Sorensen seminar to focus on COVID-19’s unequal impact

COVID-19 has disproportionately affected women and people of color, necessitating public policies and programs to address the pandemic’s disparate harm to already marginalized populations as the United States begins its pandemic recovery.

The president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, C. Nicole Mason, will discuss the pandemic’s unequal impact and policy solutions at an event hosted by the University of Nebraska via Zoom from noon to 1 p.m. April 13.

Part of the Thomas C. Sorensen Policy Seminar Series, the event is co-sponsored by the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s College of Arts and Sciences through the Thomas C. Sorensen Endowment.

Mason, a frequently quoted expert on pay equity, economic policies and research affecting women, will discuss the varied impacts the pandemic has had on women. She will also speak on the long-term policy needed to lift and sustain women’s well-being, economic stability and upward mobility in the United States.

For the past two decades, Mason has spearheaded research related to economic security, poverty, women’s issues and entitlement reforms; policy formation and political participation among women, communities of color, and youth; and racial equity. Her writing and commentary have been featured in The New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS and many other notable publications and media outlets.

The lecture will be moderated by Deirdre Cooper Owens, Charles and Linda Wilson Professor of History and director of the Humanities in Medicine program at Nebraska. She is an Organization of American Historians distinguished lecturer whose first book was recognized by OAH as 2018’s best book in African-American women’s and gender history.

Thomas C. Sorensen, a Nebraska native and Husker alumnus, was an investment executive and U.S. Information Agency deputy director whose brother, Theodore, served as special counsel to President John F. Kennedy.

The virtual event is free and open to the public, however, attendees must pre-register.