Lisa Shannon

Lisa Shannon has devoted herself to helping women in the Congo. One of O Magazine's 100 Most Influential Women on the Planet, Shannon is an emphatic speaker who explores the world's deadliest war through the intimate lens of friendship, and shares her thoughts on the new politics of do-it-yourself foreign aid: “It's never too late to change the world—or yourself.”

Lisa Shannon had what many would consider a good life—a successful company, a fiance, security. But one day, while watching Oprah, she was awakened to the atrocities in the Congo: women gang-raped and demoralized, millions dead from the worst war since World War II. She decided, at that moment, to become an activist and a sister. As the first grassroots activist in the U.S. working to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in the Congo, often called “the worst place on earth to be a woman,” she began with a lone 30-mile run. From there she founded Run for Congo Women and penned the striking book, A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman. In her early 30's, Lisa Shannon rekindled her lapsed idealism. At Run for Congo Women, Shannon has sponsored more than a thousand Congolese women through Women for Women International, where she is an ambassador. (The money goes to help them obtain an education.) In 2007 and 2008 and 2010, Shannon visited with women in the Eastern Congo. Rather fittingly, her appearance on an episode of Oprah dedicated to the greatest moral imperative of our time: the empowerment of women worldwide. With Nicolas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, she was ranked as one of Oprah's most inspiring moments of 2009, and was named one of Oprah's 100 Most Influential Women in 2010. Shannon has been profiled in The New York Times, on NPR, CNN, ABC, Time, and many others. Her incredible story will be featured in Daniel Karslake's upcoming documentary Every Three Seconds, slated for premiere at the 2012 Sundance Festival. Lisa Shannon's new project, Sister Somalia, was profiled on the front page of The New York Times recently.