Lawyer Marian Wright Edelman is the president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). Dedicated to helping disadvantaged Americans, she has turned into the country’s strongest voice for families and the youth.

A Yale Law School and Spelman College graduate, she started out in the mid-1960s as the primary black American admitted to the Mississippi Bar. In Jackson, Mississippi, she became the director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office. By 1968, she left Mississippi for Washington DC and worked as the Poor People’s Campaign counsel. The organization was established by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Later on, she formed the Washington Research Project, which is a law firm that tackles issues related to public interest. For 24 months, she worked as a Center for Law and Education director at Harvard University. In 1973, she established Children’s Defense.

In addition to her commitment to CDF, Marian Edelman is also involved in the following organizations:

• Robin Hood Foundation
• Center for Budget and Policy Priorities
• Association to Benefit Children
• Selection Committee of the Profiles in Courage Award of the John F. Kennedy Library
• Council on Foreign Relations
• Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• American Philosophical Society

She is married to Georgetown Law School professor Peter Edelman, with whom she has three sons – Ezra, Joshua and Jonah. Marian Wright Edelman also has two grandsons – Levi and Elijah – and two granddaughters – Zoe and Ellika.