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Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was born on October 29, 1938 in Monrovia, Liberia. She is the 24th President of Liberia.

Johnson-Sirleaf graduated from the College of West Africa in Monrovia, which was a high school. She then attended the Madison Business College in Wisconsin, USA and received a BBA in accounting in 1964. She then received an economics diploma in 1970 from the University of Colorado, and finally a master’s degree in public administration in 1971 from Harvard University. 

After graduating from Harvard she returned to Liberia and worked in the administration of then President William Tolbert. He was subsequently overthrown and killed and Johnson-Sirleaf had to go into exile in Nairobi, Kenya where she worked for Citibank. She returned to Liberia in 1997 and worked as an economist for the World Bank and Citibank.  She then ran in the 1997 Presidential elections but only managed to get 10% of the vote compared to the 75% her opponent received.

She tried again in 2005 and on November 11th she was named the President-elect of Liberia by the National Elections Commission.

She is the world’s first black female President and Africa’s first elected female head of state.

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