Jeanie Kortum

Jeanie Kortum is an award-winning author, journalist, and humanitarian. She founded and directed A Home Away from Homelessness for nearly twenty years. Her philanthropic work has been widely recognized by a long list of awards, some of which include the San Francisco Foundation’s Community Award, the Commission on Women Making History Award, the Espiritu Award from the Isabel Allende Foundation and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Francisco Urban Research Association. She has been the subject of two CBS national news profiles and rights to her life story have been sold to Warner Brothers. Kortum’s award winning first novel, Ghost Vision, is loosely based on her experiences dogsledding to a Greenland village at the top of the world. She researched Stones by living with a hunter/gatherer tribe in Africa, during which time she witnessed a clitoridectomy. This experience compelled her to bring awareness to the danger of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Kortum lives with her husband and adopted son in Northern California and Ireland.