Former President and Nobel Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is expected to be presented with the Emily Winifred Dickson Award at a virtual ceremony today Wednesday, 8 September 2021 at 1pm WAT via the RCSI YouTube channel.
Internationally recognised as ‘Africa’s Iron Lady’, Sirleaf is a leading promoter of freedom, peace, justice, women’s empowerment, and democratic rule.
As part of the ceremony, former President Sirleaf, Liberia and Africa’s first elected female head of state, will deliver a guest address followed by a Q&A discussion with Professor Mark Shrime, O’Brien Chair of Global Surgery at the Institute of Global Surgery at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Emily Winifred Dickson broke boundaries when she became the first female Fellow of RCSI in 1893, making her the first female Fellow of any of the surgical royal colleges in Britain and Ireland.
RCSI established the Emily Winifred Dickson Award in 2015 to honour the achievements of this pioneering woman.
A post from the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development reads:
“Our warmest congratulations to our Founder, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who tomorrow will receive the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland’s Emily Winifred Dickson Award in recognition of her pioneering achievements as a woman leader and a defender of peace, justice, and democracy.”