Special Guest: Ashley Judd

Ashley is a Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated actress who adroitly stars in both indie gems and box office hits. A feminist and social justice humanitarian, she is the UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador, advocating for the sexual and reproductive rights and health for girls and women worldwide. She has traveled to 22 countries, spending time in brothels, refugee camps, hospices, and slums, learning directly from the vulnerable and resilient about male sexual violence and how to overcome gender inequality. Her New York Times bestselling book, All That Is Bitter & Sweet, chronicles these journeys. Her forthcoming travels summer 2023 are to Slovakia, Ukraine, and the Sahel.

Ashley graduated from the Honors Program at the University of Kentucky and earned an MPA from Harvard's John F. Kennedy's School of Government. Her paper, Gender Violence: Law and Social Justice, was awarded the Dean’s Scholar Award at Harvard Law School. She has been Leader in Residence at the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School.

She serves on several boards, including the International Center for Research on Women, the Rape and Incest National Network, Demand Abolition, the Gloria Steinem Sex Equality Fund to End Trafficking in Women, and is Ambassador for Culture Reframed (focusing on the public health crisis of pornography). She is Chairperson of the Women’s Media Center Speak Project: Curbing Abuse, Expanding Freedom. Her TED Talk about online misogyny has over two million views.

She is a sought after public speaker and frequent OpEd author on topics as diverse as conflict mineral mineral mining and child marriage. Recently, she wrote in the New York Times about her beloved mother`s death by suicide and the need for privacy laws in such tragedies.

Ashley was Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2017 as one of the Silence Breakers. In 2019, the United Nations honored her as Global Advocate of the Year.

Ashley lives part of each year in the Central African rain forest in Democratic Republic of the Congo, where her partner has a bonobo research camp. Bonobos, our closest living relatives, are egalitarian, matriarchal, and free from male sexual violence. Their stable and peaceful societies are undergirded by female coalitions. They give her hope.