Leymah Gbowee

Leymah Gbowee (@LeymahRGbowee) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her 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. Leymah is a Liberian peace activist, trained social worker, public speaker, and women’s rights advocate.

She also founded the Liberia Reconciliation Initiative, and is a founding member of Women in Peacebuilding/West African Network for Peacebuilding (WIPNET/WANEP). She also co-founded the Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-Africa) to promote cross-national peace-building efforts and transform women’s participation as victims in the crucible of war to mobilized armies for peace.

She is founder and current President of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, which provides educational and leadership opportunities to girls, women and youth in West Africa. Leymah’s memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer and Sex Changed a Nation at War and the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell, about her work in Liberia, are resources frequently cited by women, peace and security practitioners. She is a board member of the Nobel Women’s Initiative.