Greg Mortenson is the co-founder of the non-profit Central Asia Institute, Pennies For Peace, and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea (www.threecupsoftea.com), which sold 3 million copies, was published in 39 countries and has been the bestseller of the New York Times for three years since its release in January 2007, and Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year. In 2009, for his humanitarian effort to promote girls education in rural areas for fifteen years, Mortenson received Pakistan's highest civil award, Sitara-e-Pakistan (Star of Pakistan). Several bipartisan U.S. Congressional representatives twice nominated Mortenson for the 2009 and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Born in 1957, Mortenson grew up on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (1958-1973). His father Dempsey, who founded the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC) www.kcmc.ac.tz hospital, and his mother, Jerene, founded the Moshi International School. He served in the U.S. Army in Germany (1977-1979) where he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal and later graduated from the South Dakota University in 1983. In July 1992, Mortenson's sister, Christa, died of a massive seizure following a lifelong struggle with epilepsy on the eve of a trip to Dysersville, Iowa, where the baseball film, Field of Dreams, was filmed in a cornfield. In 1993, Mortenson climbed Pakistan's K2, the world's second highest mountain in the Karakoram range, to honor his sisters' memory. His work wasn't without trouble. He survived an eight-day armed kidnapping of tribal areas by the Taliban in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province in 1996, escaped a 2003 firefight with feuding Afghan warlords by hiding in a truck going to a leather-tanning factory for eight hours under putrid animal hides. He has overcome two fatwehs from enraged Islamic mullahs, sustained investigations by the CIA, and also received threats from fellow Americans after 9/11 to help educate Muslim children. Mortenson is entrusted to the rural communities of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he has earned the respect of Islamic clerics, military and militia commanders, government officials and tribal chiefs through his tireless efforts to champion education, particularly for girls. He is married to Dr. Tara Bishop, a clinical psychologist, and they live in Montana with their two children.... Read More
