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Wednesday, May 6, 2026
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Lehman College Hosts UN Commission on the Status of Women Panel
Lehman students, faculty, and staff with Ambassador Maritza Chan (center, in red) and representatives from the United Nations.
May 6, 2026
“Victory loves preparation.”
Costa Rican Ambassador to the United Nations Maritza Chan shared this message with Lehman College students on Thursday, April 23, noting the importance of preparation when high-stakes decisions are made, during a panel discussion focused on gender equity.
Ambassador Chan— Costa Rica’s first female UN Ambassador—also served as Chair of the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). She was joined on campus by representatives from UN Women and the CSW for a day of dialogue with students and faculty.
The day kicked off with a tour of the Old Gym, where the United Nations Security Council’s first meeting on U.S. soil was held in 1946 and where the current Security Council recently celebrated its 80th anniversary. Students and guests learned how those early UN meetings helped shape today’s international system, including bodies like the CSW. One result of this work was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Eleanore Roosevelt worked on from her office in Gillet Hall.
That history helped set the tone for the panel discussion that followed. 
From left, Lehman College Foundation Trustee Julissa Alvarez, Vice Provost Teresita Levy,
Ambassador Maritza Chan, UN analyst Maja Nihlmark, and Professor Bertrade Ngo-Ngijol Banoum.
“From Policy to Practice: Gender Equity on the Ground,” moderated by Associate Provost Teresita Levy, brought together Ambassador Chan, UN Women Policy Analyst Maja Nihlmark and Lehman Professor Bertrade Ngo-Ngijol Banoum. Together, the panelists looked at how global gender equity goals move from international policy into the real world, and the role education, advocacy, and leadership play in making that happen.
As the panel came to a close, Ambassador Chan reflected on the legacy of the women who helped shape the language of human rights, including Hansa Mehta, whose introduction of the words “all human beings are born free” helped shift discourse at the UN and across the world—and continues to guide the work today.