Gbowee’s grassroots movement organizing places her among 12 global thought leaders elevating women’s power and rights
Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee. Photo Credit: Milik Robinson.
On May 28, 2024, Melinda French Gates announced that as the first step in the next chapter of her philanthropy, she is committing $1 billion dollars of additional funding through 2026 to advance women’s power globally.
The Institute on Gender, Law, and Transformative Peace (the Institute) congratulates its Executive Director, Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee, as she has been selected as one of the 12 global thought leaders who French Gates admires in this space. Executive Director Gbowee will partner with French Gates and Pivotal to steward $20 million in grantmaking funds to charitable organizations improving women’s health and well-being. 
Executive Director Gbowee is a peace activist, trained social worker, and women’s rights advocate. 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—earned her the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, and is chronicled in her memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers, and in the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell. As a longstanding advocate and facilitator for peace and justice around the world, Ms. Gbowee’s perspective is grounded in years of grassroot movement organizing and experience. She champions issues raised within movements and at the community level through her global thought leadership and action.
The Institute celebrates this news from Melinda French Gates and the transformative effects it will have on issues of gender justice worldwide, as well as Ms. Gbowee’s continued elevation of grassroots organizations’ leadership and perspectives.
For more information, please view the Pivotal announcement and the university-wide CUNY press release.