vicepresident predecessor children religion birth_place party office birth_date term_start spouse image article_title name alma_mater
joseph boakai gyude bryant 4 methodism monrovia , liberia unity party 24th president of liberia 29 october 1938 18 january 2006 james sirleaf -lrb- divorced -rrb- ellen johnson sirleaf february 2015.jpg ellen johnson sirleaf
 ellen johnson sirleaf madison business college university of colorado boulder harvard university
ellen johnson sirleaf

ellen johnson sirleaf -lrb- born 29 october 1938 -rrb- is the 24th and current president of liberia , in office since 2006 .
she served as minister of finance under president william tolbert from 1979 until the 1980 coup d'état , after which she left liberia and held senior positions at various financial institutions .
she placed second in the 1997 presidential election won by charles taylor .
she won the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 january 2006 , and she was a successful candidate for re-election in 2011 .
sirleaf is the first elected female head of state in africa .
sirleaf was awarded the 2011 nobel peace prize , jointly with leymah gbowee of liberia and tawakel karman of yemen .
the women were recognized `` for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women 's rights to full participation in peace-building work . ''
sirleaf was conferred the indira gandhi prize by president of india pranab mukherjee on 12 september 2013 .
as of 2014 , she is listed as the 70th most powerful woman in the world by `` forbes '' .
