Borah Symposium

Location: International Ballroom, Pitman Center

Opening Keynote Address: Presented by Laurie R. Blank, Director of the International Humanitarian Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law.

Location: Vandal Ballroom, Pitman Center

Panel discussion: “The Human Cost of Conflict: War and Resilience.”

Presented by: Randi Movich, Nursing Activity Manager at Doctors Without Borders.

Co-sponsored by the Malcolm Renfrew Interdisciplinary Colloquium

Guest speaker bio

Randi Movich (RN, BSN, IBCLC, CDCES) is a humanitarian nurse and global health educator with more than three decades of experience working with vulnerable communities in the United States and internationally. Her career has centered on a simple principle: even in the most difficult circumstances, every person deserves compassionate, dignified, and equitable care.

Randi’s humanitarian work has taken her from remote villages in Guinea, West Africa to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) health facilities in Sierra Leone, and Haiti. 

As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guinea in the late 1980s, she lived in a remote subsistence farming community and worked alongside women’s cooperatives, UNICEF, and government partners on food security, sanitation, child health, and sustainable livelihoods.

Her longstanding interest in women’s health led to a research fellowship with the Institute of Current World Affairs in West Africa investigating traditional midwifery, medicinal plants, and reproductive health practices. in Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Sierra Leone. She learned from traditional healers and midwives, attended home births, and collaborated with community members and health authorities to strengthen local health resources.

Alongside her international work, Randi has spent more than a decade providing care in rural Oregon, where she works in a community health center. Her clinical focus has included chronic disease, sexual and reproductive health, breastfeeding, maternal-child health, public health, and care for people facing barriers to healthcare.

Randi has served with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Sierra Leone and Haiti. In Sierra Leone, she was a Pedagogical Manager with the MSF Academy for Healthcare, helping strengthen the skills of nurses, midwives, neonatal providers, community health workers, and other frontline staff at Hangha Mother and Child Hospital (Kenema, Sierra Leone). In Haiti, she served as a Nurse Activity Manager for MSF’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Project at Maternité Isaie Jeanty in Port-au-Prince. Working in the high-insecurity environment of Haiti’s capital city, she supported maternity and reproductive health services, including triage, delivery, postpartum care, and services for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

Randi brings to discussions of conflict and war the perspective of a frontline nurse, educator, and advocate—someone who has seen both the extraordinary resilience of communities living through crisis and the profound ways that conflict affects ordinary people. Her experiences have convinced her that humanitarian health care is not simply about treating disease or injury; it is about protecting dignity, sustaining communities, and ensuring that people are not forgotten when systems around them begin to fail.

Location: Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

Documentary Screening: Love+War, a 2025 documentary following the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario.

Location: International Ballroom, Pitman Center

Keynote Address presented by: Nadia Murad, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Human Rights Activist

Guest speaker bio

Nadia Murad
Human Rights Activist & Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad became a leading advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence after surviving the horrific Yazidi Genocide in Iraq carried out by the Islamic State (ISIS). At the time of the attack in 2014, Nadia was taken captive by ISIS members and forced into slavery, enduring repeated abuse until she was able to escape. Since then, she has shared her story to raise awareness about gender-based violence and has become a powerful advocate for women and communities who experience extreme brutality and abuse.

For her advocacy work, Nadia partnered with Amal Clooney to fight for the legal rights of Yazidis in Iraq, launched her own nonprofit Nadia’s Initiative to help rebuild communities in crisis, and collaborated with like-minded people to create several initiatives aimed at providing enhanced access to care and reparations for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. Nadia also authored the New York Times bestselling memoir, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State.

In addition to Nadia’s awards and recognitions, she has routinely appeared on NBC News, CNN, BBC, France 24, and other international networks to share her story and speak out on behalf of survivors of genocide and sexual violence. Her written work is included in a range of publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Reuters.

Founded in 2018, Nadia’s Initiative (NI) is dedicated to rebuilding communities in crisis and advocating globally for survivors of sexual violence. NI’s current work is focused on the sustainable redevelopment of the Yazidi homeland in Sinjar, Iraq, where Nadia Murad grew up. When ISIS launched their genocidal campaign, they not only killed and kidnapped Yazidis, but also destroyed the Yazidi homeland to ensure the community could never return.

All of NI’s programs are community-driven, survivor-centric, and work to promote long-term peacebuilding. In line with a grassroots approach to sustainable development, the organization works with the local community and a variety of implementing partners to design, support, and implement projects that promote the restoration and improvement of education, healthcare, livelihoods, WASH, women’s empowerment, and cultural preservation. NI advocates for governments and international organizations to support rebuilding efforts in post-conflict communities such as the Sinjar region, seeks justice for Yazidis by holding ISIS accountable for their atrocities, and advocates globally for survivors of genocide and sexual violence.