Lisa Shannon had what many would consider a good life--a successful company, a fiancé . . . security. But one day, while watching The Oprah Winfrey Show, she was awakened to the atrocities in the Congo: women gang-raped and demoralized, millions dead from the worst war since World War II. She decided, at that moment, to become an activist and a sister. She founded Run for Congo Women, which began with a lone 30-mile run, and which blossomed into the first national grassroots movement for Congolese women. An upcoming book on her experiences, A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman, has already won comparisons to Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea. It will be released in 2010.

At Run for Congo Women, Lisa Shannon has sponsored more than a thousand Congolese women through Women for Women International, where she is an ambassador. (The money goes to help them obtain an education.) In 2007 and 2008, Shannon visited with women in the Eastern Congo, and plans to return in 2010. Recently, and rather fittingly, she appeared, with Nicolas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show dedicated to the greatest moral imperative of our time: the empowerment of women worldwide. (Her appearance was ranked as one of Oprah's most inspiring moments of 2009.)