Jody Williams

In an unprecedented cooperative effort with governments, UN bodies and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Williams served as a chief strategist and spokesperson for the ICBL, which she developed from two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with a staff of one – herself – to an international powerhouse of 1,300 NGOs in ninety countries.

Since 2007, Williams has been the Sam and Cele Keeper Professor in Peace and Social Justice in the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston. Before that she had been a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Global Justice at the College since 2003.

In November 2004, after discussions with Iranian Peace Laureates Dr. Shirin Ebadi and Professor Wangari Maathai of Kenya, Williams established the Nobel Women’s Initiative which was launched in January 2006. Williams has since served as its Chair. This initiative brought together six of the female Peace Laureates, the women seek to use their influence to promote the work of women working for peace with justice and equality. (Aung San Suu Kyi is an honorary member.)

Professor Williams continues to be recognized for her contributions to human rights and global security. She is the recipient of fifteen honorary degrees, among other recognitions. In 2004, in its first such listing, she was named by Forbes magazine as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world. She has twice been recognized as a "Woman of the Year" by Glamour magazine – along with other luminaries such as Senator Hillary Clinton, Katie Couric, Barbara Walters, and other female Nobel Peace laureates.

Williams served as the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) from early 1992 until February 1998. Before that work, she spent eleven years on various projects related to the wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador, where, according to the Encyclopedia of Human Rights, she "spent the 1980s performing life-threatening human rights work."

From its small beginning and official launch in 1992, Williams and the ICBL dramatically achieved the campaign's goal of an international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines during a diplomatic conference held in Oslo in September 1997. The Ottawa Treaty that banned land-mines is credited to her and the ICBL. Three weeks later, she and the ICBL were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At that time, she became the tenth woman – and third American woman – in its almost hundred-year history to receive the Prize.

Williams earned a Master in International Relations from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (a division of Johns Hopkins University) in Washington, D.C. (1984), an MA in teaching Spanish and English as a second language from the School for International Training (now SIT Graduate Institute) in Brattleboro, Vermont (1976), and a BA from the University of Vermont (1972).

Jody Williams (born October 9, 1950) is an American political activist known for her work in banning anti-personnel landmines, her defense of human rights (especially those of women), and her efforts to promote new understandings of security in today's world. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work toward the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines.