Human Rights Activist | Nobel Laureate | Founder of Nadia’s Initiative

Nadia Murad is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, human rights activist, and survivor of the Yazidi genocide. After escaping captivity by ISIS, she dedicated her life to advocating for survivors of sexual violence and seeking justice for persecuted communities. As the founder of Nadia’s Initiative, she leads global efforts to rebuild communities affected by conflict and hold perpetrators of mass atrocities accountable.

Murad was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her unwavering commitment to ending conflict-related sexual violence. She has addressed the United Nations, governments, and international organizations, calling for justice and policy reforms to protect vulnerable populations.

Through her advocacy, Murad continues to amplify the voices of survivors, ensuring that their experiences lead to meaningful action toward peace, security, and human dignity.

Celebrity Speaker

Barrie Landry is an innovative and forward-thinking philanthropist focused on aligning herself with leaders and organizations that are addressing the problems of world poverty, gender inequities, and the rights of children & refugees through transformative, sustainable & just solutions. She is a trustee of the Landry Family Foundation, which funds a variety of domestic and international programs focusing on the education, health, and protection of vulnerable populations. Barrie is a member of UNICEF's International Council and currently serves as Director Emerita on UNICEF USA’s New England Regional Board. At UNICEF she helped to create a partnership between UNICEF & Harvard that led to the establishment of the first Graduate-Level Child Protection program at Harvard. 

Barrie is a former board member and Development Chair of Mother Caroline Academy & Education Center in Dorchester, MA, and one of the original eight women who helped build the Maranyundo School in Nyamata, Rwanda. She serves as Director Emerita on the board of Health Equity International, a global health organization that provides accessible, compassionate, and quality health care in Southern Haiti for every patient in need. Additionally, Barrie holds the position of Director Emeritus on the board of Humanity Rises, a refugee humanitarian aid organization dedicated to addressing the genocide-driven Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh. She also serves as a trustee Emerita for RefugePoint, an organization focused on improving the lives of refugees through resettlement, stabilization, and self-reliance. Barrie is a member of Women Moving Millions. She resides in Boston and has three children and nine grandchildren.

Isabel Allende, born in Peru and raised in Chile, is a novelist, feminist, and

philanthropist. She is one of the most widely read authors in the world, having sold more than eighty million copies of her books across forty-two languages. She is the author of several bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including The Wind Knows My Name, Violeta, A Long Petal of the Sea, The House of the Spirits, Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, and Paula. In addition to her work as a writer, Isabel devotes much of her time to

human rights causes. She has received fifteen honorary doctorates, been inducted into the California Hall of Fame, and received the PEN Center Lifetime Achievement Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and in 2018, she received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. She lives in California with her husband and dogs.

You can visit Isabel Allende at IsabelAllende.com or follow her on Instagram

@AllendeIsabel

The Goodwin story began with a chance encounter on a Boston sidewalk. After some friendly conversation, two young lawyers, former classmates from college, decided to start their own law practice.

An eavesdropper on State Street that late spring morning in 1912 might have been amused at their bravado as Robert Eliot Goodwin and Joseph Osborne Procter, Jr. mapped their professional future. But the firm they forged would flourish, setting the foundation of a professional enterprise that would grow beyond anything either might have imagined.

Today, more than 1,800 Goodwin Procter lawyers focus on building authentic, long-term relationships with our clients, who are some of the world’s most successful and innovative investors, entrepreneurs and disruptors at the convergence of and within the life sciences, private equity, real estate, technology, and financial industries.

We are in the business of building authentic, long-term relationships with our clients, who are some of the world’s most successful and innovative investors, entrepreneurs and disruptors in the life sciences, private equity, real estate, technology and financial industries, and where they converge. Our immersive understanding of these industries – combined with our expertise across high-stakes litigation and dispute resolution, world-class regulatory compliance and advisory services, and complex transactions – sets us apart.

To learn more about our global law firm, please visit www.goodwinlaw.com.

Edward Shapiro is a trustee of The Shapiro Foundation. For nearly 20 years, he was a Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager at PAR Capital Management, Inc., a Boston-based investment management firm. At the end of 2016, Ed retired from PAR Capital Management to devote his attention to his family's philanthropic activities and to keenly focus their work on the global refugee and resettlement crisis.

Ed's commitment to the Foundation's mission to support refugees stretches beyond the ongoing gifts that the family awards throughout the year. He is an active member on the boards of Combined Jewish Philanthropies and Social Finance. He is a Board Member Emeritus for RefugePoint. He also sits on the board of United Airlines.

Ed earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and an MBA from UCLA's Anderson School of Management.

George Lehner has been the Chair of RefugePoint's Board of Directors since 2015. An experienced trial lawyer and mediator, George is a former partner and Vice-Chairman at Pepper Hamilton, now Troutman Pepper Locke.  Mr. Lehner served as General Counsel to the White House Correspondents’ Association from 2007 to 2024. He helped to found  the  International Women’s Media Foundation and served as its General Counsel.  He is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Fund for Peace.   He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the University of Michigan School of Law.