In her work both as a journalist and author, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon focuses on the evolving roles of women throughout the world. A senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, she writes frequently about empowering women in developing countries through economic investment.

Based on her extensive reporting in Afghanistan, Lemmon wrote The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, a New York Times best seller about a young entrepreneur who supported her family during the Taliban years. In her latest work, Ashley’s War, she chronicles the untold story of the U.S. Army’s all-female team placed alongside combat forces in Afghanistan to help establish connections with women in that country.

Lemmon is a frequent contributor on national security and foreign policy issues to the Atlantic’s Defense One website. She gave the opening talk at TEDxWomen in 2011 on the importance to the global economy of investing in women. Lemmon is a graduate of the University of Missouri and also holds an MBA from Harvard University.

Videos from NAFSA 2016