Karen Sherman Biography

Karen Sherman, the author of Brick by Brick: Building Hope and Opportunity for Women Survivors Everywhere, has spent her life advocating for women in war-torn and transitional countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Kosovo, and the former Soviet Union. Sherman has met and interviewed thousands of women during her 30-year career in global development. Their remarkable stories of strength, courage, resilience, and resourcefulness fuel her belief that championing women's education and economic participation has the power to transform women's lives and the futures of families, communities, societies, and, ultimately, the world. Sherman has spent decades putting this belief into action, in field offices and boardrooms, with heads of state, ambassadors, business leaders, academics, and non-governmental organisations, among others. She is an outspoken advocate for increasing women's educational and economic opportunities. Sherman is currently the President of the Akilah Institute, Rwanda's only women's college, where she oversees strategy, growth, and partnerships. Sherman previously worked as a senior executive at Women for Women International, an organisation that assists women war survivors in rebuilding their lives. She started writing Brick by Brick while living in Rwanda with her three sons for a year to oversee the construction of a first-of-its-kind women's opportunity centre. Sherman previously worked as the Executive Vice President of Counterpart International, an international nonprofit development organisation that collaborates with local organisations to build inclusive, sustainable communities in which their people thrive, where she was in charge of increasing the depth, scale, and impact of programmes. Sherman is a sought-after speaker on global women's issues, having appeared on BBC, CNBC Africa, Al Jazeera English, and Voice of America, among other outlets. ABCNews.com, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Huffington Post, and Africa.com are just a few examples. She was the Executive Producer of National Geographic's The Other Side of War: Women's Stories of Survival and Hope, and she serves on the board of directors of Every Woman Treaty, a coalition working to secure a global treaty to prevent violence against women. Sherman, her husband, and their three sons live in Bethesda, Maryland. She has a Master of Arts in Russian and East European Studies from The George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the University of Oregon.

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