Awards

Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation has been awarding women and men for their work against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and other types of violence against women and girls since 2015. The purpose of the Global Woman Awards is to recognize women, men, and students who use their talents and professional attributes to help in the campaign to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and support other women’s interests, globally. If you wish to nominate someone for one of the categories, or nominate yourself, please complete the nomination form below and submit it to us. Our committee will review your submission and contact you, the nominator. As the awardees are chosen and confirmed, they will be posted to this page. To nominate someone for a 2024 Global Woman Award, please complete the attached form NOMINATE and submit.

Our 2023 Award Categories

Lifetime Achievement – Madam Fatoumata Kande-Kouyate

Fatoumata Kande-Kouyate is the President and Founder of the 501c3 non-profit organization, Inter-African Committee-USA. Mrs. Kouyate is Guinean born and raised. She did her primary and secondary schooling through the different four regions of Guinea. A graduate of the Gamal Abdel Nasser University in Conakry, she was a high school teacher of French literature, and a student orientation advisor. With her husband, she founded the Coordination Unit on Traditional Harmful Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children(CPTAEF), then went on to create the branch of the Inter- African Committee in the U.S.(IAC-USA) working with other organizations, governments, communities, and religious leaders to educate immigrant families about the consequences of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and to assist victims. One of the successful activities of her current organization is the launching of a one-day camp for community children called “Vacances Sans Excision” (“Summer without Cutting”). Fatoumata has received several awards for her hard work and dedication to ending harmful traditions affecting the lives of women and children, but most importantly to end FGM.

Lisa C. Bruch Woman of the Year – F.A. Cole

An author, advocate, mentor, and poetess, F.A. Cole is also a survivor of gender-based violence, who mentors other survivors of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Cole’s advocacy is not limited to eradicating FGM. She is a spokesperson for clitoral restorative surgery and continues to share her experience with national and international audiences. Cole started a sanitary napkin drive in 2017 to help adolescent girls from financially challenged communities in Sierra Leone, West Africa remain in school during their menstrual cycle. Known for her tenacity and not shying from issues considered controversial by most, her passion and empathetic nature are some of her strengths that set her apart. In November 2022, Cole introduced “Project Read a Book a Month.” Reading is not popular among children in Sierra Leone therefore, she and her team are working on building libraries in communities to introduce the importance of and encourage the art of reading. Widows and orphans are dear to Cole, which is why she has embarked on a project of building her first orphanage in Freetown in collaboration with the FA Cole Foundation, a registered, USA based 501(c)(3) not for profit organization. Working with legislators in the United States on FGM as well training law enforcement and school administrators are a few of the many hats she enjoys wearing.

Advocacy – Caitlin LeMay

Caitlin LeMay, LCSW is the Director of The U.S.  End FGM/C Network. Caitlin has been working in the gender-based violence movement for over a decade. Caitlin’s experience includes direct service counseling to survivors of trauma, though her true passion remains in gender-based violence prevention. She enjoys thinking creatively on ways to engage communities in prevention work and identifying out-of-the-box strategies to broaden the conversation on gender-based violence prevention. Through this reputation, she has become an internationally recognized expert on gender-based prevention and systems change. As a Licensed Certified Social Worker (LCSW), she is uniquely able to bridge the gap between direct clinical services and systems change, ensuring that the voices of those most impacted by violence are always centered in intervention and prevention services. 

Education / Training – Dr. Krishna Patel

Dr. Krishna Patel is a Lead Survey and Research Analyst at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). At NACCHO, she leads research projects on numerous public health needs that support local public health across the U.S. Krishna received her BSPH from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, MPH from the University of California, Berkeley, and recently completed her DrPH from George Washington University. During the DrPH program, Krishna focused her dissertation on quantitatively exploring impacts of national laws against FGM/C in Senegal and Kenya. She also led aspects of research, analysis, and development for virtual educational toolkits on FGM/C tailored to the needs of different communities such as healthcare providers and faith leaders. Previously, Krishna has worked in public health, both globally and domestically, spanning topics such as gender-based violence prevention in India, school-based health education for girls in Tanzania, and responsive and equitable healthcare in areas of California. She has a deep-rooted passion for addressing health and social inequities in communities by advancing education, research, and practice in public health. Krishna is from rural North Carolina and is now enjoying her time living in Washington DC. She likes baking and cooking, helps manage a local yoga studio, and has an adorable orange tabby cat named Gatsby. 

