Guest Profile

Celeste Mergens

Celeste Mergens is the Founder and Executive Director of Days for Girls International which has been featured in Oprah's O Magazine, Forbes.com and counted as a recent United Nations 50 global heroes organization. Celeste's passion for sustainable global empowerment of women and girls and women is contagious. Celeste is the mother of six and grandmother of twelve. She is 2014's Washington State American Mother of the Year, a recipient of the Soroptimist Ruby award, the Sol Lewis award, and an annual invitee to the World Food Prize.

Days for Girls was born in an "ah-ha moment," after an event in the slums of Kenya prompted the idea for a simple and sustainable solution to reversing the cycles of poverty and violence for women. Today, just six years later, Days for Girls International empowers girls, women and communities in 77 nations on six continents.