Ms. Ekenia Chifamba, a 2019 alumna of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP), is a girls rights activist and the Founding Director of Shamwari Yemwanasikana. Shamwari Yemwanasikana (which is Shona for “Exclusive Friend of the Girl Child”) is a community based, non-governmental organization in Zimbabwe that seeks to promote the rights and empowerment of the girl child in the home, school and community. This blog post is part of a series highlighting and celebrating women leaders in our network during Women’s History Month. Who is or has been a female inspiration, mentor or hero figure to...

Ms. Musenge Musomali is a 2018 IVLP alumna, and the founder and Executive Director of the Liberated Hearts Foundation (LIHEF), focused on promoting effective and interactive dialogue with communities on issues related to gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health and rights. She is also the author of the book Glow After Pain which draws on her personal experience with gender-based violence and its effects. This blog post is part of a series highlighting and celebrating women leaders in Meridian’s network during Women’s History Month. Who is or was a female inspiration, mentor or hero figure to you? My female...

The following post was contributed by Meridian President and Chief Operating Officer, Lee Satterfield, who sat down with Global Communications Fellow Abby Haley to discuss the women who have inspired her path to leadership and how she leads by example for other women today. This post is part of the HERspectives series honoring Meridian’s leading ladies in Women’s History Month.   Who are your female inspirations, mentors and heroes? Well, I’m one of the lucky ones because I have so many wonderful women in my life. Throughout my career, I have been incredibly fortunate to have truly inspirational women...

The following post was contributed by Madlyn Kaufman, the Senior Cultural Programs Associate at Meridian. It is part of the HERspectives series honoring women in diplomacy during Women’s History Month. Eleanor Lansing Dulles, also known as “the Mother of Berlin” was born in Watertown, New York in 1895. Eleanor comes from generations of diplomats which include her grandfather, John Watson Foster, who served as Secretary of State under President Harrison; her oldest brother, John Foster Dulles, who was Secretary of State under President Wilson; and another brother, Allen Welsh Dulles, who served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency...

Helen Eugenie Moore Anderson, called Eugenie, was born in 1909 in Adair, Iowa. She studied at Stephens College in Columbia Missouri, and then at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. In 1929 she transferred to Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she met and married John Pierce Anderson. In 1930, they moved to New York City where Eugenie enrolled at the Institute of Musical Art.  In 1937 Anderson traveled to Europe, where she witnessed “a group of uniformed five-year-old boys stepping in lock step.” She was so moved by the rise of fascism in Germany that she returned to the United States determined to advocate for diplomacy and democracy....