Chancellor's Commission on Women Presents 'Women as Change Makers' Tonight

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From left, Margaret Clark, Gloria Flores Passmore, Toby Klein, Jeannie Whayne and Janine Parry

The Chancellor's Commission on Women is hosting a panel discussion at 6 p.m. today, Tuesday, Oct. 29, in Giffels Auditorium. "Women as Change Makers" is the topic for the panel. The panel has been organzied by the undergraduate student members of the commission: Maria Calderon, Samia Ismail and Sadie Bryant.

The panel includes Margaret Clark, professor emerita; Gloria Flores Passmore, director of Sponsored Student Programs; Jeannie Whayne, university professor of history; and Toby Klein, senior graduate assistant. The panel will be moderated by Janine Parry, professor of political science.  

Margaret Clark began her teaching career at the University of Arkansas in 1969 after earning a master's degree in 1968. She initially taught world languages including French while working on a doctorate in education. She was appointed an assistant professor of secondary education in 1972 in the College of Education and Health Professions. She earned her Doctor of Education in 1978. She became an associate professor of secondary education in 1994. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Alumni Association and the Washington County Historical Society and was a member of the Arkansas Division of the American Association of University Women. She also served as the first president of the Phi Alpha Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. She has been awarded the Silas Hunt Legacy Award, the Outstanding Faculty Award and the Martin Luther King Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award. She retired in 1998, taking emerita status but remaining active in community affairs.

Gloria Flores Passmore is the director of the Office of Sponsored Student Programs, which seeks to bring sponsored international students to the U of A. She fosters collaboration between the university and sponsoring organizations to facilitate admission, support and repatriation of sponsored students as well as scholarship funds that provide opportunities for students abroad to study at the U of A.

Toby Klein is a second-year doctoral student in Community Health Promotion Program. Her research centers around marginalized populations and better understanding the nuance of barriers surrounding reproductive and sexual health care. Klein is also the president of the Lavender Society, an organization spearheading a movement for gender-inclusive housing on campus and a graduation celebration for queer and LGBTQ-plus students on campus. She prides herself on being both an interdisciplinary researcher and an intersectional advocate.

Janine Parry is director of the Arkansas Poll, which has been collecting data annually since 1999. In addition to two books — Women's Rights in the USA and Readings in Arkansas Politics and Government — she has published articles and chapters in Political Behavior, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, the Journal of Black Studies, the Presidential Elections in the South series, and many other outlets. She serves on the editorial board for State Politics and Policy Quarterly and recently organized the state politics panels for the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association.

Jeannie Whayne is a specialist in Southern history. Her research focuses on the lower Mississippi River Valley and the interplay of social and economic history with environmental change, agricultural development, and race relations. Her most recent book, Delta Empire: Lee Wilson and the Transformation of Agricultural in the New South, explored the transformation of the plantation system in the 20th-century South, concluding with some observations about the emergence of portfolio plantations in the early 21st century. She is currently a fellow of the Agricultural History Society and a distinguished lecturer with the Organization of American Historians.