Nicaraguan diplomat and community activist Francisco Campbell, who helped launch a university designed to spur social change and economic development in the ethnically diverse coastal region of Nicaragua, will speak at two DePaul University events April 12 as part of DePaul’s centennial year of events.

Campbell will first address a breakfast gathering from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at the Egan Urban Center, 243 S. Wabash Ave., Suite 9102, on DePaul’s Loop Campus. Later, he will be the guest speaker at a luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in DePaul’s Cultural Center, Room 304 of the Stuart Center, 2311 N. Clifton Ave., on the Lincoln Park Campus.

Campbell, 52, is founding secretary general of the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua (URACCAN) and serves as one of Nicaragua’s elected representatives to the five-nation Central American Parliament. From 1987 to 1990, he was Nicaragua’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Angola, and a representative to the African National Congress. He has held the posts of first secretary and counselor at the Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington, D.C.

During his visit to DePaul, Campbell will describe the lessons he learned mobilizing the human and capital resources needed to establish a new university dedicated to serving a broad-based Caribbean coastal community. Starting in 1993, Campbell began taking the grassroots campaign for a new university to activists around the world.

URACCAN opened the doors to its first class of students in Bluefields, Nicaragua in 1995 and has grown to include three campuses and four branch locations serving six diverse cultural groups. The curriculum is geared toward enhancing students’ ability to plan and execute social and economic development programs for the region, with an emphasis on the fishing, forestry and mining industries. A curriculum in teaching and nursing also is offered.

"Ambassador Campbell has a unique perspective on the university and community relationship," said Bernice Taylor, director of education and research at the Egan Urban Center. "We invited him to speak during our centennial year to learn more about how DePaul and other institutions can have social and economic impact on the community."

During its 100-year history, DePaul has strongly supported community service as one of the institution’s main values. Opened in 1995, the Egan Urban Center seeks opportunities to create collaboration between the university and the community to address critical urban problems, alleviate poverty and promote social justice through teaching, service and scholarship.

Campbell holds master’s and undergraduate degrees in political science from the University of Hawaii, and has taught sociology and political science at colleges in Nicaragua and the United States.

Campbell’s visit is sponsored by DePaul’s Egan Urban Center and co-hosted by the university’s Cultural Center, Center for Latino Research, Center for Culture and History of Black Diaspora and Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. Both events are free and open to the public, but RSVPs are required. For more information and to RSVP, call the Egan Urban Center at 312/362-6000.