heraawards

First Nominee

Leonor Stjepic

is an award-winning social enterprise entrepreneur,

CEO and mentor

Leonor Stjepic is an award-winning social enterprise entrepreneur, CEO and mentor.

She has spent a third of her professional life in the private sector and two thirds working with NGOs. However, she has been involved in the not-for-profit sector for much longer; at the age of 18 she co-founded the Amnesty International Working Group for Children both campaigning for children who were victims of

torture or imprisoned and successfully lobbying Amnesty to make it part of their mandate.

First Nominee

Rebecca Alban Hoffberger

Founder, Director, and Principal Curator

American Visionary Art Museum

Rebecca Alban Hoffberger is the founder, director and principal curator of the American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM). Her extraordinary vision for the museum was promptly recognized in 1998 by The Urban Land Institute, with its coveted National Award for Excellence, making AVAM the first museum ever to be so recognized by the organization. It was quickly followed by her election to the Baltimore City Chamber of Commerce in 1999. She was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame and awarded the President’s Award of the Maryland YWCA in 2006. She holds Honorary Doctorates from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Stevenson University, McDaniel College, and the Pennsylvania College of Art, as well as Loyola College’s highest civic honor, the Andrew White Award.

Photo credit: Chris Myers

First Nominee

Michael A. Schmidt

Ph.D. Molecular Medicine, Neuroscience;

Human Performance in Extreme Environments

CEO & Chief Scientific Officer │ Sovaris Aerospace

Dr. Michael A. Schmidt is among those leading the advancement of precision medicine in human spaceflight. His clinical and research work is focused on multi-scale analytics derived from genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and microbiomics. This includes involvement in the NASA Twins Study of One Year in Space, and forthcoming Lunar and Mars expeditions.

First Nominee

Dr Arnaud Ruel

Always tempted by humanitarian activities, Dr Arnaud Ruel starts a formation in management and administration at the school of politic Sciences in Paris/France

At the same time, he tries to go to China and India for practices in Humanitarian Medicine. During this time, he was also in Cambodja and Vietnam, where he completed written work in Human Medicine, as a general practicer. Then he went to Thailand where he studied another practice Wat Po ( ostheopatie- kyropractie- kinesiology)

First Nominee

Zainab Salbi

Humanitarian, Author, and Media Personality

Oprah Winfrey named her as one of 25 women changing the world to People Magazine (2015), President Clinton named her as one of the 21st Century heroes to Harper’s Bazaar (2011) and Foreign Policy Magazine named her as one of the top 100 Global Thinkers (2016).

At the age of 23, Zainab founded Women for Women International, a grassroots humanitarian and development organization dedicated to helping women survivors of wars rebuild their lives. Under her leadership as the organization’s CEO (1993-2011), the organization grew from helping 30 women upon its inception to over 460 000 women in 8 conflict areas leading to a distribution of more than $140 million dollars in aid and loans, it has impacted more than 1.7 million family members.

First Nominee

Francisco Piyãko

from the Ashaninka people

The son of rubber tree Dona Piti and the indigenous Antônio Piyãko, head of Apiwtxa village, Francisco and the brothers represent the union of two traditional Acrean peoples in the political and social struggle.

Francisco as the elder one, was always at the forefront of the search for organization and strengthening of his people. United, the Ashaninkas have gone through several phases and currently manage their territory fully, in a traditional way of life and in harmony with the forest.

First Nominee

Filsan Abdullahi

Minister of Women, Children and Youth in Ethiopia

H.E Ms. Filsan Abdullahi is the Minister of Women, Children and Youth in Ethiopia. She was appointed on March 12, 2020 at the age of 29 making her the youngest person to hold a cabinet position in the country.