Julie Erfle, the executive director of ProgressNow, a nonprofit political advocacy group, spoke during the Seeking Justice in Arizona series held at the Memorial Union, Wednesday.
Erfle spoke to students about her life experience and how to use life experiences to fuel activism and find personal achievement. The series was sponsored by the ASU School of Transformation.
"My husband had a knack for beating the odds, so he recovered (from complications related to cancer) in a month," Erfle said. "Unfortunately, he was later killed in action."
The lecture series focuses on helping students learn more about making change on the local level and highlighting individuals in Arizona who are influential. This seminar centers on using personal experience to influence change.
"Today is more about talking about my personal experiences and how that brought me to political advocacy and for others to speak up and talking about their personal experience," Erfle said.
Event organizers said they had initially asked Erfle to speak this semester last spring. She became a prominent figure in Arizona and national media because of her advocacy for comprehensive immigration reform after an undocumented immigrant killed her police officer husband in 2008.
The Arizona Republic considered her one of the ten most fascinating people in the Valley in 2008.
The school of Social Transformation, and the Justice & Social Inquiry hosts the Seeking Justice in Arizona lecture series three times a year in the fall and has featured speakers such as Arizona Rep. Kyrsten Sinema and Hon. Scott Bales.
Madelaine Adelman, an associate professor of Justice and Social inquiry, helped organize this lecture. She said she approached Erfle to be a speaker.
"All too often we forget that change happens locally, we often look at it nationally," Adelman said. "It's nice to bring our viewpoint back home. We look for people who are creating change here in Arizona. We are looking for local people who have a vision for what this place could be and we are looking for people who are pushing in all different kinds of ways.”
Erfle said her company, ProgressNow, is a communication hub for Arizona progressive groups and promotes political activism related to issues such as women’s rights and LGBT equality.
John Collie, a justice studies junior, attended the lecture and said this lecture series is the best and most interactive.
"This lecture spoke to me because of my own personal values," Collie said. "I think this is one of the best series. It's a lot more interactive and you can actually talk to the presenters right after."
Reach the reporter at Garrison.Murphy@asu.edu or follow @Garrison_Murphy on Twitter.
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