Johnson-Sirleaf, Ellen (1938-…), was president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. She was elected in 2005 in what were Liberia’s first presidential elections after 14 years of civil war ended in 2003. Johnson-Sirleaf, an economist, became the first woman to be elected president of an African country. Johnson-Sirleaf won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent struggle for justice and women’s rights. She was reelected as president later that year. She chose not to run for reelection in 2017.
Johnson-Sirleaf was Liberia’s minister of finance under President William R. Tolbert, Jr., in the 1970’s. In the 1980’s, she spent time in prison for opposing President Samuel Doe’s military government. In 1989, Johnson-Sirleaf supported a rebellion against Doe led by Charles Taylor, a former government official. When she later spoke out against Taylor, he accused her of treason, and she left the country. She returned to Liberia during a brief period of peace in 1997 to run against Taylor for president. But she lost by a landslide. In 2003, domestic and international pressure forced Taylor to step down, and a transitional government took control of the country. Johnson-Sirleaf headed a special committee that advised the government. She resigned in 2005 to run for president. See Liberia (History).
Ellen Johnson was born on Oct. 29, 1938, in Monrovia, Liberia. In 1957, she married James Sirleaf, a Liberian business student. In 1964, she received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Madison Business College in Madison, Wisconsin. She studied economics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and, in 1971, received a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University. Her career has included work with the World Bank and the United Nations.
