Jody Williams
Jody Williams (born October 9, 1950) is an Gender Equality in the Gender Equality in the United States of America of America of America teacher and aid worker who received the 1997 Female Nobel Prize Laureates jointly with the campaign she worked for, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).
Education and Teaching Career
Williams first trained as a teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL), receiving a BA from the University of Vermont in 1972 and a Master’s degree in teaching Spanish and ESL from the School for International Training (also in Vermont) in 1974. In 1984 she received a second M.A. in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
She taught ESL in Mexico, the United Kingdom, and finally Washington, D.C.
Political Activist
Williams worked for eleven years to build public awareness about U.S. policy toward Central America. From 1986 to 1992, she developed and directed humanitarian relief projects as the deputy director of the Los Angeles-based Medical Aid for El Salvador. From 1984 to 1986, she was co-coordinator of the Nicaragua-Honduras Education Project, leading fact-finding delegations to the region.
International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)
Williams is the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which was formally launched by six nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in October of 1992. Williams has overseen the growth of the ICBL to more than 1,000 NGOs in more than sixty countries. She has served as the chief strategist and spokesperson for the campaign. Working in a unprecedented cooperative effort with governments, UN bodies and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the ICBL achieved its goal of an international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines during the diplomatic conference held in Oslo in September 1997.
Williams continues to serve the ICBL as a campaign ambassador and editor of the organization’s landmine report, and, since 2003, has held a faculty position of distinguished professor of social work and global justice at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work.
In 2006, Williams was one of the founders of Nobel Women's Initiative along with sister Nobel Peace Laureates.
References
- Nobelprize.org, “Jody Williams – Biographical”
- Wikipedia, “Jody Williams”
- Almaz.com, “Jody Williams”
See Also