Ellen Johnson was schooled in the United State before serving in the government of her native Liberia. A military coup in 1980 sent her into exile, but she returned in 1985 to speak out against the military regime. . She won the 2005 presidential election and took office 16 January 2006, and she was a successfull candidate for re-election in 2011, being the first women elected in Africa.
Ellen Johnson won the prize with peace activist Leymah Gbowee and human right activist Tawakkul Karman. Ellen was seen as a reformer and peacemaker when she took office in Liberia, a country ravaged by civil wars that is still struggling to maintain a fragile peace.
Here I have put a video of Ellen Johnson, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman, receiving the Nobel prize and speaking about their ideas: