Yeshi Milner

Ethiopian social entrepreneur building girls' schools in conflict zones through her NGO 'Tomorrow's Leaders Today'

Yeshi Milner (born 1985) is an Ethiopian-American social entrepreneur transforming education access in Africa's conflict zones. Founder of Tomorrow's Leaders Today, she has established 47 girls' schools in regions affected by war and famine since 2018. Her War to Wisdom initiative provides STEM education to girls displaced by the Tigray conflict, reaching over 12,000 students by 2024.

Milner's 2020 documentary Education Under Fire follows her team building schools in active conflict zones. Her 2022 book Building Schools Where Bombs Fell details innovative strategies like mobile classrooms and teacher training programs. In 2023, her organization launched the Girls' Tech Bootcamp, teaching coding and robotics to 500+ girls in refugee camps.

Her partnership with UNICEF's Educate A Girl Africa program scaled her model across 8 countries. Milner's TED Talk "Education is a Weapon for Peace" (2024) has 1.8M views. Notable projects include the Girls' Leadership Academy in South Sudan (2021) and the War Zones to Universities scholarship program sending 200+ girls to tertiary institutions.

Recipient of the 2023 Global Teacher Prize and 2024 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, Milner's work has inspired similar initiatives in Yemen and Nigeria. Her personal blog chronicles real-time fieldwork experiences, offering unique insights into education's role in post-conflict rebuilding.