Stephen Lewis

Celebrated Humanitarian and Former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa

An Evening with Stephen Lewis

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Stephen Lewis is one of the world's most influential speakers on human rights, social justice and international development. The former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, he has been named by TIME as one of the 100 Most Influential People In The World -- in the same category as The Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. Maclean's Magazine honoured Lewis as their inaugural "Canadian of the Year" in 2003 and in 2009 he was named the "Fourth Most Trusted Canadian" by Reader's Digest.

Stephen Lewis is Co-Founder and Co-Director of AIDS-Free World, a new international AIDS advocacy organization, based in the U.S. He is Chair of the Board of the Stephen Lewis Foundation in Canada and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). He also served as the co-chair of the Leadership Programme Committee for the XVII International AIDS Conference 2008.

He is a Professor in Global Health in the Faculty of Social Sciences at McMaster University, where he teaches a class on the consequences of climate change in both developed and developing countries. Previously, he chaired the first International Conference on Climate Change in 1988, which drew up the first comprehensive policy on global warming.

Lewis' work with the United Nations spanned more than two decades. From 1984 to 1988, he was Canada's Ambassador to the UN, and, from 2001 to 2006, he was the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. From 1995 to 1999, he was Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF at their headquarters in New York. In 1997, in addition to his work at UNICEF, Mr. Lewis was appointed by the Organization of African Unity to a Panel of Eminent Personalities to Investigate the Genocide in Rwanda. The 'Rwanda Report' was issued in June of 2000. In 1970, he became leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, during which time he became leader of the Official Opposition.

Stephen Lewis also holds a number of distinguished awards. He is a recipient of the prestigious Pearson Peace Medal, holds over 30 honorary degrees, and was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest honour, in 2003. Amongst them are the Jonathan Mann Health and Human Rights Award from the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (2003); the Pearson Peace Medal, awarded by the United Nations Association in Canada to celebrate outstanding achievement in the field of international service and understanding (2004); the International Council of Nurses' Health and Human Rights Award, awarded quadrennially for outstanding contributions to international health and human rights (2005); the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Leadership Award, from the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas (2006); the Harry Jerome President's Award from the Black Business and Professional Association in Toronto (2006); and the William G. Davis Children's Champion Award, Peel Children's Aid Foundation, Mississauga (2006). In 2007, the Kingdom of Lesotho (in Southern Africa) invested Lewis as Knight Commander of the Most Dignified Order of Moshoeshoe, the country's highest honour, and also won the Health and Human Rights Award from Doctors of the World, USA, in the same year.

Stephen Lewis is the author of the best-seller Race Against Time,which was a finalist for the Writers' Trust Award and the Trillium Book Award. It won the Canadian Booksellers Association's Libris Award for nonfiction book of the year, and Mr. Lewis was named the CBA's Author of the Year for 2005.

Stephen Lewis Speech Topics

An Evening with Stephen Lewis

A masterful orator, Stephen Lewis enthralls with keynotes on the fight against disease and poverty in the developing world: clarion calls that bring audiences to their feet -- sometimes to tears -- and that get them, whether citizens, governments, or corporations, to take action. He can speak generally about the developing world, or to specific issues, such as HIV/AIDS, economic development, climate change, and a myriad of other topics. He carefully tailors his speeches, enlivens them with anecdotes and humor, and is never ashamed of the emotion that may overtake him. Without doubt, he is one of history's great humanitarians.

VIDEOS

BOOKS

Race Against Time

ARTICLES

TIME 100: Stephen Lewis, Targeting AIDS in Africa, by Paul Martin

"Mission Impossible" : Feature on Stephen Lewis - Toronto Life

All Speakers > Stephen Lewis

GAYLE LEMMON at TEDxWOMEN

"If you're going to talk about jobs, then you have to talk about entrepreneurs," says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. "And if you're talking about entrepreneurs in conflict and post-conflict settings, then you must talk about women." Lemmon is the author of the New York Times bestselling book The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and a Contributing Editor-at-Large for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. She has devoted her life to shedding light on the resiliency of female entrepreneurs, and their remarkable power to reshape local economies. By recognizing and investing in these female breadwinners, Lemmon says, we can help grow economies of all development levels around the world.