United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, addressed the Lehman community in recorded remarks commemorating the 75^th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). As the Ambassador notes, Lehman College has a special relationship to the UDHR. Lehman’s campus hosted several foundational meetings of the United Nations in 1946. In addition, Eleanor Roosevelt and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights began work on the Declaration of Human Rights on campus.

Lehman’s Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies and faculty in the Library and History departments invited the Ambassador to address the Lehman Community because of her distinguished diplomatic career and longstanding commitment to inclusion, health equity, and the rights of women, children, and marginalized communities.

“As a first-generation college graduate and role model for minority women working in diplomacy, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield represents our students’ best aspirations,” said Associate Professor Michael Buckley, Director of Lehman’s Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies.

Nearly sixty percent of Lehman students are first-generation college students, and nearly seventy percent are female. Lehman ranks No. 1 on Degree Choices’ list of best Hispanic-Serving Institutions and No. 4 on U.S. News & World Report’s list of colleges with the highest mobility rate in the nation. In the tradition of Herbert H. Lehman, our distinguished namesake, the College has consistently celebrated its connection to the United Nations and its core values.