Welcoming Stephanie Williams

It is our great pleasure to welcome Stephanie Williams (left) as an IntLawGrrls contributor.
Stephanie is an international human rights advocate and consultant who's worked on a number of issues, including gender-based violence and environmental justice.
She graduated with honors from the University of Miami School of Law, where she was the recipient of the Sonia Yadr Schneider Scholarship, the H.O.P.E. Fellowship, and the Res Ipsa Loquitur Writing Award. She was also a founding member of the university's Innocence Project and Executive Editor of the University of Miami International & Comparative Law Review.
Currently, Stephanie is the Vice Chair of the Task Force for IMPOWR, the American Bar Association’s International Models Project for Women’s Rights. In her introductory post below, Stephanie introduces that project.
Stephanie also serves on the board of directors for Janus Institute for Justice and is is the co-founder of the Food For Life Network AIDS Marathon/Half-Marathon, which benefits a nonprofit that delivers groceries and meals to needy South Floridians living with HIV/AIDS.

Fannie Lou Hamer

As have other IntLawGrrls, Stephanie dedicates her post today to Fannie Lou Hamer, the civil rights leader and voting rights activist who born died in 1977, at age 59, in her home state of Mississippi. As IntLawGrrls' prior posts indicate, Hamer helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, opposed the Vietnam War, and was active in the Democratic Party. She's renowned for a quote that also appears on her tombstone:

'I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.'

Heartfelt welcome!