Wednesday, March 26, 2025
7:00pm
Naylor Auditorium
Dr. Demessie, a political scientist and social justice advocate with a deep track record of civic and educational empowerment, currently is SVP/ED of Universal Music Group’s racial justice and philanthropic efforts for the world’s largest music company. In 2022, Billboard named her to their top list of women executives in music and Variety Magazine named her one of the DEI Impact Champions in Entertainment. In 2023, she was also awarded the prestigious Social Impact Award from the Black Music Action Coalition where she was honored for her social impact work in the music and entertainment industry alongside fellow honorees like producer Jermaine Dupri, artist Lizzo, and actress Keke Palmer among others.
She is a published race & ethnic politics expert who led the Center for Policy for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and worked in the U.S. Congress for a decade. She founded CBCF’s peer-reviewed policy journal and their National Racial Equity Initiative for Social Justice. She conducted democratic governance training with 50 members of parliament from 30 countries and was appointed by the Ethiopian Prime Minister to the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund in 2018. She serves on the Oberlin College Board of Trustees, the American Political Science Association Council, and is adjunct professor for the University of Michigan where she currently teaches courses in race and ethnic politics, political advocacy, and public opinion. Her motto: Laugh Hard! Live Life! Love Lots!
Dr. Demessie earned a joint Ph.D., Public Policy and Political Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, August 2010. Her dissertation is entitled : Navigating the Boundaries of Blackness: Congressional Caucuses, U.S. Foreign Policy, and African Affairs, which is the first Study in American politics on African Caucuses in the U.S. House of Representatives and received grant funding from the Dirksen Congressional Center. She earned a Bachelor of Arts, Economics, Law & Society with Honors, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, May 2002
This event is sponsored by the Lectures Committee, Politics Department, Roberson Project, Music Department, Office of DEI, Dean of the College, and the Provost Office.
