Northeastern Illinois University will welcome Alejandra Campoverdi for a discussion of her new, national bestseller, “First Gen: A Memoir” (Hachette Book Group).
This moderated, hybrid event will take place from 3:30-5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at the Angelina Pedroso Center for Diversity and Intercultural Affairs. In-person capacity is limited to 70 attendees. RSVP is required.
This event is free and open to the public. However, Northeastern students will receive priority. An RSVP confirmation will be provided for in-person attendance. Once event capacity is reached, a livestream link will be sent to those who have RSVP’d. In-person guests will receive a free copy of “First Gen” upon arrival.
“First Gen: A Memoir” is Campoverdi’s unflinching personal story about navigating social mobility as a first-generation Latina in the United States. It is both a riveting autobiography and an examination of the unacknowledged emotional tolls of being a trailblazer.
Campoverdi has lived a life of contradictory extremes. She has been a child on welfare, former Deputy Director of Hispanic Media for the White House under President Obama, a gang member’s girlfriend and a candidate for U.S. Congress. She’s a nationally recognized women’s health advocate and founder of Latinos & BRCA. Campoverdi was a co-host of “Pod is a Woman,” a podcast about politics and popular culture. In 2020, she was a producer of “Inheritance," a PBS documentary film about Campoverdi and two other women with hereditary breast cancer who undergo life-altering medical procedures in the hopes of reducing their genetic risk and saving their lives. She earned a Master in Public Policy degree from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and graduated cum laude from the Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism at the University of Southern California. Campoverdi is a former Commissioner for the California Children and Families Commission, also known as "First 5 California," and currently serves on the boards of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy; the Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino; and the California Community Foundation.
This event is being sponsored by the Angelina Pedroso Center for Diversity and Intercultural Affairs, the Northeastern Illinois University Foundation and the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
