Soledad O’Brien plans to bring her knowledge of social issues and marginalized groups to the Women’s Foundation of Colorado.
The award-winning journalist, documentarian and originator of the CNN series “Black in America” and “Latino in America” is the keynote speaker for the annual Denver luncheon on Wednesday.
“I think the Women’s Foundation is very much in the same vein with the things I focus on in my tours and in my stories,” O’Brien told The Denver Post on Saturday. “A lot of what they do is laying out what happens when you invest in women. You can really move the needle on a lot of social issues just by focusing on the health and well-being of women.”
O’Brien said the biggest misconception she has heard in dialogues about gender, racial and class inequalities is that such inequalities don’t even exist.
“They do. They clearly do,” she said. “But they can also be solved. There’s a lot of people doing that work.”
Education remains in the forefront of solutions needed to combat disparity, O’Brien said.
“For most marginalized groups — take Latinos, for example — education is either No. 1 or No. 2 on the list of issues they care about,” she said. “You would think it’s the things that you always hear about, like immigration, but parents everywhere understand that the best way to help their children is to give them a solid foundation in education.”
The luncheon, scheduled at the Colorado Convention Center, is expected to draw more than 1,900 attendees.
O’Brien said she looks forward to her Colorado talk, adding she loves listening to — and learning from — the stories of others.
“The biggest thing people can do who want to make a difference is listen,” she said. “Listen to other people’s experiences and try to figure out what’s the way forward.”
Want to attend?
When: 11:30 a.m. Wednesday
Where: Colorado Convention Center
Cost: Individual $150; VIP $250; professionals under age 40 $75
Tickets:
