Ashley Judd is an acclaimed actor, global feminist humanitarian, survivor leader, and New York Times bestselling author.

In 2010, she earned a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Her paper, “Gender Violence: Law & Social Justice,” received the Dean’s Scholar honor at Harvard Law School. She is a Senior Fellow at the Women & Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School, where she leads a reading group on male entitlement to female bodies, and systems of female obligation, entitled Prostitution and Pornography. 

For more than two decades, Judd has persevered to advance human dignity and freedom from violence, particularly for women, girls, and marginalized communities. Since 2004, she has collaborated with grassroots organizations, NGOs, multilateral institutions, and governments around the world, listening to those so often neglected, to promote healing, access to care, safety, equality, and justice.

Judd was named one of TIME’s Persons of the Year for her role as a silence-breaker and change-maker in the #MeToo movement.

Judd’s devotion to liberation was shaped by relationships and interdisciplinary learning. As an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky, she was deeply influenced by a cohort of women scholars across anthropology, art history, theology, and gender studies who modeled rigorous inquiry, collaboration, and the lived experience that intellectual discipline, gentleness, and profound caring can, and must, coexist.

A survivor of child and adult complex trauma and deprivation, Ashley has been in recovery since 2006. In 2022, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention recognized her with their Life Saver honor.