Women activists, advocates, and community and political leaders from Western New York and across the world will convene next month in Buffalo for a three-day dialogue on the advancement of women's human rights with the Pan Am Women's Leadership Conference.

While paying homage to the past century of women's accomplishments, "Human Rights for Women: A Pan American Dialogue"-part of the Pan American Exposition centennial celebration-is centered largely around women's future empowerment and progress, explains Patricia Shelly, associate director of UB's Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender, and co-chair of the conference.

"The leadership conference is really focusing on the future-what women need to do-and also raising the public consciousness and visibility of human rights here in Buffalo," she said.

The conference, which addresses four major areas of women's human rights-leadership, health, law and economic empowerment-will be held from May 18-20 in the Adam's Mark Hotel in downtown Buffalo.

A multitude of workshops and panel discussions are slated for each day, and a gala dinner is planned for May 19. Speakers, presenters and panelists will travel from Barbados, Canada, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Suriname for the event, which supports an agenda much like that of the United Nation's Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, and its 2000 follow-up, Beijing + Five.

The event's keynote-speaker contingent is comprised of major movers and shakers from across the globe. They include:

• Charlotte Bunch, founding director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University and a founder of Quest: A Feminist Quarterly

• Becky Cain, three-term national president of the League of Women Voters and current president of Campaign for America, a nonprofit organization committed to campaign finance reform

• Jane Goodall, world renowned for her work with wild chimpanzees and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute

• Nan Johnson, president of the Friends of Women's Rights National Park in Seneca Falls

• Antonia C. Novello, New York State health commissioner. Novello previously served as surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service and was the first Hispanic and woman to hold the post.

• Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Rochester. Slaughter, a bacteriologist, is involved in numerous women's health issues.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton also is expected to speak May 19.

Several UB faculty and students are making presentations throughout the conference. They are:

• Linda Drajem, a doctoral candidate in American studies, "Success Stories: Women Teachers Reshape Pedagogy in Ethnically Diverse Urban Classrooms"

• Bernadette M. Hoppe, law student and women's studies graduate, "Community Action for Prenatal Care"

• Ruth Meyerowitz, associate professor and department chair, Center for the Americas, and adjunct associate professor, women's studies, "Strategies for Women's Economic Empowerment in the U.S.: Living Wage and Pay Equity"

• Bernice Noble, professor of microbiology, "Gender and Autoimmunity"

• Shirley Tang, doctoral candidate, American studies, "Community Development as Public Health-Public Health as Community Development"

• Jean Wactawski-Wende, co-principal investigator of UB's Vanguard Clinical Center of the Women's Health Initiative, "Health Issues for Women in Later Life"

"This is a way that UB can make a community contribution and take it outside the campus and to the people who live here," Shelly said. "I think we're drawing on and utilizing the resources-and perhaps showcasing the resources-of Buffalo women, the Buffalo community."

Others at UB have assisted in conference preparation and publicity, including Mary Gresham, vice president for public services and urban affairs, and Carole Smith Petro, associate vice president for university communications and a member of the conference committee. IREWG also has been instrumental in conference planning, Shelly added.

"Women seem to be very hungry for this," Shelly noted. "We hope that all these issues will come together, as well as really creating a reputation for Buffalo of lots of good, intelligent, active, uppity women that can organize as well as do good work-be it in organizations, be in government, be it in research, be it in teaching."

The conference is part of the Women's Pavilion Pan Am 2001, a virtual organization devoted to creating and promoting some 15 projects that have brought together members of the Western New York community committed to honoring-and extending into the 21st century-the progressive spirit of the 1901 Women's Board of Managers that spearheaded a number of forward-thinking projects for the exposition.

The registration deadline for the conference is May 7.

For more information, call 632-4464 or visit http://www.womenspavilion2001.org.