2021 Recipient
Angela Peabody
Angela Peabody is a humanitarian, author, and educator who has dedicated her life's work to preventing FGM. She is the Executive Director and Founder of the Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation (GWPF), a 501c3 non-profit organization founded on the principles of eliminating violence and injustices against women and girls. Peabody and her organization were instrumental in passing state legislation in Virginia to criminalize FGM and include it in the Family Life Education Curriculum.
In 2019, Peabody was part of the committee that helped craft the "END FGM ACT"—better known as Bill H.R. 6100. Presented by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, the Bill replaced the original 1996 Federal Law against FGM and broadened the scope of prohibited conduct to include attempting, conspiring, facilitating, consenting, and transporting a minor for FGM.
Peabody and GWPF made history when they held the first Walk to End FGM in the United States in 2014. Since, it has become a popular annual event held worldwide. In addition to raising awareness via public events, she led the compilation and writing of educational toolkits on FGM for teachers, nurses, and counselors in school districts throughout the U.S.
Angela Peabody hails from Liberia, where she had a celebrated career as a television journalist in Liberia and worked as the press secretary for the country's first female Minister of Agriculture. She is the first Liberian woman to pen and publish a full-length novel. Her second novel, When the Games Froze, was first released in 2014 and confronted the issue of female genital mutilation. In addition to her nonprofit work, she currently serves as a preceptor to graduate students at the Milken Institute for Public Health at George Washington University.
Angela holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Broadcast Journalism from Columbia University and has been awarded the Women in Media Award, Print Journalism Award, and Impacting Global Lives Award for her lifetime dedication to humanitarianism.