University of Houston Professor to Receive the Olof Palme Medal

Jody Williams, the Sam and Cele Keeper Endowed Professor in Peace and Social Justice in the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston, has been selected to receive the 2014 Olof Palme Medal from the Olof Palme International Foundation of Barcelona, Spain. Professor Williams, who shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, is being honored “for her work in support of human rights and in banning anti-personnel land mines.” She will receive the award in Barcelona on April 25.

Olof Palme was prime minister of Sweden who was a champion of human rights. He was assassinated on a Stockholm street in February 1986.

Professor Williams is a graduate of the University of Vermont. She earned a master’s degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a master’s degree in teaching Spanish and English as a second language from the School for International Training, in Brattleboro, Vermont.