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Nancy Cowles: Kids in Danger

Nancy Colwes is the Executive Director of Kids in Danger, a Chicago based, national non-profit organization dedicated to protecting children by improving children's product safety.  KID was founded in 1998 by the University of Chicago psychologists, Linda Ginsel and Boaz Keyser, the parents of sixteen-month-old Danny Keyser who died in his Chicago childcare home when a portable crib collapsed around his neck.  Although the portable crib had been recalled five years earlier, word of its danger had not reached Danny's parents, caregiver, or a state inspector who visited the home just eight days before Danny's death.

KID's goal is to EDUCATE the public, especially parents and caregivers, about dangerous children's products, ADVOCATE for a legislative and regulatory strategy for children's product safety, and PROMOTE the development of safer children's products.

Nancy Colwes spoke at Alma College discussing the role KID has taken in shaping the Children's Product Safety Act in Illinois and six other states, including Michigan.  She also discussed the role women play in non-profit organizations.

 

Women's Studies Co-directors, Dr. Joanne Gilbert (standing) and Dr. Chih-Ping Chen, pose at dinner with Nancy Colwes.   

 

Women of the MacCurdy House also enjoyed dinner with Nancy Colwes before her presentation.   


 

 

Spring Term at Alma is a one-month immersion on a single academic topic that offers learning experiences not typically available during the more traditional 15-week fall and winter terms. For example, during Spring Term ’08, students toured cultural sites in Argentina, studied lizards in Jamaica, analyzed World War II topics at the British National Archives in London, performed music in Italy, and examined the natural wonders of New Zealand.

 

Graduate Profile

Mollie Smith
Graduation: 2007
Major: Communication
Minor: Women's Studies

Mollie Smith can sum up her learning experience from her Women's Studies minor in one word -- perspective.

"This program really opened my eyes to all of the differences that are present in the world," says the 2007 alumnus.