Atty. Leni Robredo

Leni Robredo is the 14th Vice President of the Philippines, serving from 2016 to 2022. During her term, she reinvented the Vice President’s office into an advocacy-centered organization, through a flagship poverty alleviation program that thrived on privatepublic partnerships. Angat Buhay (which means “uplifting lives”) brought muchneeded interventions on education, health, nutrition and food security, rural development, women empowerment, and housing and resettlement. 

The kind of leadership she has long believed in—ethical, empowering, efficient, and inclusive—was further highlighted during the height of the pandemic, when she and her office stood at the forefront of COVID-19 response operations. 

Robredo’s work in politics was heavily inspired by her years as a human rights lawyer. After serving in government, she set up the non-profit organization, Angat Pinas, Inc., which now carries the Angat Buhay program. It strives to empower volunteers across the country in the collective mission to uplift Filipino lives. 

Robredo has also been sharing her insights and experiences with academic institutions, think tanks, and different organizations in the Philippines and overseas. For Fall Term 2022, she joined the Harvard community as one of its Kennedy School’s Hauser Leaders, where she provided perspective, particularly on the impact of disinformation and influence operations in the Philippines. For 2024, she was selected for the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Residency Program in Italy.