Biography 
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the first democratically elected female president of Liberia. Under the National Transitional Government of Liberia, she was chair of the country’s Governance and Reform Commission from 2003 to 2005. From 2001 to 2003, President Johnson Sirleaf served as chair of the board of directors of the Open Society Institute in West Africa, establishing a society marked by functioning democracy, full civic participation, good governance, and the rule of law. She spent five years as assistant administrator and director of the United Nations Development Programme’s Regional Bureau for Africa. With a background in finance, President Johnson-Sirleaf served as president of the Liberia Bank for Development and Investment and as minister of finance; she was one of only four government ministers to survive the coup d’état that took place in 1980. She later represented Liberia at the African Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. President Johnson Sirleaf has served as a board member for the International Crisis Group and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. In 1999, the Organization of African Unity named her and six others to a body that investigated the 1994 Rwandan genocide. She is a founding member of the International Institute for Women in Political Leadership and a recipient of the African Women of Substance Award. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. (03.2006)
Read her Spotlight Read more about this Network member:
Johnson Sirleaf Tapped for Top U.S. Civilian Award
allAfrica.com
October 29, 2007
Ellen to Receive Africare Award
allAfrica.com
October 10, 2007
Op-Ed by Swanee Hunt: "'Ma Ellen' is Delivering Liberia"
By Swanee Hunt, Boston Globe
March 8, 2007
Liberian President Visits Rwanda, Encourages Women Parliamentarians
By Cathy Majtenyi, Voice of America
February 22, 2007
Lift Liberia's Debt Burden
By Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Paul Wolfowitz, Wall Street Journal
February 13, 2007
Liberians Love Their Iron Lady, For Now
by Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times
January 25, 2007Liberia's Market Women Test President's Promise
by Ruthie Ackerman, Women's eNews
January 7, 2007