The NGO Committee on the Family New York invites you to attend

The Family: Charting the Way Forward, Post-Pandemic

Thursday, Feb 17, 2022, 1 – 2PM EDT (New York Time)

Please join us for presentations by:
Dr. Jenet Jacob Erickson, Affiliated Scholar at the Wheatley Institution

Melissa Villa, Founder and Executive Director of Project PEARLS

A recording of this session is on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/Qrs9SriJxpQ

(Click through for concept note)

The NGO Committee on the Family invites you to join us for a conversation with Dr. Jenet Erickson and Melissa Villa. This program will explore the impact of the pandemic on families. Almost two years into the pandemic, researchers and practitioners are observing startling trends in shifting family demographics and dynamics. Studying these trends, we can begin to prognosticate how the family can chart a way forward through the continuing pandemic to strengthen one another and maintain the family’s foundational role in society.

Dr. Jenet Jacob Erickson is an Affiliated Scholar at the Wheatley Institution and former assistant professor in the School of Family Life at BYU, in addition to her role as Senior Fellow in Maternal and Child Wellbeing at the Institute for Family Studies. Her research specializing in maternal and child wellbeing has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and World Report, Slate Magazine, and the Today Show. She has authored more than 20 scientific articles and book chapters and presented at national and international conferences. In 2004, she was selected as a Social Science Research Fellow for the Heritage Foundation where she completed research analyses on non-maternal care for policy makers. Erickson received B.S. and M.A. degrees from Brigham Young University, and a PhD in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota. She is currently a columnist on family issues for the Deseret News National Edition, while she and her husband enjoy their family life journey with two young children.

Melissa Villa is Founder and Executive Director of Project PEARLS, a nonprofit organisation on a mission to help children and families break the cycle of poverty in the Philippines. Today, Project PEARLS is much more than the band-aid charity it started out as 11 years ago. With a small dedicated staff supported by hundreds of enthusiastic volunteers in the Philippines and the USA, it is now a heart centered nonprofit that implements effective programs to educate, empower, nourish, and deliver healthcare to thousands of children and adults in a handful of underserved communities throughout the islands. Born and raised in Manila, Melissa emigrated to the US in 1987 and earned an economics degree then a Masters in Global Management before returning to her home country to help meaningfully improve the lives of the poorest of the poor. In 2018, she was recognized by World Literacy Foundation in Oxford with the first Albert Schweitzer Award for her exemplary contributions to humanity. In 2021, she was chosen as one of the Asia Pacific Kindness & Leadership 50 Leading Lights by Women of the Future.

The NGO Committee on the Family has been wonderfully fortunate in the high caliber of panelists and speakers who have graciously addressed us. In an effort to enrich the intellectual experience of our audience, we have invited guests representing a diverse set of views and beliefs. We should note here that the expression of any views on this or any other program does not constitute an endorsement of those views by the NGO Committee on the Family, our member NGOs, or our co-sponsoring organizations.

A recording of this session is on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/Qrs9SriJxpQ