Michaela Walsh is an activist, scholar, mentor, educator, and author. She was a pioneer woman manager with Merrill Lynch in Beirut, Lebanon, in the ’60s, the first woman Partner of Boettcher in the ’70s, and in 1980 she became Founding President of Women’s World Banking.
Throughout her career, Michaela has maintained a vibrant commitment to education and service. She was an Adjunct Professor at Manhattanville College and Director of their Global Student Leadership programs. Board appointments have included Synergos Institute and Union Theological Seminary, with advisory roles in a wide range of governmental and social justice organizations over the decades.
She was Chairperson of the 59th United Nations DPI/NGO Conference in 2006. She received the Woman of Vision Award of the National Organization for Women, the UN Development Program’s Paul G. Hoffman Award for outstanding work in development, and in 2012 was honored by Women’s Funding Network for changing the face of philanthropy.
The publication of Founding a Movement: Women’s World Banking 1975–1990 has inspired renewed interest in working with and learning from women entrepreneurs in many countries. Business schools, women’s groups and gender studies programs have called upon Michaela to help them apply the lessons of the WWB history to today’s development challenges.
