Leymah Gbowee

2011 Nobel Peace Laureate

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

She is the founder of Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa (in Monrovia, Liberia) and Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa-USA (in New York City, USA) and current President of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa.

She currently serves as Executive Director of the Women, Peace and Security Program at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Ms. Gbowee is 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 is 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 & 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 a Doctor of Laws honoris causa.