Programs The Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards

One of the most influential leaders shaping entertainment today, Dame Donna Langley consistently uses her platform to support acclaimed and emerging storytellers, resulting in a consistently distinct and successful slate. As Chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment, Langley steers the company’s global creative strategy, greenlight decisions, programming, marketing, and operations for multiple award-winning studios across film, television, and streaming. Throughout a storied career, she’s championed films and series impacting the cultural zeitgeist, including Mamma Mia!, Straight Outta Compton, Bridesmaids, Get Out, Oppenheimer, All Her Fault, among many others. At Universal, Langley has dedicated time and resources to widening access and opportunity for innovative talent across the studio workforce, internally and on productions. Since 2013, Donna has served as an invaluable member of Vital Voices’ Board of Directors, also lending her expertise and insights as a mentor to rising leaders in our global network.

Donna Langley is a visionary leader shaping film, television and culture by amplifying voices and stories. 

Susie Wolff is transforming motorsport for a rising generation, creating a pathway for women to compete at the highest level. Born in Scotland, Susie began karting when she was just eight years old, eventually rising through the ranks of single-seater racing to become one of only eight women in Formula One’s 76-year history to compete as a development driver. After retiring from racing in 2015, she founded Dare to be Different, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing the number of women in motorsport. Moving into team management, she led Monaco’s only racing team to its most successful season to date before being appointed Managing Director of the F1 Academy, a championship and development program exclusively for young women. Through F1 Academy, Susie has created a genuine pathway for women to reach the highest levels of motorsport, building infrastructure, visibility and opportunity where little existed before. Determined to push boundaries and reset expectations, Susie is proving that women belong and can compete in all spaces.

Susie Wolff is transforming motorsport for a rising generation, creating a pathway for women to compete at the highest level. 

Tracy Chou is a tech activist and startup founder whose trailblazing tools and advocacy are making the digital world safer. Early in her career as a software engineer, Tracy questioned Silicon Valley’s lack of diversity data in what became a viral post. She began tracking and publishing crowdsourced data on women in engineering, soon prompting tech giants Google, Facebook and Microsoft to make their first-ever diversity disclosures. As an Asian American woman in a male-dominated field, Tracy’s all too familiar with bias, harassment and online abuse. Determined to turn the tide, she co-founded Project Include and #MovingForward, initiatives that help tech startups and venture capital firms establish anti-harassment policies and advance inclusion. In 2021 Tracy founded Block Party, one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, which builds tools for online safety and privacy. By proactively protecting users from trolls and online abuse, her app provides a safer online experience and raises the bar for ethics online.

Tracy Chou is a tech activist and startup founder whose trailblazing tools and advocacy are making the digital world safer. 

Seyi Akiwowo is a women’s rights campaigner and governance architect who’s preventing online abuse and redefining accountability in the digital age. When she was 23 years old, British-Nigerian Seyi became the youngest Black woman elected Councillor in East London. After one of her speeches at the European Parliament went viral, Seyi became the target of severe, coordinated online abuse. Battling to report her experience, she saw that governance structures aren’t set up to protect people from digital harm, least of all Black women, who face disproportionate abuse online. Seyi went on to found Glitch, a leading nonprofit that produces groundbreaking research on misogynoir and centers Black women’s online experience in advocating for reform. In 2022, Seyi published How to Stay Safe Online, a practical toolkit that helps people avoid abuse, advocate for their rights, and navigate digital spaces with resilience. Today Seyi works with governments, companies and institutions to build cutting-edge duty-of-care systems that promote digital justice and reimagine safety as a shared responsibility.

Seyi Akiwowo is a women’s rights campaigner and governance architect who’s preventing online abuse in the digital age. 

Shirin Musa is a fearless women’s rights activist whose advocacy has resulted in new laws, policies and protections for women facing violence in the Netherlands and beyond. A Dutch human rights defender born in Pakistan, she’s initiated landmark legal test cases and coined the groundbreaking concept of marital captivity, a situation Shirin lived through, in which a woman is unable to exit a religious or foreign marriage. Within months of winning her case and being emancipated from marital captivity, she founded the grassroots organization Femmes for Freedom to advocate for broader legal protections against gender-based violence. Shirin’s advocacy has led to historic legal innovations, including the adoption of five laws that criminalize harmful practices and expand services and protections for women, especially bicultural, migrant and refugee women. In 2025, she achieved a long-time dream and was elected to the Senate of the Netherlands, where she continues to advocate for reforms that safeguard the dignity of all women.

 Shirin Musa is a fearless women’s rights activist whose advocacy has delivered new laws, policies and protections for women facing violence in the Netherlands and beyond. 

Farwiza Farhan is a leading forest conservationist and inclusion advocate who’s working to protect one of the world’s most rare and critically endangered ecosystems. Indonesia’s Leuser ecosystem in Sumatra is the last place on Earth where elephants, tigers, rhinos and orangutans still coexist. It’s also under severe threat from illegal palm oil expansion, logging and poaching. As chairperson of the grassroots Forest, Nature and Environment of Aceh (HAkA), Farwiza is defending this irreplaceable landscape and the life-sustaining services it provides the people and wildlife that inhabit it. Trained in conservation and cultural anthropology, her passion is restoring people’s rights and relationship with the land. Farwiza advocates specifically for the greater inclusion of women, indigenous leaders and local experts in environmental protection, pushing for meaningful collaboration and respect for local knowledge. From supporting community-based conservation and livelihood initiatives to achieving a landmark victory in court against a destructive palm oil company, Farwiza works tirelessly to ensure locals have a say in shaping policy that protects, conserves and restores the Leuser ecosystem.

Farwiza Farhan is a leading forest conservationist and inclusion advocate who’s working to protect one of the world’s most rare and critically endangered ecosystems.