Discover Auburn Lecture Series welcoming MacArthur winner Sophie B. Harris

Published: October 07, 2021

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On Oct. 14, at 3 p.m. the Auburn University Libraries’ Discover Auburn Lecture series will host Sophie B. Harris as she speaks about her recently published memoir, “Finding My Own Way: A Journey to Wholeness Against the Odds.”

Elmore County native and Auburn 1972 graduate Sophie Bracy Harris was honored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow “Genius Award” in 1991 for her efforts to improve childcare in Alabama and around the country. As the founding director of the Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama, or FOCAL, Harris’s work took the organization far beyond providing day-care for low-income families.

For more than 40 years she inspired the organization’s successes at setting national child-care quality standards, educating lawmakers and policy directors, training hundreds of childcare workers and activists and furthering Black community development.

Harris’ book talk will take place in the Caroline Marshall Draughon Auditorium on the ground floor of Ralph Brown Draughon Library and via Zoom. The Zoom link is available here.

More information on Sophie B. Harris may be found here.

Submitted by: Jayson Hill