Kerry Kennedy is president of the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center. Under her leadership, Kennedy Human Rights partners with the bravest people on earth to create lasting change. She is the proud mother of three daughters, Cara, Mariah, and Michaela. A human rights activist and lawyer, she authored New York Times best seller Being Catholic Now, as well as Speak Truth to Power, Robert F. Kennedy: Ripples of Hope, and the forthcoming Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy, to be published on October 13, 2026.
The seventh of Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy’s eleven children, Kennedy has devoted more than 40 years to the pursuit of equal justice, the promotion and protection of basic rights, and the preservation of the rule of law. She works on a range of issues, including child labor, women’s rights, disappearances, Indigenous land rights, judicial independence, freedom of expression, ethnic violence, criminal justice reform, immigration, impunity, environmental justice, and the human rights impacts of artificial intelligence, including advocating for the development of responsible AI and shaping a more just and transparent digital economy.
She has led hundreds of human rights delegations in support of these causes and regularly provides expert commentary on national and international television networks, in addition to contributing to newspapers and magazines.
Kennedy served as Chair of the Amnesty International USA Leadership Council for more than a decade. She serves on the boards of the United States Institute of Peace, the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation, Laureate and Leaders, and the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center’s numerous international chapters. She is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the Association of American Indian Affairs, the Albert Schweitzer Institute, Sankofa, San Patrignano, and the Center for Victims of Torture, and serves on the Advisory Council of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
Kennedy has received high honors from President Lech Wałęsa of Poland for aiding the Solidarity movement, the Humanitarian Award from the Congress of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, and many other distinctions. A member of the Massachusetts and District of Columbia bars, she is a graduate of Brown University and Boston College Law School. She holds honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Le Moyne College, the University of San Francisco School of Law, and the University of New Caledonia, as well as honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from Bay Path University and the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.