Kerry Kennedy is the president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. Since 1981, she has worked on diverse human rights issues including child labor, disappearances, indigenous land rights, judicial independence, freedom of expression, ethnic violence, impunity, mass incarceration, women’s rights, and the environment. Kennedy founded RFK Compass, which convenes biannual meetings of institutional investors to address human rights violations and investment outcomes.
Kennedy is the author of Speak Truth to Power (Crown Books, 2000). Speak Truth has grown to include a photography exhibit now traveling on four continents, a play by the Broadway playwright Ariel Dorfman, which has opened in over twenty countries, an award-winning website, a PBS documentary film, and an education program and toolkit-for-action packet now being taught to millions worldwide.
She serves on the boards of the U.S. Institute of Peace, Human Rights First, Ethics in Action, SDG USA, Sustainable Development Goals Center Africa, Health eVillages, and the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation. She serves on the Department of State Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP) as well as several other advisory committees. She is the best-selling author of Being Catholic Now (Random House, 2000). A graduate of Brown University and Boston College Law School, she received the Social Activism Award from the World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates (2017) along with many other awards and honorary degrees.
Kennedy is the mother of three daughters, Cara, Mariah, and Michaela.