Survivor Activist – Jennifer Hawkins

Jennifer, more commonly known as Jenny or Jen to her friends and colleagues is an American survivor of female genital mutilation (FGM). According to Jenny, she was only five years old when she was taken by plane on a mysterious journey, but she does not recall exactly the destination. It was on this journey that Jenny experienced FGM.  After Jenny’s older sister predeceased her, she decided to do something that would honor her, and other women living with the consequences of FGM and other harmful practices on women and girls. Although Jenny does not physically resemble how survivors of FGM are perceived by society and is not from a known practicing country, she is very much a survivor of FGM. Jenny, a registered nurse (RN), was a leading voice in the successful campaign to get the Kentucky legislature to ban FGM in that state. The bill, referred to as “Jenny’s Law” was passed in 2021, making Kentucky the 38th U.S. state to have the practice of FGM criminalized. Since the “Jenny Law”, Jennifer Hawkins has been a champion for other survivors of FGM in several central and southern U.S. states, as she raises awareness to those women, calling themselves the “Uncounted”. The Uncounted are Caucasian and African American survivors of FGM  born in the United States but have never been counted and included in the statistics here in the U.S. and abroad. She was a surprise guest speaker in 2022 at the Walk to End FGM, when she stunned the crowd by admitting that she is a survivor of FGM.

Survivor Activist – Sunshine Chantal Bayor

Ngoltoingar Chantal Bayor was born in Chad, Africa. She is a survivor of Female Genital Mutilation and an asylum seeker. Bayor Chantal is the mother of an 18-year-old boy. Ngoltoingar is currently completing her master’s degree in human Rights at the Catholic University of America. She is employed as the United Nations Foundation Senior Associate, Donor Operations, Finance. Ngoltoingar has more than ten years of experience in marketing and sales prior to coming to the United States 2014). Ms. Chantal Bayor is an active member of the European Union Network to EndFGM and the US End FGM/C Network. As part of her advocacy work she published a book (in French) on Female Genital Mutilation -- L’obscurité sous le Soleil (Edilivre, 2016) and Darkness under the Sun (Amazon-2023). In 2018 she founded a non-profit organization “Child-abuse | Sunshine Girls Usa | Washington” 2023 in the United States. She also collaborated to create a song on FGM in 2018 “No Cutting but Yes to Education” in Chad. As a survivor she has testified at the Justice Department (2015), the Catholic University of America (2016, 2017, 2019; the World Bank (2022), UNFPA (2019), and the U.S. Congress.

Student Ambassador – Grace E. Olander

As a recent Honors Graduate from Chantilly High School in Fairfax Virginia, Grace Elizabeth Olander will continue her education at Fordham University in the Fall of 2023 majoring in International Studies on the Pre-Law Track. During her time at the Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation Ms. Olander organized a sanitary pad campaign collecting over 4,000 sanitary napkins for girls in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Senegal. Additionally, Ms. Olander has met with Foreign Advisors discussing potential educational programs to promote access of education to boys and girls in West African countries. Alongside Ms. Olander’s ambassadorial efforts, she has developed close ties with local organizations at Chantilly High School including the Red Cross, Société Honoraire de Français, and Key Club where she gave educational presentations on FGM and formed partnerships to sponsor the Sanitary Pad Campaign to optimize contributions. Ms. Olander has also worked in close partnership with Ms. Angela Peabody in developing the Public Speaking Workshop to help enable women to reclaim their voice. Ms. Olander plans to continue her dedication and promise to advance the status of women around the world in her forthcoming years at university.

Student Ambassador – Esther Park

Esther Park is a meticulous and detail-oriented individual with excellent organizational and communication skills. Fluent in both English and Korean, Esther served as teacher and caretaker to a group of twelve rising kindergarteners, including students with disabilities and medical conditions at the Korean Presbyterian Church in Northern Virginia in the summer of 2021. During the same summer, she supervised other volunteers, developed age-appropriate lesson plans, and organized student records, while directly communicating with parents. Esther graduated this June with honors from Chantilly High School in Virginia and plans to pursue further studies in Political Science and Criminal Justice at George Mason University. She was given the opportunity to participate in the Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation (GWPF) internship program during the 2023 school year. During her internship, Esther helped organized a sanitary pad campaign collecting over 4,000 sanitary napkins for girls in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Senegal. She represented GWPF at a meeting with one of their long-time sponsors. She also represented GWPF and its partner, Inter-African Committee USA at the Model U.N. Conference held at the State Department in April. Esther is a superb violinist with ten years of performing experience, including 4 years of playing for her high school Chamber Orchestra.

Donald A. Strong Man of the Year – Dr. Mamady Kamara

As an expert in organizational leadership and international development, and an advocate of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted in 2015, he has a passion for advancing powerful initiatives, particularly gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. While completing his Doctorate in Organizational Leadership (DOL), he researched barriers to women’s economic empowerment and proposed policy priorities to facilitate economic progress. As an Executive Board Member of Inter-African Committee USA (IAC-USA), a nonprofit and nongovernmental organization, that partners with the United Nations and many other global organizations, Dr. Kamara has been dedicated to furthering the rights of immigrant women and girls to freedom from harmful traditional practices of their native countries and cultures, including early forced marriage, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and other violent and injurious practices while promoting the adoption of beneficial traditions and rites of passage. He is a former board member of Montgomery Country African Affairs Advisory Group. Dr. Kamara is bilingual, speaking fluently English and French. He has recently completed his Doctoral Studies in Organizational Leadership (DOL) at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. He also holds a World Executive Master’s in Business Administration (WEMBA) & Cybersecurity from George Washington University School of Business, and a Certification in Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies from Harvard Business School.

Policymaking / Legal – Mariya Taher

Mariya Taher, an award-winning social activist, has worked in gender-based violence for nearly fifteen years in teaching, research, policy, program development, and direct service. She began her career working at domestic violence organizations such as Asian Women’s Shelter and W.O.M.A.N., Inc., Jane Doe Inc., and Saheli. In 2015, she cofounded Sahiyo, a transnational organization with the mission to empower Asian and other communities to end female genital cutting (FGC). In 2018, Mariya received the Human Rights Storytellers Award from the Muslim American Leadership Alliance for her innovative approach to using storytelling to engage communities in abandoning FGC. Mariya has been instrumental in bringing FGM/C to the forefront in the U.S., sitting on the steering committee for the US End FGM/C Network, supporting several states to pass policy addressing FGC, and serving as an expert consultant for the 2021 Department Of Justice - Office of Victims of Crime Addressing Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting technical assistance project. In 2022, she also served as program strategist for SOAR’s transformative storytelling project for South Asian survivors of gender-based violence. Currently, she is a 2023 VALOR LEAP fellow. Mariya is also an extensive writer and has contributed articles and stories to NPR, HuffPost, The New Social Worker, The Fair Observer, Brown Girl Magazine, Solstice Literary Magazine, The Express Tribune, The San Francisco Examiner, and more. She graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University and holds a Master in Social Work from San Francisco State University and a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara in Religious Studies.

Medical / Health – Dr. Nettie Johnson

Dr. Nettie Johnson was born in Liberia, West Africa. She is an overseas trained medical practitioner with 20 years’ experience working abroad in Africa and also as a public and mental health professional in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Johnson is passionate about disease prevention and addressing health disparities for unserved communities especially African and Caribbean immigrant communities. Working as a public health professional at the African Cultural Alliance of North America (ACANA), Dr. Johnson serves as the Executive Director of Health and Leads several federal, state, foundations and locally funded projects including the DOJ Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) Project and provides support to the No One Left Behind Project of the Promise/ United Way a program which focuses on poverty reduction for residents of Philadelphia. She obtained her medical degree from the A.M Dogliotti College of Medicine, University of Liberia, West Africa, and a Master’s of Public Health (MPH) from Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health, Philadelphia, PA. Her Certifications include Certified in Public Health (CPH), Grant writing and Mental Health Dual Diagnosis (NADD-CC). Dr. Johnson has co-authored several scientific papers and public health research studies including FGM/C, COVID-19, and Hepatitis B in African immigrants. Dr. Johnson’s passion for humanity extends beyond her role as a public health professional. She serves as a physician of the Liberia Medical Mission, which offers free medical and mental health services to West African Countries. Additionally, she serves on several Boards including the Board of Limited Jurisdiction of the St. Martha School, Philadelphia, PA, WOAR, Philadelphia Center for Sexual Violence and Rescue Children’s Heart Foundation of Liberia, West Africa. Dr. Johnson resides in Philadelphia, PA with her family and is an avid lover of museums, reading, musicals, volunteering, and tennis.

Please register for the 2023 Global Woman Awards and the recording will be sent to you after September 30, 2023.

