Gabrielle Giffords
Co-Founder, Giffords
2024
Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords understands what it’s like to face overwhelming barriers. She also understands what it takes to get past them. From her scrappy Arizona childhood, to her bridge-building politics, to her remarkable recovery from traumatic injuries, Gabby personifies courage. Today she leads Giffords, the gun violence prevention organization she co-founded. Giffords is a nonprofit organization that shifts culture, changes policies, and challenges injustice, inspiring Americans across the country to fight gun violence.
On January 8, 2011, at a “Congress On Your Corner” constituent event in Tucson, Gabby was shot in the head by a gunman who killed six people and injured 12 others. Gabby stepped down from Congress in January 2012 to focus on her recovery. As the nation’s eyes were upon her, Gabby embarked on a path to regain her ability to speak and walk, inspiring the country with her resilience and optimistic spirit.
In 2013, after the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, Gabby co-founded the organization today known as Giffords. Over the past decade, the organization has been a leader in the national gun safety movement, making gun safety a kitchen table issue for voters. Giffords has helped gun safety champions win up and down the ballot in local, state, and federal races and worked hard to pass lifesaving legislation in states across the country and in the US House of Representatives.
As she leads Giffords, Gabby continues to make remarkable progress in her recovery. She helps raise awareness about aphasia, the language impairment she has suffered from since her shooting. She enjoys spending her free time playing the French horn, biking, practicing yoga, learning Spanish, and spending time with her husband, Senator Mark Kelly, her stepdaughters, Claudia and Claire, and being a “GG” to Claudia’s daughter, Sage.
At the Summit
The Summit unites the public and private sectors, domestic and international, against hate and extremism. Researchers, activists, lawyers, technology experts, political leaders, and more come together, each bringing their unique tools to the fight. Important relationships that were established at the Summit in 2021 have carried forward into working groups with concrete deliverables for 2022 and beyond.
