The DePaul Women's Center was established in 1995 to provide a supportive environment for women students, staff, faculty and administrators. The Center's first Director was Dr. Harvette Grey (1995-1999) followed by Elsa Saeta (1999-2017), and now Dr. Ann Russo (2017-present).
We are a drop-in center and welcome you to study, write, commiserate, craft, and more. We collaborate with student groups, support student activism, and partner with programs around the university!
We are committed to continuously evolve and re-define our role within the university as the needs of our community shift and change. The center welcomes all genders, sexualities, identities, and life experiences. Our motto is "We all belong here and we will defend each other," a phrase borrowed from the work of Micah Bazant.
Supporting Resilience. We provide space for rest, relaxation, and nourishment amid the daily stresses of life at DePaul and beyond.
Resources and Services. We provide support in assisting students, staff, and faculty to access the resources, services, and information they need to address the issues that face them.
Writing and Creative Arts. We create space to foster people's writing, creativity, and self-expression.
Cultivating Critical Consciousness. We offer programs that build awareness of how people are differentially impacted and implicated within interlocking systems of oppression and privilege.
Building Community. We offer opportunities for people to build relationships and community across our differences, and the power lines that distort them.
Social Responsibility and Leadership. We offer opportunities for people to gain the critical consciousness, knowledge, and skills that foster responsibility and leadership for social change.
Strategy and Action. We offer spaces for people to collectively imagine, practice, engage, and join in creating social change and transformation within DePaul, Chicago, and in the larger world.
Coalition and Alliance. We seek to engage in dialogues and build alliances with departments and programs at DePaul as well as with local, national, and transnational groups committed to progressive social change.
Education and Advocacy. We seek to play a visible educational and advocacy role around gender and other social justice issues within DePaul and the larger Chicago metropolitan area.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to learn about events, continue conversations about women's issues, and broaden our network of students, student organizations, faculty, staff and members of the larger community.