Penpa Lhamo comes from a long line of strong women – her grandmother was a serf before the liberation of China's Xizang Autonomous Region, while her mother was among the first generation of Tibetans to receive a formal education. Now, as deputy director of the Xizang Academy of Social Sciences and a PhD advisor at Xizang University, she is organizing a salon on women and development, focusing on the evolution in gender roles. For her, education is not only about knowledge but also social change.