MT. PLEASANT, IA — Noted author, speaker and public servant Kathleen Kennedy Townsend will provide the keynote addresses at two special events at Iowa Wesleyan College.
On Friday, May 2, at 2:30pm, Townsend will speak at the dedication of a statue honoring the first woman to be licensed to practice law in the United States, Arabella “Belle” Babb Mansfield. Iowa Wesleyan College trustees, former Iowa Governor and First Lady Tom and Christie Vilsack and sculptor Ben Victor will attend the dedication of this impressive monument, to be held outside Pioneer Hall on the northwest side of campus.
Townsend will also provide the key address at the College’s commencement ceremony at 1:30pm on Saturday, May 3. Her speech is entitled “The Pursuit of Happiness.” Commencement will be held on the lawn in front of Old Main, or in case of inclement weather, inside the Olan G. Ruble Arena.
As the eldest child of Ethel and Bobby Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend watched her parents make the connection between faith and justice, and founded the Maryland Student Service Alliance to make Maryland the first, and still only, state that requires young people to engage in community service as a condition of graduation.
From 1995 to 2003, Townsend served as Maryland’s first female Lieutenant Governor. In that office, she instituted the office of Character Education, to provide a focal point for the teaching of responsibility and respect to the next generation. Before being elected Lt. Governor, Mrs. Townsend served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States. She helped design and launch the nationally acclaimed Police Corps, a program that gives college scholarships to young people who pledge to work as police officers for four years after graduating.
She is the author of Failing America’s Faithful: How Today’s Churches are Mixing God with Politics and Losing their Way, published by Grand Central Press in 2007.
Townsend graduated cum laude from Harvard University, and received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of New Mexico law school, where she was a member of the law review. She has received ten honorary degrees and has published multiple articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Washington Monthly, among others.
She has been appointed an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Public Policy and has been a Visiting Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government where she focused her efforts on faith and public life. Townsend chairs the Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland and serves on the board of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, the Points of Light Foundation, National Catholic Reporter, and the Character Education Partnership, among others. While serving as the chairman of the board of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, she created the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
The mission of Iowa Wesleyan College is to prepare students to succeed in a changing global environment. Iowa Wesleyan is a four year liberal arts college providing quality individualized learning experiences that combine the development of the intellect with adaptive life skills. The college is affiliated with the United Methodist Church with which it shares a commitment to spiritual values, social justice and human welfare.
Iowa Wesleyan College is the oldest private coeducational liberal arts college west of the Mississippi River. Founded in 1842, the College is the only four-year institution of higher education in southeast Iowa.
