Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
President of Liberia and Nobel Peace Laureate · 1938
Who is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf?
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was born in Monrovia in 1938 to a Gola father and a Kru-German mother. Educated at the College of West Africa before continuing her studies at Madison Business College, the University of Colorado Boulder, and Harvard Kennedy School, where she earned a master's degree in public administration in 1971, she built a career as an economist and public official, serving as Deputy Minister of Finance and then Minister of Finance under President William Tolbert in the 1970s. After Samuel Doe's 1980 coup she went into exile and worked internationally for institutions including the World Bank, Citibank, and the United Nations Development Programme. Returning to Liberian politics after the civil war years, she won the 2005 presidential election and was inaugurated in January 2006 as Africa's first elected female head of state, serving two terms until 2018. Her presidency focused on rebuilding a country devastated by fourteen years of civil conflict, restructuring Liberia's debt, and expanding the role of women in governance and peacebuilding. In 2011 she was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman for their non-violent struggle for women's safety and full participation in peace-building work.
Sources: Nobel Prize Committee, "Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — Biographical" (nobelprize.org) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Ellen Johnson Sirleaf" · United Nations, "Ellen Sirleaf" biography (un.org)