Memoirist to Give Talk on Her Experience as Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali

WORCESTER, Mass. – Kris Holloway will deliver the annual Katherine A. Henry ’86 Memorial Lecture titled “Lessons from a Midwife in Mali” on April 18 at 4 p.m. in Hogan Suites B/C at the College of the Holy Cross. The talk, free and open to the public, will be followed by a book signing.

Holloway is the author of Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali (Waveland Press, 2006), a critically-acclaimed memoir recalling the two years she spent as an impressionable Peace Corps volunteer in the remote village of Nampossela in Mali, West Africa from 1989 to 1991. The Boston Globe editorial board named the book one of its favorites in a year-end list last year.

Holloway is development associate for the National Priorities Project in Northampton, a non-profit organization that promotes social and economic justice. She has worked with numerous non-profits and educational institutions including the Western Massachusetts Center for Healthy Communities and the Greenbelt Movement International. She holds a master’s in public health from the University of Michigan where she focused her research on maternal and child health.

The lecture series, which is focused on women’s health issues, was endowed by Katherine Henry’s parents, in memory of their daughter who died in 1997. The talk is co-sponsored by Women’s and Gender Studies and the premedical/predental program.