Alaa Murabit

DIRECTOR, PROGRAM ADVOCACY AND COMMUNICATIONS - HEALTH, BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION

Alaa Murabit oversees the foundation’s health advocacy and communications work, in partnership with the Global Health and Global Development divisions. She is a medical doctor, global security strategist, women’s rights advocate, and United Nations High-Level Commissioner on Health Employment and Economic Growth. Ms Murabit is one of 17 Sustainable Development Goal Advocates appointed by the UN Secretary-General and a 2020–2021 Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

Ms Murabit founded the women’s rights organization Voice of Libyan Women in 2011, at the age of 21. Her TED Talk, “What My Religion Really Says About Women,” has been viewed nearly 5 million times. In 2016, she became executive director of Phase Minus 1, which provides thought leadership in conflict resolution and inclusive security, and she later founded CO-AGENCY, an accelerator for emerging women’s leadership in security, peacebuilding, and policy.

Ms Murabit is the recipient of more than 100 honors and awards, including the Canadian Meritorious Service Cross, BBC 100 Women, Forbes 30 Under 30, Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award, and Harvard Law School’s Women Inspiring Change. She is an MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow and an Ashoka Fellow, and she serves on the board of the Malala Fund.

Ms Murabit received an M.D. from the University of Zawia in Libya and an MSc in International Strategy and Diplomacy, with Distinction, from the London School of Economics and Political Science.