Humanitarian, author Dr. Samantha Nutt to deliver LBJ Lecture
Posted by Jayme Blaschke
Office of Media Relations
February 15, 2017
Dr. Samantha Nutt, founder and executive director of War Child in North America, will deliver the LBJ Distinguished Lecture at Texas State University February 28.
The free public speech will be held at 7 p.m. in Evans Auditorium on campus. It is presented in conjunction with the Common Experience at Texas State.
A medical doctor and a founder of the renowned international humanitarian organization War Child, Dr. Nutt has worked with children and their families at the front line of many of the world's major crises — from Iraq to Afghanistan, Somalia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone to Darfur, Sudan. Dr. Nutt is a leading authority on current affairs, war, international aid and foreign policy, and she is one of the most intrepid and recognized voices in the humanitarian arena. With a career that has spanned more than two decades and dozens of conflict zones, her international work has benefited hundreds of thousands of war-affected children globally.
Dr. Nutt's critically-acclaimed debut book, Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies and Aid, was released in October 2011 and was a No. 1 national bestseller in both hardcover and paperback. Lewis Lapham declared it a "brave and necessary book," while the Literary Review of Canada called it a "brilliant polemic." Damned Nations is a bracing and uncompromising account of Dr. Nutt's work in some of the most devastated regions of the world.
Dr. Nutt was named one of Canada's 25 Transformational Canadians by The Globe and Mail, and she has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In July 2011, Dr. Nutt was appointed to the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor, for her contributions to improving the plight of young people in the world's worst conflict zones.
Dr. Nutt graduated summa cum laude from McMaster University, earned an M.Sc. in public health with distinction from the University of London and holds a Fellowship in Community Medicine (FRCPC) from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Dr. Nutt is a staff physician at Women's College Hospital in Toronto and is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. She is a senior fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto and is on the board of the David Suzuki Foundation.
About the LBJ Lecture
The annual Lyndon Baines Johnson Lecture, initiated in 1982 to honor the former president and Texas State graduate, recognizes the importance of education to the continuing prosperity of the nation. Through the series, Texas State works to perpetuate the former president’s high educational ideals by bringing outstanding individuals to campus to meet with students and faculty and present public lectures. Previous lecturers include former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, poet Maya Angelou, former President Gerald Ford and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.