November 17, 2025
The 9th Annual IWF Georgia Member Signature Event:
Reception & Dinner with Keynote Speaker
Featuring: Nontombi Naomi Tutu moderated by Natosha Reid Rice
Location: Southern Company Headquarters
Timeline:
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm New Member Orientation & Reception (Invitation only)
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm Cocktail Reception
6:30 pm - 7:00 pm Seated Dinner
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Program
About Our Speaker:
The Rev. Nontombi Naomi Tutu knew from early in life that the one thing she would never be is a priest. She has always said, “I have my father’s nose, I do not want his job” but life had other plans...
After years spent as a development consultant, educator and race and gender activist she accepted her call to ordained ministry. She is an Episcopal priest who most recently was Associate Rector at All Saints, Beverly Hills.
The challenges of growing black and female in apartheid South Africa have been the foundation of Naomi’s life as an activist for human rights. Those experiences taught her that our whole human family loses when we accept situations of oppression, and how the teaching and preaching hate and division injure us all.
Rev. Tutu is the third child Archbishop Desmond and Nomalizo Leah Tutu. She was born in South Africa and had the opportunity to live in many communities and countries. She was educated in Swaziland, the US and England, and has divided her adult life between South Africa and the US. Growing up the ‘daughter of …’ has offered Naomi Tutu many opportunities and challenges in her life. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges she has struggled with is the call to ministry. This call refused to be silenced, even as she carried her passion for justice into other fields, the call to preach and serve as an ordained clergyperson continued to tug at her. Finally, in her 50’s she responded to the call and went to seminary.
Her professional experience ranges from being a development consultant in West Africa, to being program coordinator for programs on Race and Gender and Gender-based Violence in Education at the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town. In addition, Rev. Tutu has taught at the University of Hartford, University of Connecticut and Brevard College in North Carolina. She served as Program Coordinator for the historic Race Relations Institute at Fisk University and was a part of the Institute’s delegation to the World Conference Against Racism in Durban.
She started her public speaking as a college student at Berea College in Kentucky in the 1970’s when she was invited to speak at churches, community groups and colleges and universities about her experiences growing up in apartheid South Africa. Since that time, she has become a much sought-after speaker to groups as varied as business associations, professional conferences, elected officials and church and civic organizations. She currently resides in Atlanta where she is a priest associate at All Saint's Episcopal.
About our Moderator:
Natosha Reid Rice is Habitat for Humanity International’s first Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer and is leading the development and the execution of Habitat’s global strategy for diversity, equity and inclusion.
In her previous role as Associate General Counsel, Natosha initiated and managed financing programs and strategies to generate sources of capital to enable Habitat affiliates to build affordable housing with families throughout the U.S. In addition to her work at Habitat, Natosha served as an Associate Pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA for 11 years before joining All Saints’ Episcopal Church as Minister for Public Life.
Prior to joining Habitat, she practiced law in the commercial real estate practices of Alston & Bird LLP, in Atlanta, Georgia and at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison in New York City.
Natosha is passionate about providing a voice to the voiceless and opportunities to communities that have been historically disadvantaged and serves on the boards of the global Harvard Alumni Association’s Awards Committee, the Harvard Alumni Association Executive Committee, Goodwill of North Georgia, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, The Redress Movement and Westminster Schools. She has also been actively involved in efforts to pass legislation and policies to protect victims of human sex trafficking in Georgia, such as the passage of the Safe Harbor/Rachel’s Law in 2015.
Additionally, she is a highly regarded keynote speaker and workshop facilitator and delivered her talk “If We Are More Alike Than Unalike, Then…” for TEDx Centennial Park Women.
Natosha received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. in Government with honors from Harvard/Radcliffe College. Natosha is married to Corey Rice and they are the proud parents of Kayla, Malachi and Caleb.
History of IWF Georgia's Signature Event:
In 2017, we started our annual Signature Event to celebrate the 30th year of IWF Georgia - kicking off with one of IWF Georgia’s founding members, Mrs. Rosalynn Carter, Former 1st Lady of the United States; followed in 2018 with Keisha Lance Bottoms, the 60th Mayor of Atlanta; 2019 with Stacey Abrams, Former Member of the Georgia House of Representatives; our virtual keynote in 2020 with Carol Tomé, CEO of UPS and fellow IWF Georgia member; 2021 with Head of Science for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Cori Bargmann; in 2022 we heard from Civil Rights Activist, and Founder, President and CEO of the Trumpet Awards Foundation, Ms. Xernona Clayton, and in 2023 Sally Yates, Former United States Deputy Attorney General was our featured speaker. We continued our annual tradition each November and again in 2024 for the 8th annual Signature Event we hosted an exciting speaker, Roz Brewer, former COO of Starbucks and CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance who was moderated by Virginia Hepner.
