Equity & Difference: Rights

Temple Grandin is a prominent author and speaker on autism and animal behavior. Today she is a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. She also has a successful career consulting on both livestock-handling equipment design and animal welfare. She has been featured on NPR and a BBC Special — “The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow.” She has appeared on national TV shows such as Larry King Live, 20/20, Sixty Minutes and Fox and Friends, and she has a 2010 TED talk. Articles about Dr. Grandin have appeared in Time Magazine, New York Times, Discover Magazine, Forbes and USA Today. HBO made an Emmy Award–winning movie about her life, and she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016. Today half the cattle in the United States are handled in facilities she has designed.

Megan Ming Francis is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington and is also the field director for history and political development at the Washington Institute for the Study of Inequality and Race. Francis specializes in the study of American politics, race, and the development of constitutional law. She is particularly interested in the construction of rights and citizenship, black political activism, and the post-civil war South. Born and raised in Seattle, she was educated at Garfield High School, Rice University in Houston and Princeton University, where she received her M.A. and her Ph.D. in politics. She is the author of the multiple-award winning book, “Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State” (2014). This book tells the story of how the early campaign against state sanctioned racial violence of the NAACP shaped the modern civil rights movement. Her research and commentary have been featured on MSNBC, Al-Jazeera, NPR, PBS, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Seattle Times, and TEDx talks.

Laverne Cox is an Emmy-nominated actress and Emmy-winning producer best known for her work on the critically acclaimed Netflix original series “Orange is The New Black” where she plays the groundbreaking role of Sophia Burset. Laverne is the first Trans woman of color to have a leading role on a mainstream scripted television show. Laverne continues to break boundaries and make history with accolades including back to back SAG Awards for “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series,” a Critic’s Choice nomination for “Best Supporting Actress,” and consecutive NAACP Image Award nominations for “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.”

In addition to her acting, Laverne is a renowned speaker who has taken her empowering message of moving beyond gender expectations to live more authentically all over the country. Her work as an advocate landed her a coveted spot as one of Glamour magazine’s 2014 Women of the Year. She is the recipient of the Dorian Rising Star Award for her work in “Orange is the New Black,” the Courage Award from the Anti-Violence Project, The Community Leader Award from the LGBT Center of New York City, received the Reader’s Choice Award from Out Magazine, was named one of The Grio’s 100 Most Influential African Americans, was named one of the Top 50 Trans Icons by the Huffington Post, one of Out Magazine’s Out 100, made the Ebony Power 100, and was ranked number 5 on the 2014 Root 100 list.