EVENT TITLE:

We Are Those Girls:  From Friendship to the Global Frontlines for Girls and Women 
featuring Heather Hamilton, Global Advocate, and Rachel Paine Caufield, Democracy Expert 

EVENT DATE & LOCATION:

Monday, March 30, 2026 
Reading Room Cowles Library Drake University 

5:00-6:30 pm  |  Includes Reception

TICKETS: $30

ABOUT THE EVENT:

Join us for a fascinating conversation and storytelling about how women’s friendships can sustain us. How disagreement can help us grow together rather than tear us apart. What we can learn from the global fight for gender justice. How we can build a community of support to help today’s girls become the next generation of empowered women. 

Heather Hamilton’s story began in the hills of rural Maryland as a girl who was told she was “too much” — too smart, too opinionated, too talkative, too eager.  In college, she developed a life-long friendship with Rachel Paine Caufield (Drake University Professor of Political Science and Chrysalis Board President).  Together, they traversed the social pressures of being young women, becoming adults, finding their identities, pursuing their professional goals, and always supporting and challenging each other.   

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Heather Hamilton is a globe-trotting advocate for girls and women.  Over the past three decades, she has lived in Kenya, Thailand, England, and Portugal (and on a sailboat in the Caribbean). She worked alongside activists, organizations, philanthropies, diplomats, and governments around the world to advance educational and economic opportunity, end child marriage, prevent mass atrocities, and promote the human rights of women, children, girls, and youth. 

Professor Rachel Paine Caufield is Chair of the Department of Political Science and Co-Executive Director of the Ron and Jane Olson Institute for Public Democracy at Drake University. She was previously a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution and with the American Judicature Society and is recipient of numerous awards and is a recognized expert in Iowa caucuses and campaign activity. She will serve as Faculty-in-Residence at Harlaxton, a study abroad program operated by the University of Evansville in England for the upcoming fall semester.