Wed, April 18, 2012,
The Old Dominion Ballroom, Squires Student Center,
6:30 PM ~ free admission
Speaker: Avila Kilmurray
Community Voices: Avila Kilmurray, Director, Community Foundation for Northern Ireland from Andy Morikawa on Vimeo.
On Wednesday, April 18, Community Voices and the Virginia Tech Center for Student Engagement and Community Partnerships presented Avila Kilmurray, peacebuilder and community foundation leader from Northern Ireland in a 6:30 pm program on the Virginia Tech campus. Dr. Kilmurray delivered the Virginia Tech Ut Prosim Lecture in the Old Dominion Ballroom at Squires Student Center. Her talk was on: Peacebuilding & Partnerships: Reflections & Lessons.
Avila Kilmurray has a distinguished international career in areas related to social justice work, global peace making, and the Northern Ireland peace process. Previously she was coordinator of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action’s Rural Action Project, a European Union Second Anti-Poverty Programme initiative. In 1990, she was appointed the first Women's Officer for the Ireland Transport & General Workers' Union. Avila was active in establishing the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. She was a member of the Coalition’s negotiating team for the historic Belfast Agreement. She currently sits on the board of the Global Fund for Community Foundations, which supports community building throughout the developing world.
The Community Foundation of Northern Ireland is an independent charitable grant-making organization, whose mission is to "drive social change". Avila has served as the director for 18 years and has a particular interest in community development, peacebuilding, and women’s issues.
Avila Kilmurray, Director of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland since 1994, became the first ever recipient of the Raymond Georis Prize for Innovative Philanthropy in Europe for the Foundation’s ‘extraordinary contribution towards alleviating human suffering in the context of decades of violent political conflict and its considerable record of achievement in building peace in Northern Ireland’.