Geena Davis Announced as Westridge School’s Keynote Speaker

Geena Davis, Academy Award winner and advocate for women’s and girls’ rights, will give Westridge’s keynote address at Commencement on Friday, June 6.

In her remarks to the Westridge community, Davis will take aim at “empowering our daughters and ourselves.” As the Special Envoy for Women and Girls in the field of technology for the United Nations (UN), a partner with UN Women in the effort to change the way media represents women and girls worldwide, and a chair to the California Commission on the Status of Women, Davis is becoming recognized for her tireless advocacy of women and girls nearly as much as for her acting accomplishments.

Few have achieved such remarkable success in as many different fields as Davis has: she is not only an Oscar and Golden Globe winning actor, but a world-class athlete (at one time the nation’s 13th-ranked archer), a member of the genius society Mensa, and holds honorary degrees from Boston University, Bates College, and New England College. She founded the non-profit Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and its programming arm See Jane, which engages film and television creators to dramatically increase the percentages of female characters — and reduce gender stereotyping — in media made for children 11 and under.

Davis’ presentation is the final installment in Westridge’s Centennial Speaker Series during the 2013-2014 school year. Featured speakers have included bestselling author, journalist, and educator Rebecca Skloot, author of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”; documentarian Martha Adams, senior producer of “Girl Rising”; and author Kristen Kittscher, who is also a former member of the Westridge faculty.

Westridge School, 324 Madeline Drive, Pasadena, (626) 799-1053 ext. 200 or visit www.westridge.org.