A Nebraska Wesleyan University alumnus and Rhodes Scholar is returning to her alma mater. Trang Ho Morton, a planning specialist at the Fund to End Violence Against Children, will be joined by her husband, Matthew Morton, research fellow at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, to present this year’s Curtis Lecture on Public Leadership.
Their lecture, “Changing the Narrative on Adolescents: U.S. and International Perspectives,” will be held on Monday, March 26 at 7 p.m. in Olin B Lecture Hall.
Trang Ho Morton graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University with degrees in political science and Spanish. During her NWU academic career, she was one of 32 Americans to earn the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. She was also awarded the prestigious Truman Scholarship. She went on to earn a master’s degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Oxford.
Her career has focused exclusively on the well-being of children, adolescents and women in the U.S. and around the world. Since 2008, she has worked for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in five countries. As a planning specialist at the Fund to End Violence Against Children — a $68 million trust fund hosted by UNICEF — she manages the fund’s calls for proposals and its selection of grantees who apply for funding to implement programs globally to protect children from violence and abuse.
Matthew Morton earned a political science degree from Stetson University and a master’s and Ph.D in evidence-based social intervention from the University of Oxford. In 2009, he was selected as the UK’s “International Student of the Year” for his academic contributions and commitment to youth empowerment in British communities and abroad.
In his current role as a research fellow at Chapin Hall, Matthew Morton leads the youth homelessness agenda and is one of the nation’s leading research experts on the topic. He is the principal investigator for Voices of Youth Count, the most comprehensive national research and policy initiative to date that’s focused on building evidence to support action on ending youth homelessness.
The Curtis Lecture on Public Leadership is free and open to the public. Olin B Lecture Hall is located inside Olin Hall of Science, located one block east of 50th Street and Saint Paul Ave.
Mildred Curtis established the Senator Carl T. Curtis and Mildred M. Curtis Lecture on Public Leadership in 2005 to honor her late husband and senator, and to explore aspects of public and civic leadership. The annual lecture features public service leaders such as federal and state officeholders, diplomats and leaders in areas of political science, history, human relations and communication.