Ilana Landsberg-Lewis

Ilana Landsberg-Lewis is an impact-driven feminist leader with more than three decades of experience advancing justice and dignity across movements, geographies, and sectors. She challenges norms, stretches boundaries, and is deeply motivated by disrupting conventional notions of how powerful change happens.

A lifelong advocate for LGBTQI+, women’s, girls’, and children’s rights, Ilana has dedicated her career to supporting grassroots activists, creating forums, funding streams, and global platforms where affected communities speak as experts on the solutions that best serve them. A labour and human rights lawyer by training, she is recognized for building organizations rooted in justice, partnership, and anti-colonial practice.

As co-founder and former Executive Director of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, Ilana led one of Canada’s most respected international solidarity organizations, directing over $150 million to frontline partners addressing the HIV pandemic across sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to that, she spent a decade at the United Nations driving change for women and LGBTQI+ people. Ilana recently assumed her role as CEO of Rainbow Railroad, an international human rights organization that creates pathways to safety for at-risk LGBTQI+ people.