Founder, Campaign to Ban Landmines, and Nobel Laureate
Jody Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work as founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which shared the Peace Prize with her that year.
She’s an outspoken peace activist who struggles to reclaim the real meaning of peace — a concept that goes far beyond the absence of armed conflict and is defined by human security, not national security. Williams believes that working for peace requires dogged persistence and is not for the faint of heart.
Since January of 2006, she has chaired the Nobel Women’s Initiative, which she took the lead in establishing along with her sister Nobel Dr. Shirin Ebadi of Iran. The Initiative uses the prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize and the influence and access of the women Nobel Laureates themselves to support and amplify the voices of women around the world working for sustainable peace with justice and equality.
Williams continues to be recognized for her contributions to human rights and global security. She is the recipient of twenty-one honorary degrees, the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal, Phenomenal Women Award, Olaf Palme Award, among other recognitions.
She holds the Sam and Cele Keeper Endowed Professorship in Peace and Social Justice at the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston where she has been teaching since 2003. With her memoir, My Name is Jody Williams: A Vermont Girl’s Winding Path to the Nobel Peace Prize, released in 2013, she challenges “ordinary” people to be active agents of change.
