Exploring a Global Citizen Mindset
Presenters: Daphne Wysham ’79 and Marty Alter Chen ‘60

In this workshop, we explore the effect of global citizenship ideals on the lives and work of two Woodstock alumnae. Daphne Wysham, is a Washington, DC-based climate change policy analyst and environmental radio show host.  Marty Alter Chen teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and coordinates a global action-research-policy network focused on the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy. Under their leadership we will discuss how knowledge of and sensitivity to other races, cultures, religions, and other characteristics of people in a diverse world help advance the cause of global justice and sustainability.  We will view this sensitivity as a trait that is critical in living a life that makes a difference, whether in a small town or on the global stage. We will learn of Wysham’s work on climate justice issues in India and the USA and of Chen’s work on employment and livelihood issues in India and around the world, including how maintaining a “global citizen mindset” has been crucial to their efforts. Our discussion will examine why it is critical to incorporate the principles that underpin this mindset when acting on many global and local problems.

Daphne Wysham is a Fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies, and host and co-founder of Earthbeat Radio (www.earthbeatradio.org), a weekly radio show on the climate crisis that is syndicated on 54 radio stations across the U.S. and Canada reaching over 2 million listeners. She is the founder and director of the Sustainable Energy & Economy Network (SEEN), a project of IPS (www.ips-dc.org).  Daphne graduated with high honors from Princeton University in 1983.  She was born and raised in India, where she lived for eight years, and lived in Greece for one year.

Marty Alter Chen is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and co-founder and international coordinator of a global-action-research policy network that seeks to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy (www.WIEGO.org). Author of many books, Marty graduated with honors from Connecticut College for Women in 1960 and received a PhD in South Asian Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.  Daughter of Barry and Jim Alter (Woodstock Class of 1938), Marty was raised in India and graduated from Woodstock School in 1960.  With her husband and two children, she spent 15 years in Bangladesh and India where she worked, respectively, with BRAC (now the world’s largest NGO) and Oxfam America.