Hey folks, I’m a long time human rights activist and author. Welcome to my personal blog, an experiment of sorts, where I’ll be sharing notes on yearly rituals I’ve used for more than a decade to create a life I love- and you can too. I’m at a critical turning point myself this year (new to my 40’s, just ending 4.5 year relationship, living on a threadbare budget in house with 5 roommates, tackling a mountain of debt, recovering my health…all while launching a new nonprofit to tackle violence against women and girls worldwide!). I plan to use these exercises and reflections to get my own life on a beautiful new track…and make 2016 my best year ever. It’s going to be honest, raw, and hopefully inspiring. Hope you’ll join me for this journey- and share some of your own!

Read all about my women’s rights activism, writing, and professional credentials below in my official bio.

Lisa Shannon is an American author, human rights activist, and scholar known for initiating campaigns in the international women’s movement, including founding Run for Congo Women and cofounding the first sexual violence crisis center in Mogadishu- Sister Somalia- in partnership with Fartun Adan Abdisalan, as well as the successful 45,000 Penny Congo Conflict Minerals Campaign against technology giants Intel, Apple, and Hewlett Packard.

Lisa Shannon’s appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2009, along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Nick Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn and Ben Affleck, resulted in a record-breaking fundraising surge, with more than fifteen million dollars and 16,000 new annual sponsorships raised for Women for Women International, doubling its DR Congo program capacity. Lisa’s work has been profiled in multiple appearances in The New York Times, Runner’s World Magazine, National Public Radio, and O, The Oprah Magazine, as well as The Economist, The Washington Post, ABC World News Tonight, CNN International, Voice of America, Time Magazine, Fitness Magazine, Venus and Marie Claire. She was selected for O, The Oprah Magazine’s 2010 Power List, “Some of the world’s most powerful women in politics, business, the arts and academia”, and Shape Magazine’s “2010 Women Who Shape the World.”

At the Harvard Kennedy School, Lisa has been Fellow of the Carr Center for Human Rights and Gleitsman Fellow with the Center for Public Leadership. She holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Georgetown University, where she gave the 2013 undergraduate commencement address. She is author of award-winning A Thousand Sisters: My Journey Into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman (Seal Press, 2010) and Mama Koko and the Hundred Gunmen: An Ordinary Family’s Extraordinary Tale of Love, Loss, and Survival in Congo (Public Affairs, 2015).