Sept. 19, 2003

Contact: Victor Bailey, Hall Center for the Humanities, (785) 864-7822.

Gov. Sebelius to give Taylor/Stokstad women's leadership lecture Oct. 9 at KU

LAWRENCE -- Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will give the Emily Taylor and Marilyn Stokstad Women's Leadership Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, in the Kansas Union ballroom at the University of Kansas.

Sebelius will deliver a free, public lecture titled "The Leader as a Person."

The Emily Taylor and Marilyn Stokstad Women's Leadership Lecture is named for two women who helped establish the lecture fund at the KU Endowment Association. The fund supports lectures by prominent women on contemporary women's leadership issues. Contributions to the lecture fund can be made through the endowment association. The Hall Center for the Humanities at KU administers the lecture.

Sebelius' career is a glowing example of women in leadership roles. Kansas' 44th governor holds a political science degree from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., and a master's degree in public administration from KU. She served in the state House of Representatives from 1987 to 1994 and twice was elected state insurance commissioner starting in 1994. Governing Magazine has recognized Sebelius' leadership skills, naming her one of America's top 10 public officials in 2001. She was elected governor in November 2002, the nation's first daughter of a governor to be elected to the same position. Her father is former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan.