2011 Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist, trained social worker, and women’s rights advocate.

She is the founder and current President of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa. Her foundation provides educational and leadership opportunities to girls, women, and youth in West Africa in order to raise the next generation of peacebuilders and democratic leaders. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Women, Peace, and Security Program at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Ms. Gbowee was the founding head of the Liberia Reconciliation Initiative, and co-founder and former Executive Director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-A). She was also a founding member and former Liberian Coordinator of Women in Peacebuilding Network/West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WIPNET/WANEP). She travels internationally to advocate for human rights and peace and security.

Ms. Gbowee’s leadership of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace — which brought together Christian and Muslim women in a nonviolent movement that played a pivotal role in ending Liberia’s civil war in 2003 — is chronicled in her memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers, and in the award-winning documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell. She holds an M.A. in Conflict Transformation and many honorary doctorate degrees.

Ms. Gbowee is an advisor for numerous organizations. She serves as a member of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation, the World Refugee Council, and the African Women’s Leadership Network. Ms. Gbowee is a member of the prize committees of two major humanitarian awards: the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity and the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize. In 2020, Ms. Gbowee joined the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, a multi-faith committee dedicated to fostering peaceful coexistence through dialogue. Ms. Gbowee was a member of the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council during Canada’s G7 Presidency in 2018 and is an alumna of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals Advocates.

Ms. Gbowee has been named one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy by Apolitical and one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune Magazine.