Ilana Landsberg-Lewis

Human rights lawyer Ilana Landsberg-Lewis is the executive director and co-founder of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, an organization working to turn the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa. She has travelled extensively in developing countries, working directly with more than 300 grassroots organizations on 1,400 initiatives. She spent eight years at the United Nations Development Fund for Women, working to strengthen the United Nations’ implementation of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Also at the United Nations, she cofounded UN PRIDE to fight for the rights of gay and lesbian employees, many of whom faced extreme discrimination by their home country employers.

She was named a YWCA Woman of Distinction in 2009, and in 2012 she was named one of the Top 25 Women of Influence in Canada. She is the daughter of inaugural UC Alumni of Influence award recipients, humanitarian Stephen Lewis (1959 UC) and journalist Michele Landsberg-Lewis (BA 1962 UC), and the sister of documentary filmmaker Avi Lewis (BA 1988 UC), a fellow honouree this year.