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Women, Law and Leadership: Distinguished Leaders and Advisors

Helping to Move Global and National Policy Development in the field of Women's Leadership and Gender Equality

Distinguished Leaders

  • Mary Robinson, first woman President of Ireland (1990-1997)
  • Julia Gillard, first woman Prime Minister of Australia (2010-2013)
  • Phumzile Mlamabo Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women (2013-present); first woman Deputy President of South Africa (2005-2008)
  • Sisi Khampepe, Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa (2009-present)
  • Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNSECO (2009-2017)
  • Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (2008-2014)
  • Deborah Rhode, Ernest W. McFraland Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
  • Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Roscoe Pound Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Minister of Strategic Affairs, Brazil (2007-2009)
  • Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein, Perry World House Professor of Practice of Law and Human Rights; United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (2014-2018)
  • Melanne Verveer, Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security; first US Ambassador for Global Women's Issues (2009-2013)

  • Nancy Gertner, author of In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate (2011); Judge, US District Court of Massachussetts (1994-2011) 

  • Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; first Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders (2000-2008) 

  • Radhika Coomaraswamy,United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (2006-2012); UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (1994-2003)

  • Zainab Bangura,United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict

  • Sandie Okoro, Senior Vice President and World Bank Group General Counsel

  • Lubna Olayan, President, Suliman S. Olayan Foundation; CEO and Deputy Chairman, Olayan Financing Company (1986-2019)

  • Deborah Rhode, Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law and the Director of the Center on the Legal Profession, Stanford Law School

Senior Academic Advisors

  • Theodore Ruger (Chair), Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law 
  • Cary Coglianese, Edward B. Shils Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science; Director, Penn Program on Regulation
  • Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights
  • Regina Austin, William A. Schnader Professor of Law
  • Beth Simmons, Andrea Mitchell University Professor in Law, Political Science and Business Ethics

  • Maggie Blackhawk, Assistant Professor of Law 

  • Claire Finkelstein, Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy; Director, Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law

  • Serena Mayeri, Professor of Law and History

  • Amy Gadsden, Associate Vice Provost for Global Initiatives; Executive Director of Penn China Initiatives

  • Jacques deLisle, Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law & Professor of Political Science; Director, Center for East Asian Studies

  • Shyam Balganesh, Professor of Law

  • Eric Feldman, Heimbold Chair in International Law, Professor of Law; Professor of Medical Ethics & Health Policy; Deputy Dean for International Programs