MSW Program Director Yodit Betru will facilitate the fireside chat with Lisa McNair at the next DHS Speaker Series.
The DHS Speaker Series is open to all: DHS staff, providers, community members, clients, and the public!
🗓️ Event: Resilience and Reconciliation – Healing from Trauma While the World Watched
🎤 Featuring: Lisa McNair
📅 Date: Wednesday, October 8th, 2025
🕐 Time: 1 PM – 2:30 PM ET
🔗 Join on Zoom
About the Speaker:
Lisa McNair’s older sister, Denise, was one of the four little girls killed in the infamous 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Through her memoir, Dear Denise: Letters to the Sister I Never Knew, Lisa provides readers a front row seat inside a family that endured a horrific and high-profile loss in the Civil Rights movement. Driven to find redemption in her sister’s death, Lisa’s parents worked tirelessly to build relationships and promote change across racial lines. Lisa’s poignant stories, often unique and even entertaining, reflect the pain and perseverance of many first-generation post-segregation African Americans. In 2022 Dear Denise: Letters to the Sister I Never Knew was recognized as one of NPR’s “Books We Love”. She was also recently a featured author at the annual Monroeville Literary Festival. Monroeville is the home of Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Read more at the Speaker Series website.