New Ambassador: Actress Mamie Gummer
Media Contact: Elizabeth Beresford,
ElizabethB@wrcommission.org or 212.551.3088
ACTRESS MAMIE GUMMER NAMED
WOMEN’S REFUGEE COMMISSION AMBASSADOR
Co-star of new ABC series “Off the Map“ to represent organization
that protects women and children refugees
For Immediate Release
New York City, May 18, 2010—Executive director Carolyn Makinson announced today that award-winning actress Mamie Gummer has agreed to serve as Ambassador for the Women’s Refugee Commission, an organization that works to improve the lives of women, children and adolescent refugees and asylum-seekers.
“Mamie has such grace and a real passion for our issues,” said Makinson. “That’s exactly what we are looking for in an ambassador, and we’re thrilled to have her on board.”
Gummer is no stranger to the Women’s Refugee Commission. Some 10 years ago she interned in the organization’s communications department when she was a high school student. But Gummer’s first official role as Ambassador was May 6 when she presented a 2010 Voices of Courage award to Amalia Guzmán Molina, who fled from El Salvador and spent 16 months in detention in the U.S., then founded Families of the Incarcerated.
“I can’t wait to go on an overseas delegation,” said Gummer. “Four out of five of the world’s 40-plus million displaced people are women, children and young people and I want to see first-hand what the gaps in service are and what we can do about it.”
On the acting front, Gummer is set to co-star this fall in Off the Map, a new medical drama on ABC. According to TV Guide, Mamie Gummer will play Mina Minard, the third in the trio of doctors who leave the U.S. to work in a South American medical clinic.
Raised in rural Salisbury, Connecticut, and schooled at Northwestern, Mamie Gummer is the eldest daughter of actress Meryl Streep and sculptor Don Gummer. She has appeared on screen in Evening, The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, and Taking Woodstock. She made her Broadway debut in 2008 with Les Liaisons Dangereuses and received a 2005 Theatre World Award for her New York stage debut in the Roundabout Theater production Mr. Marmalade, as well as Lucille Lortel Award nominations for The Water's Edge and Uncle Vanya . She appeared in the Emmy Award-winning series John Adams and has just been cast in New York’s Classic Stage Company’s production of Checkhov’s Three Sisters for this fall.
About the Women’s Refugee Commission: Founded in 1989 by
Liv Ullmann and Catherine O’Neill, the Women's Refugee Commission advocates vigorously for laws, policies and programs to improve the lives and protect the rights of refugee and internally displaced women, children and young people, including those seeking asylum—bringing about lasting, measurable change. More at www.womensrefugeecommission.org.