1SKY Action Fund

Gillian is a film maker and an attorney with thirty years of experience advocating for social justice in the United States and around the world. She is the outgoing Executive Director of WITNESS (www.witness.org), which uses the power of video to open the eyes of the world to human rights abuses. Gillian led WITNESS? rapid expansion during her decade of leadership and helped produce numerous documentary videos for use in advocacy campaigns around the world, including Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the ?War on Terror?, System Failure: Violence, Abuse and Neglect in the California Youth Authority, Behind the Labels: Garment Workers on US Saipan, and Operation Fine Girl: Rape Used as a Weapon of War in Sierra Leone. She is also co-editor and author of a book published by Pluto Press called Video for Change: A Guide to Advocacy and Activism (2005). Gillian was formerly the Co-Director of the Global Survival Network, where she coordinated a two-year undercover investigation into the trafficking of women for forced prostitution from Russia and the Newly Independent States that helped spur new anti-trafficking legislation in the US and abroad. Gillian lived in South Africa during 1991 and 1992, investigating hit squads and security force involvement in township violence, and has worked in Boston, Washington DC and New York on issued related to poverty and violence. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Echoing Green Fellowship (1996-1998), Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Award (2000), Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Award Winner (2001-present), Tech Laureate of the Tech Museum (2003), Ashoka: Innovators for the Public as a special partner (2003), Journalist of the Month by Women?s Enews (2004), Skoll Social Entrepreneurship Award (2005-present). She received her BA from Harvard University and a J.D. from Georgetown University, where she was honored as a Public Interest Law Scholar. Under her leadership, WITNESS was also honored with numerous awards, including most recently the NY Times Award for Excellence in Communications (2007) and 2007 American Express Building Leadership Award from the Independent Sector. Gillian speaks English and Spanish.