Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie spent 20 years working in conflict zones as a humanitarian.

She joined the UNHCR in 2001.

At first, as a Goodwill Ambassador.

Then, from 2012 to 2022, as Special Envoy.

She went to the field, over 60 missions in 30+ war-torn regions.

Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Myanmar, Burkina Faso.

She met survivors. Listened to stories. Raised millions in aid.

But her work didn’t start with the UN.

In 2003, she founded the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation in Cambodia, where she had adopted her first child and filmed “Tomb Raider.”

The foundation has six pillars: conservation, agriculture, education, women’s empowerment, economic growth, and health.

They planted over 10,000 trees.

Created 11 community forestry schemes.

Built 4 nurseries.

Trained farmers to increase yields.

Funded 10 schools.

Provided clean water in 7 schools and installed 2 pump wells.

Launched a Shiloh scholarship for children in crisis.

And ran two health clinics that treat over 11,000 people each year.

In Namibia, Jolie co-founded the Shiloh Wildlife Sanctuary, which rescues and rehabilitates animals injured by poaching.

In Ethiopia, she funded the Zahara Children’s Center for kids with HIV and TB.

And in Cambodia, she created the Maddox Chivan Children’s Center for children impacted by HIV.

In 2006 alone, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation donated $1M to Doctors Without Borders and $1M to Global Action for Children.

Angelina also created the Jolie Legal Fellowship to support child protection attorneys in Haiti and Libya.

Co-founded KIND (Kids in Need of Defense), the leading pro bono network helping unaccompanied minors in U.S. immigration court.

And developed Style of Jolie, a jewelry line where 100% of profits fund school construction in war zones.

Unfortunately, in 2013, Jolie underwent a preventive double mastectomy after testing positive for the BRCA1 gene.

Her risk of breast cancer had been 87%.

Her mother, aunt, and grandmother had all died of cancer.

Two years later, she removed her ovaries and fallopian tubes.

She went public with both surgeries in The New York Times.

The result: a massive, measurable spike in BRCA testing across the world.

And yet, she didn’t stop working.

She produced and directed In the Land of Blood and Honey, First They Killed My Father, Unbroken, and Without Blood.

She starred in Girl, Interrupted, Maleficent, Salt, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Changeling.

She was appointed an honorary Dame by Queen Elizabeth II.

Won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

And served as a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, where she helped launch the Centre on Women, Peace and Security.