risk and resilience in the lives of vulnerable children. She’s studying how some children and families channel their resourcefulness in a positive direction. She is also an affiliate of the Harvard Center on the Developing Child and an associate scientist in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital in Boston.
Betancourt grew up in rural Alaska in an indigenous village with no paved roads, and with parents who made social justice their mission. Her mother established an early-childhood center, flying bush planes to remote villages to help children, and her father, a former Peace Corps volunteer, taught Yup’ik children. The experience shaped Betancourt for life, giving her a respect for other cultures and a sense of familiarity with conditions in the developing world.
She began working with disadvantaged children while she was still a student at Linfield, helping refugee families as part of a work-study project. She later served as a senior intern for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and consulted for the International Rescue Committee, designing education programs for use in refugee camps.
The common thread in her research is documenting survival strategies. Betancourt studies how some children and families manage to recover from the trauma of war, homelessness, sickness and poverty, and develops tools that will enable other children to heal.
Over the years, she has advocated for and helped thousands of homeless children in India, former child soldiers in Sierra Leone, Rwandan children and families affected by HIV/AIDS, and Eritrean Kunama refugees, among others.
Betancourt graduated from Linfield College with a degree in psychology and minors in French and international studies. She completed her doctoral work in maternal and child health with concentrations in psychiatric epidemiology and health and human rights at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Convocation is the traditional ceremony that celebrates the beginning of the new academic year. Faculty dress in academic regalia and new faculty members are introduced to the Linfield community. Classes at Linfield will begin Monday, Aug. 31.
For more information, call 503-883-2561.
