Great Americans Medal Recipient 

Melinda French Gates is a philanthropist, businesswoman, and global advocate for women and girls.   

For over 25 years, Ms. French Gates has led efforts to unlock a healthier, more prosperous, more equal future. Today, she heads Pivotal, a group of organizations she founded to accelerate the pace of social progress for women and young people in the U.S. and around the world. Previously, she founded and co-chaired the Gates Foundation, where, for more than two decades, she set the direction and priorities of the world’s largest philanthropy. French Gates is also the author of the bestselling books The Next Day and The Moment of Lift, and the creator of Moment of Lift Books, an imprint publishing original nonfiction by visionaries working to unlock a more equal world.   

Melinda French Gates grew up in Dallas, Texas, and attended Duke University, where she received a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics and an MBA. She spent the first decade of her career developing multimedia products at Microsoft before leaving the company to focus on her family and philanthropic work. Melinda has three children—Jenn, Rory, and Phoebe—and lives in Seattle, Washington.