About Our Speaker
Mary Robinson is a co-founder of Project Dandelion – a women-led global campaign for climate justice – adjunct professor for climate justice at Trinity College Dublin, and a member of The Elders. She served as President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002. She is a member of the Club of Madrid and the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama. Between 2013 and 2016, Robinson served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy in three roles; first for the Great Lakes region of Africa, then on Climate Change leading up to the Paris Agreement, and in 2016 as Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate. Her Foundation, the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, was established in 2010 and came to a planned end in 2019.
A former president of the International Commission of Jurists and former chair of the Council of Women World Leaders, Robinson was president and founder of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative from 2002 to 2010 and served as honorary president of Oxfam International from 2002 to 2012. She was chancellor of the University of Dublin from 1998 to 2019.
Mary Robinson serves as patron of the International Science Council and patron of the Board of the Institute of Human Rights and Business, an Ambassador for The B Team, and a board member of several organizations, including the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and the Aurora Foundation. She recently became joint honorary president of the Africa Europe Foundation. Robinson’s memoir “Everybody Matters” was published in 2012 and her book “Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience and the Fight for a Sustainable Future” was published in 2018. She is co-host of a podcast on the climate crisis, “Mothers of Invention.”
Abstract
Mary Robinson will describe what gave her a strong inner sense of justice: becoming a lawyer, the influence of Harvard, and early work in Ireland as a lawyer, law teacher and senator. She will describe her former roles as President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She will also discuss her work at The Elders and Planetary Guardians and as co-founder of Project Dandelion, a women-led global movement for climate justice.
About the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture on Shared Futures
The Dean's Distinguished Lecture on Shared Futures, in the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS), brings global speakers to UC Berkeley to provide perspectives on the most urgent issues shaping society.
The lecture series aims to foster dialogue between students, faculty, industry and government leaders, and the broader academic community, encouraging critical reflection on how data-driven innovations can be developed in ways that benefit humanity. Invited speakers address topics of importance to society and our shared futures. Lectures focus on themes such as ethical use of artificial intelligence, data privacy, and algorithmic fairness, as well as the role of computing, data science, and statistics in addressing global issues such as biomedicine and health, climate and sustainability, and human welfare. The lectures underscore the importance of collaboration across fields – social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, law, engineering, and public policy – recognizing that technological advancements cannot be fully understood or leveraged without considering societal impacts.
The College of Computing, Data Science, and Society hosts the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture on Shared Futures as a platform for sharing knowledge and ideas, providing inspiration for new interdisciplinary collaborations aimed at solving some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The Dean’s Distinguished Lecture on Shared Futures is funded by a generous gift from Allan Spivack.