School News
Inaugural Lecture of The Ortner – Unity Program on Family Violence
On Thursday, December 12, 2005, Evelyn Jacobs Ortner delivered the inaugural lecture of The Ortner – Unity Program on Family Violence. The lecture, which took place in Houston Hall at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the five components on which the Ortner – Unity Program was founded.
On May 21, 2004, Evelyn Ortner generously entered into an agreement with the University of Pennsylvania to establish a new interdisciplinary program which addresses domestic violence education, policy, practice, and research. Specific components of the Program include: (1) the creation of a domestic violence resource library housed within the School; (2) a course in intimate violence available to both graduate and undergraduate students; (3) an annual Evelyn Ortner Domestic Violence lectureship; (4) an Evelyn Ortner Fellowship; and (5) a biennial domestic violence symposium.
As the founder of the Unity Group, Inc. – a nonprofit advocacy organization for battered women and their dependent children – Mrs. Ortner was the ideal speaker for this inaugural lecture. She has been widely recognized for her extraordinary contributions to the field of domestic violence, and has received numerous awards, including: the Certificate of Appreciation from the U.S. Department of Justice (1998); a Commending Resolution from the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly (1999); and the Crystal Stair Award from the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania (2004).
The Unity Group, Inc., of which Mrs. Ortner was the Executive Director, was founded in 1989 in Millburn, NJ. It was fully staffed by volunteers and provided a wide array of services, without charge, to hundreds of battered women, locally and nationally, until 2004.