Women's Leadership Scholarship

Sylvia Kang'ara

Professor Kang'ara joined the UW law school faculty in 2006 and teaches first year property and international law. She also teaches in the African Studies program at the Jackson School of International Studies. Professor Kang'ara graduated from Harvard Law School with an LL.M. and an S.J.D in Comparative Private Law and Property Theory and holds an LL.B. from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Her research focuses on the interaction of ideas that shape our understanding of property, poverty, and difference.

As a doctoral fellow, Professor Kang'ara taught a workshop on comparative property law at the European Law Research Center, Harvard Law School. She also received academic awards during her doctoral research including the American Association of University Women International Fellowship in 1998, the Institute for the Study of World Politics Fellowship in 2000, and a research grant from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in 2001.

Prior to undertaking advanced legal studies, Professor Kang'ara was a legal consultant on law reform for the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Kenya). After graduate studies, Professor Kang'ara worked in the project finance and equipment-leasing department of the New York law firm of White & Case, LLP before joining the faculty of Oklahoma City University Law School as a visiting assistant professor. Professor Kang’ara has served on the Selection Committee for the Women’s Leadership Scholarship for 1 year.

Paulina Lopez

Paulina, a 32 year old Ecuadorian, has been in Seattle for almost five years. She started her work in social advocacy by working on human rights issues for several years and she has a LLM -Masters Degree in International Human Rights from St. Thomas University.

In her home country of Ecuador, she developed community projects for indigenous populations, mainly focusing on education, social, environmental justice and human rights issues. She developed a clinical externship program, which enabled young students from law, social work, and other disciplines to carry out voluntary public service in rural indigenous communities. Ms. Lopez strengthened human rights education skills that contributed to the improvement of the situation facing the indigenous people in Ecuador.

She came to the United States through an invitation from Columbia University to participate in the Human Rights Program offered by the School of International Affairs, Center for the Studies of Human Rights. This program gathers advocates from all over the world to participate in a four-month special program to discuss best practices and policies around human rights issues.

Currently, she works as the Manager of the American Red Cross, International Department. Here she is allowed the opportunity to help the immigrant and refugee populations in Washington State. She also belongs to many Latino and other ethnic organizations that promote social justice issues for the immigrant and refugee community. She was awarded the 2007 City of Seattle Human Rights Citizen Award by the Mayor Office of Seattle. Paulina has been with the Channel Foundation as part of the Selection Committee for the Women’s Leadership Scholarship for 2 years.

Solmaz Shortorbani

Ms. Shotorbani has twelve years of experience in population health with a focus on maternal and child health working both domestically and internationally. She has conducted research and has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals on diverse topics such as teen parenting outcomes, youth involved in juvenile justice, use and access to hormonal contraceptives as well as access to women's health services. She received her Masters in Public Health from the University of Washington. Presently, she manages a federally-funded project in Malawi to facilitate HIV education, capacity development, and systems strengthening. Ms. Shotorbani has been with the Channel Foundation as part of the Selection Committee for the Woman Leadership Program from 2005 to 2008.

Pradeepta Upadhyay

Pradeepta has over fourteen years of experience working in the areas of community development and health and human services. Most recently, she was Director of Programs for the South Asian Network (SAN), a grassroots community organization based in Artesia, California. At SAN she worked extensively on social justice and health care issues faced by immigrant communities (with a particular focus on South Asian communities). She developed and implemented programs on domestic violence prevention, trafficking, worker's rights, health care access, HIV/AIDS education for adolescents, and breast cancer education, among others. Pradeepta played a leadership role in planning the Community Health Action Initiative, the first comprehensive preventive health education program in the United States designed for South Asians.

In addition, Pradeepta has significant international experience in community health, gender issues, and development. As the founder of Women's Inspiration Community, a nonprofit organization in her hometown of Katmandu, Nepal, she successfully planned and implemented HIV/AIDS education programs for at-risk groups, reproductive health programs for rural women, gender sensitization programs for men, and income generation programs aimed at empowering rural communities.

Pradeepta has served on the Advisory Board of the Asian Pacific Aids Intervention Team (Los Angeles), the Advisory Board of the Reproductive Rights Coalition of Los Angeles, the Advisory Council of the Women's Leadership Circle (Los Angeles) She is a working group member of the Institute for Women's Policy Research (Washington DC), and is on the Board of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.

She currently serves on the Board of the Non Profit Assistance Center (NAC) and Women’s Funding Alliance in Seattle. Pradeepta has served on the Selection Committee for the Women’s Leadership Scholarship for 2 years.