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Nicholas Christakis
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Naomi Tutu on Courageous Compassion
Naomi Tutu: Striving for Gender Justice
Remembering MLK to Find Modern Day Leaders
Biography
The Rev. Nontombi Naomi Tutu knew from early in life that the one thing she would never be was a priest. She has always said, “I have my father’s nose, I do not want his job,” but life had other plans.
After years spent as a development consultant, educator, and race and gender activist, she accepted her call to ordained ministry. She is an Episcopal priest who most recently was Associate Rector at All Saints, Beverly Hills.
The challenges of growing up Black and female in apartheid South Africa have been the foundation of Naomi’s life as an activist for human rights. Those experiences taught her that our whole human family loses when we accept situations of oppression, and that teaching and preaching hate and division injure us all.
Rev. Tutu is the third child of Archbishop Desmond and Nomalizo Leah Tutu. She was born in South Africa and had the opportunity to live in many communities and countries. She was educated in Swaziland, the United States, and England, and has divided her adult life between South Africa and the United States. Growing up as the “daughter of …” has offered Naomi Tutu many opportunities and challenges. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges she has faced has been the call to ministry. This call refused to be silenced; even as she carried her passion for justice into other fields, the call to preach and serve as an ordained clergyperson continued to tug at her. Finally, in her 50s, she responded to the call and went to seminary.
Her professional experience ranges from being a development consultant in West Africa to serving as program coordinator for Race and Gender and Gender-based Violence in Education at the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town. In addition, Rev. Tutu has taught at the University of Hartford, the University of Connecticut, and Brevard College in North Carolina. She served as Program Coordinator for the historic Race Relations Institute at Fisk University and was part of the Institute’s delegation to the World Conference Against Racism in Durban.
She began public speaking as a college student at Berea College in Kentucky in the 1970s, when she was invited to speak at churches, community groups, colleges, and universities about her experiences growing up in apartheid South Africa. Since that time, she has become a much sought-after speaker to groups as varied as business associations, professional conferences, elected officials, and church and civic organizations. She currently resides in Atlanta, where she is a priest associate at All Saints Episcopal.
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The Distinguished Speaker Series of Southern California
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American Property Casualty Insurance Association
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The Distinguished Speaker Series of Southern California
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American Century Investments
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Ernst & Young LLP
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Texas American Resources Company
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