Corporate
Spotlight: Women of Coalfire part 2
Ginwan Ali and Sara Webb may come from different backgrounds and cultures, but they share one thing in common: passion for education.
It’s been nearly 50 years since Congress formally recognized the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution with Women’s Equality Day on August 26. In the last half-century, women have made significant strides in the workforce and the world, but still face adversity due to their gender.
In this spotlight series, we recognize some of the inspiring women at Coalfire who have defied countless odds to achieve great success in their respective fields. Two such women are Ginwan Ali and Sara Webb. Ginwan learned from her mother’s example to challenge the status quo for herself and the women in her home country of Sudan, where women still have little opportunity and are targeted by the country’s strict laws. Sara, an advocate for media literacy, created and now shares the tools necessary for media consumers to think critically about the news that surrounds them each day.
STEM trailblazer changes the narrative for Sudanese women
Sudan is one of the worst countries for women’s rights. The women in Sudan have been fighting for women’s rights for over 30 years now. It remains one of the most punitive country with laws that target women specifically, degrading them and hurting their human dignity.
Ginwan’s mother was one of the women who stood for equal rights of women and exercised that by obtaining a post-secondary education in her home country. Igniting that spark in her daughter, Ginwan is now a first-generation graduate from a U.S. university (Go Hokies!) AND has a dual degree. She is the first female in her entire family to go into a STEM field under cybersecurity.
As Sudan continues to fight for women’s rights, Ginwan’s courage, instilled from her mother, paves the way for women to seek education, independence, and have the courage to live life without bounds. Ginwan serves as an example of what it means to be fearless by going into a career field traditionally dominated by men and rising to the challenge and performing her job flawlessly!
Former educator empowers free thinkers through media literacy training
The rise and fall of political powers in this country bring an increasingly volatile news cycle, making it difficult to sort fact from opinion.
Previously as an educator, Sara Webb developed a media literacy curriculum over the course of ten years, teaching high school students how to think critically about the information they consume. Her passion for media literacy led her to collaborate with Ad Fontes Media and utilize their Media Bias Chart with her students. Through the partnership, she honed her skills to rate the news based on bias and reliability and then helped further the organization’s educational materials.
Sara continues to advocate for media literacy everywhere she goes and helps equip educators to teach the future generation on how to analyze the information out there and decide for oneself of what is true, what is just, what is of good report, and what is not.
We are proud of these women for modeling for our younger generations how to challenge the status quo and make lasting change—STEM degrees, literacy advocacy, and all! In the next post, we will dive into the stories of one woman who always found herself as the only woman at the executive table, and another woman who was a 2022 Gold Globee Winner for “Advocate of the year.”