Event Details

Joan Countryman will be giving the 15th annual W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Lecture on Monday, February 8th. Her lecture, entitled "They Can Steal Your Money, But They Can't Take Away Your Education," will address the importance of -- and Du Bois' influence on -- education and democracy. It will take place in the McConnell Theater at 7:00pm, with a reception to follow.

Joan Countryman is a member of the Simon's Rock Board of Overseers. She is the former Head of Lincoln School in Providence, Rhode Island; Interim Head of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa; and Head of the Atlanta Girls' School in Atlanta, Georgia. Ms. Countryman has also served as Assistant Head for Academic Planning and Director of Studies at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, where she taught mathematics from 1970 to 1993. She recently completed a 12-year term as member of the Board of Managers of Haverford College where she also served as President of the Corporation. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Sarah Lawrence College, a member of the Board of the Providence Journal Company, and of the Board of Trustees of the Paul Cuffee School, a public charter school in Providence. Her publications include Writing to Learn Mathematics (1992), "Is Gender an Issue in Math?" in Math and Science for Girls (1993) and Black Images in American Literature (1977).
Ms. Countryman grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was the first African-American graduate of Germantown Friends School. She received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, a Master’s from Yale University, and studied at the London School of Economics as a Fulbright Scholar.