Topic: Jody Williams

Jody Williams (born October 9, 1950 in Brattleboro, Vermont, USA) is an American teacher and aid worker who received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the campaign she worked for, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). Williams first trained as a teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL), receiving a BA from the University of Vermont in 1972 and a Master's degree in teaching Spanish and ESL from the School for International Training (also in Vermont) in 1974. In 1984 she received a second M.A. in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She taught ESL in Mexico, the United Kingdom, and finally Washington, D.C. before her first appointment in aid work, becoming a grocery worker of the "Nicaragua-Honduras Education Project" from 1984 to 1986. She then became deputy director of a Los Angeles-based charity, "Medical Aid for El Salvador", a position which she held until 1992 when she took up her position with the newly formed ICBL.

The organization ultimately achieved its goal in 1997 when an international treaty (Ottawa Treaty) banning antipersonnel landmines was signed in Ottawa in 1997 (though some nations, notably the United States, People's Republic of China (PRC), and Russia refrained).

One broader aspect of Williams' work was her pioneering use of People Power: massively distributed collaboration in trans-national political action, initially via fax and eventually via email—Williams' own explanation,