An Evening with Ambassadors

Carol Moseley Braun and Ertharin Cousin

November 13th 5:30 pm





In TRAILBLAZER, Moseley Braun details her stormy childhood in post-World War II Chicago up to her many firsts since entering politics in the 1970s, shattering ceilings and making history: The first Black woman ever elected to the Senate. The first Black woman on the Senate Judiciary committee. The first woman to represent the state of Illinois in Congress. The first Black woman to serve as a U.S Ambassador to New Zealand. 


TRAILBLAZER is a story of perseverance, a moving narrative from a once-in-a-generation icon, steeped in the history of our nation. Carol Moseley Braun offers readers her uniquely American story and an optimistic letter to future generations on the work we have done and have yet to do, to ensure that the United States lives up to the promise of liberty and justice for all.


Ertharin Cousin currently serves as the Managing Director and CEO of FSF Ventures, an impact investment fund, and as the CEO of Food Systems for the Future Institute, the Fund’s sister nonprofit. Each organization supports her vision of a world without hunger and malnutrition. Ambassador Cousin also serves as a Distinguished Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs; a Bosch Academy, Robert Weizsäcker Fellow; and as a Visiting Scholar at the Stanford University, Center on Food Security and Environment.

Cousin is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago; the University of Georgia Law School and the University of Chicago Executive Management Program in Finance for Non-Financial Executives. She has been listed numerous times on Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women List, as Fortune’s Most Powerful Woman in Food and Drink, on Time’s 100 Most Influential People list, and as one of the 500 Most Powerful People on the Planet by Foreign Policy magazine.