2022 Awardees

Survivor Activist: Comfort Dondo

Donald A. Strong Man of the Year: Mohammad Chappalwala

Medical / Health: Mariama Diallo

Education / Training: Dr. Nicole Warren

Advocacy: Lola Ibrahim

Policy Making / Legal: Hon. Dame Pauline Tallen

Lisa C. Bruch Woman of the Year: Dr. Crista Johnson Agbakwu

Lifetime Achievement: Dr. Joanna Vergoth

Student Ambassadors: Janay Johnson & Tetua-Ra’a Espere

2021 Awardees

Survivor Activist: Renee Bergstrom, Ed.D

Man of the Year: Imam Mohamed Hagmagid

Medical / Training: Dr. Jacqueline K. Hoang

Education / Training: Deborah Jackson, Ed.D

Advocacy: Sayydah Garrett

Policy Making / Legal: Lyric Thompson

Lisa C. Bruch Woman of the Year: Khadijah Abdullah

Lifetime Achievement: Shelby R. Quast

Student Ambassadors: Charbene Williams

2020 Awardees

Lifetime Achievement - U.S. Congressman Gerald E. Connolly

Lisa C. Bruch Woman of the Year Award - U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee

Advocacy - Purity Soinato Oiyie

Education / Training - Donald A. Strong, BS, MBA, MPH

Survivor Activist - Ifrah Ahmed

Student Ambassador - Marin Hoang

Man of the Year - Alexander Adams

Policy-Making / Legal - Jeanne Smoot

Medical / Health (Shared with Dr. Jehan El-Bayoumi) - Dr. Sohail Rana

Medical / Health (Shared with Dr. Sohail Rana) - Dr. Jehan (Gigi) El-Bayoumi

2019 Awardees

Advocacy - Djessou Kouyate

Policy Making - Representative Thomas P. Murt, Pennsylvania

Survivor Activist - Maryum Saifee

Education/Training - Dr. Ghada Khan

Legal - Attorney Sandra Roland

Medical/Health - Dr. Willa Jones

Student Ambassador - Edwige Dossou Kitti

Lisa C. Bruch Woman of the Year - Monalisa Dugue

Man of the Year - Dr. Morissanda Kouyate

2018 Awardees

Advocacy - Susan McLucas (1st Place); Adriana Kaplan (2nd Place)

Policy Making - Giselle Portenier (1st Place); Sarah Champion & Heather Sirocki (2nd Place tie)

Survivor Activist - Severina Lemachokoti (1st Place); Marie-Claire Moraldo (2nd Place)

Education/Training - Dr. Karen McDonnell & Hazel Barrett (1st Place tie); Barbara Nowak (2nd Place)

Literary - Kameel Ahmady (1st Place); Ramah Abdulaleem (2nd Place)

Legal - Ayodele Gansallo (1st Place); Dexter Dias (2nd Place)

Medical/Health - Dr. Mawaheb El-Mouelhy (1st Place); Dr. Ranit Mishori (2nd Place)

Media - David Indeje

Student Ambassador - Maria Akhter (1st Place); Fatu Drame (2nd Place)

Person of the Year - Dr. Beryl Dorsett (1st Place); Joetta Brown (2nd Place)

2017 Awardees

Advocacy - Arifa Nasim

Policy Making - Senator Richard H. Black

Survivor Activist - Mariya Taher

Education/Training - Edna Adan Ismail

Literacy - Tobe Levin Freifrau von Gleichen

Legal - Linda Weil-Curiel

Medical/Health - Dr. Pierre Foldes & Ms. Frederique Martz (Shared)

Media - Maggie O'Kane

Student Ambassador - Adama Diaby

2016 Awardees

Literary - Hilary Burrage

Advocacy - Susan Gibbs

Advocacy - Elisabeth Wilson

Advocacy - Sherelle Carper

Media - Andrea Roane

Media - Diane Walsh

Media - Missy Crutchfield

Artistic Advocacy - Godfrey Williams-Okorodus

Artistic Advocacy - Kristin Hoffmann

Legal - Susan L. Masling

Student Ambassador - Amani Sade DeShield

Education - Sarah Sisaye

Survivor Activist - Yatta Donsii

2015 Awardees

Medical - Dr. Marci Bowers

Legal - Shelby Quast

Leadership Advocacy - Fatoumata Kande

Leadership Advocacy - Martha Allen

Survivor Activist - Jaha Dukurah (The Gambia)

Survivor Activist - Mariam Bojang (The Gambia)

Survivor Activist - Aissata Camara (Guinea)

Survivor Activist - Eva Flomo (Liberia)

Survivor Activist - Annie Wright (Liberia)

Survivor Activist - Hibo Wardere (Somalia)

Survivor Activist - Francess Cole (Sierra Leone)

Donor Advocacy - Lisa C. Bruch