Rogow Lecture Series

Haben Girma is a human rights lawyer and disability advocate. She is the first Deafblind woman to graduate from Harvard Law School. President Obama named her a White House Champion of Change, and the World Health Organization appointed her Commissioner of Social Connection. She received the Helen Keller Achievement Award, from the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and TIME100 Talks. Haben believes disability is an opportunity for innovation, and she travels the world teaching organizations the importance of choosing inclusion.

Harnessing the power of the written word to spark advocacy, she wrote and published the book that became a bestseller. Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law. The story takes readers on adventures around the world, including her parents’ homes in Eritrea and Ethiopia, building a school under the scorching Saharan sun, training with a guide dog in New Jersey, climbing an iceberg in Alaska, fighting for blind readers at a courthouse in Vermont, and talking with President Obama at The White House. Warm, funny, thoughtful, and uplifting, this captivating book is a testament to Haben’s determination to resist isolation and find the keys to connection.

She is passionate about disability justice and inclusion, and she encourages people to advocate for change in their community.