Place your bids to win a virtual meet and greet with Ashley Judd!
Ashley Judd is a Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated actor who deftly navigates between indie gems and box office hits. A feminist and social justice humanitarian, she is the UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador, advocating for the sexual and reproductive rights and health of girls and women worldwide. She has traveled to 23 countries, visiting brothels, refugee camps, hospices, and slums, learning directly from the vulnerable and resilient about male sexual violence and how to overcome gender inequality. She was recently in Turkey and travels to Syria next. Her New York Times bestselling book, All That Is Bitter & Sweet, chronicles these journeys. She is halfway through her second book. Ashley graduated from the Honors Program at the University of Kentucky with a major in French and four minors. She earned an MPA from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Her paper, Gender Violence: Law and Social Justice, was awarded the Dean’s Scholar Award at Harvard Law School. She has been the Leader in Residence at the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School. She serves on several boards, including the International Center for Research on Women, the Rape and Incest National Network, Demand Abolition, and is Ambassador for Culture Reframed (focusing on the public health crisis of pornography). She is Chairperson of the Women’s Media Center Speak Project: Curbing Abuse, Expanding Freedom. Her Ted Talk about online misogyny has over two million views. Her rendition of “Nasty Woman” at the 2027 Women’s March has over 50 million views.
Additionally, she serves on several boards seeking to end the commercial sexual exploitation of all people and to end male entitlement to female bodies. She is a sought-after public speaker on topics as varied as mental health, social justice, and faith. Recent talks include the State Department on Women, Peace, and Security and human trafficking/systems of prostitution and Clinton Global Initiative, where she delivered a searingly memorable talk on male sexual violence. A frequent OpEd author, recent contributions include the New York Times concerning her beloved mother's death by suicide and the need for privacy laws in such tragedies, and a searing essay on the crisis of child labor in the United States in USAToday. Her next OpEd is about fistula, for Scientific American. Time magazine honored her in 2017 as one of the Silence Breakers, as she was the first person to go on the record about serial rapist Harvey Weinstein. In 2019, the United Nations honored her as Global Advocate of the Year. Ashley lives part of each year in the Central African rain forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where her partner has a bonobo research camp. Bonobos, our closest living relatives, are egalitarian, matriarchal, and free from male sexual violence. They give her hope. A survivor of multi-generational family trauma, dysfunction and child rape, Ashley has been in recovery for 17 years. She is a devoted public advocate on behalf of victims/survivors and those with mental illness. Ashley believes trauma we do not transform is trauma we will transfer, and that a life of service must begin with taking responsibility for one’s own healing.
