UA Orman-Harris Lecture March 11 to Focus on Privacy and Consumers

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Patricia Faley Kachura, vice president of ethics and consumer affairs for the Direct Marketing Association in Washington, D.C., will present “Privacy: The Public Policy Issue of the Decade” for the 2004 Orman-Harris Lecture, March 11 at 2 p.m., in 104 Doster Hall on The University of Alabama campus.

The lecture, sponsored by the UA College of Human Environmental Sciences, is free and open to the public. A reception will immediately follow.

Kachura has led the DMA, a 5,000-member organization, in adopting the Privacy Promise to American Consumers and has developed numerous industry education programs and seminars on privacy issues. She has also developed several industry resources including privacy policy generators, which comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

Kachura received the Distinguished Member Award from the D.C. Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business.

Under Kachura’s leadership, DMA has received two “Excellence in Consumer Education” awards from the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators for its “cyber savvy” publications that educate children and older adults on Internet issues.

Prior to working at DMA, Kachura was vice president of consumer affairs at American Express Co. located in Washington, D.C., and before that she was vice president of public responsibility at American Express in New York.

During 1993, she served as Chairman of the Clinton Administration Working Group on Privacy for the National Information Infrastructure Task Force. For 12 years, Kachura held a number of key positions at the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs, a federal government agency.

The Orman-Harris Lecture was established by the late Mildred Brown Davis to promote the professional development of The College of Human Environmental Sciences faculty and to enrich the quality of its academic programs.

In the late 1940’s, Davis received her graduate degree from the College and in 1981 was recognized as one of its outstanding graduates. Davis asked that the lectureship honor the memory of two distinguished educators and professionals, Elizabeth Carmichael Orman and Agnes Ellen Harris.

For more information, contact Jan Brakefield, coordinator of college relations, UA College of Human Environmental Sciences, at 205/348-8132 or jbrakefi@ches.ua.edu.