Ellen Woodsworth, former city councillor and co-Chair of Women Transforming Cities, will receive the 2018 Rosemary Brown Award for Women and will be honoured at a conference hosted by Simon Fraser University's Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies on Saturday, September 8.

Woodsworth is a long-standing advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion. As the first openly lesbian city counselor in Canada, she co-chaired the city of Vancouver task force developing the city’s gender equality strategy, the first in Canada. She founded Women Transforming Cities and has spoken at conferences and UN-sponsored meetings about how to create women-friendly cities and involve more women in government.

The late Honourable Rosemary Brown was a champion of equality for women everywhere. Each year this award is given to a woman or a women’s organization that has made an outstanding contribution to one of the various themes championed by Rosemary Brown. This year’s theme is Women and Politics.

The award will be presented at Women and Politics: Risk and Opportunity, the Fifth Annual Rosemary Brown Memorial Conference, Saturday, September 8, 2018 8:30 am–12:30 pm at SFU’s Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue (580 W Hastings St.).

Conference panelists include:

• Katrina Chen, MLA, Burnaby-Lougheed
• Mobina Jaffer, Senator, British Columbia
• Orene Askew, Band Councillor, Squamish Nation
• Lynne Quarmby, SFU professor and former Green Party candidate

The Rosemary Brown Award for Women is given out annually by a committee comprised of representatives from the United Nations Association in Canada, Vancouver branch, the BC Association of Social Workers, BC Federation of Labour, the national Congress of Black Women Foundation, the Society for Children and Youth of BC, and the University Women’s Club of Vancouver.

For further information please contact UN Association in Canada Vancouver Branch, Patsy George at 604-687-7115.