An environmentalist, political activist, and politician, Maathai returned home to Kenya after college in the U.S. to find her lush homeland being destroyed by deforestation, causing water and food shortages and disappearing wildlife. She founded the Green Belt Movement, empowering women across Kenya to replant the land tree by tree, and became known as Mama Miti, or “Mother of Trees.” In 2004 she became the first African woman and environmentalist to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.