We are excited to share with you IWF’s 2023 International Hall of Fame honorees: Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the public health advocate whose research exposed the Flint water crisis; and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization and former Nigerian Minister of Finance. Dr. Hanna-Attisha and Dr. Okonjo-Iweala are both transformative leaders whose work is outsized in a global context. It is our great honor to showcase their extraordinary contributions. You can read more about their remarkable leadership in the biographies below.
Dr. Mona Hanna-AttishaA pediatrician, scientist, activist, and author, Dr. Hanna-Attisha was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and recognized as one of USA Today’s Women of the Century for her role in uncovering the Flint water crisis and leading recovery efforts. Dr. Hanna-Attisha is the author of the widely acclaimed and New York Times 100 most notable book, What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City. She is the Associate Dean for Public Health and C. S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. She is the founding director of the Pediatric Public Health Initiative, an innovative partnership of MSU and Hurley Children’s Hospital in Flint, Michigan. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-IwealaAn economist and international development expert with over 30 years of experience, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the Director General of the World Trade Organization. She was Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the African Risk Capacity and Co-Chair of The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. Previously, she served as Senior Advisor at Lazard and sat on the Boards of Standard Chartered PLC and Twitter Inc. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was appointed as an AU COVID-19 Special Envoy and WHO COVID-19 Special Envoy.Dr. Okonjo-Iweala served twice as Nigeria’s Finance Minister, the first woman to hold the position, and spent a 25-year career at the World Bank rising to the No.2 position of Managing Director.In 2020, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was named Forbes African of the Year. She has been ranked by Fortune as one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders and by Forbes as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World consecutively for four years.