Dr. Alison L. Des Forges

UB faculty member Roger Des Forges, in collaboration with the Alison L. Des Forges Memorial Committee, established the Alison L. Des Forges Memorial Scholarship Fund in 2012 to pay tribute to his late wife, historian and internationally recognized human rights activist Alison L. Des Forges, and the causes she held dear. The scholarships are awarded to Buffalo Public School graduates who demonstrate commitment to focusing their studies on the defense of human rights and social justice. Alison Des Forges died in the crash of Continental Flight 3407 near Buffalo in 2009. As a senior advisor to the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, she documented the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and investigated related issues in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She also was devoted to improving K-12 public education in Buffalo. The MacArthur Foundation awarded her a fellowship in 1999, the year she published her landmark book “Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda.”