Leslie Cannold

Leslie Cannold (born 1 April 1970 in Port Chester, NY) is an Australian philosopher, ethicist, educationalist, writer, activist, and public intellectual.

Born and raised in Armonk and Scarsdale, New York, Leslie Cannold migrated to Melbourne in her early twenties. She began writing for The Age as an opinion and education section columnist while raising young children and completing her graduate degrees.

A non-fiction author and novelist, Cannold is a familiar voice and face on radio and TV in Australia. She is on the speaking circuit giving keynotes and hosting panels on ethics, gender politics, inspirational leadership and reproductive rights. In 2005 she was named one of Australia's top twenty public intellectuals by The Age newspaper. In 2011 Cannold was awarded Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies.

Educated at Wesleyan University where she studied psychology and theatre, she has a Master of Arts and a Masters in Bioethics from Monash University where she worked for Peter Singer at the Centre for Human Bioethics. She earned her PhD in Education at the University of Melbourne before commencing employment at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics when C. A. J. Coady was director. As of 2011^[update] she maintains adjunct positions at both universities though she left academic employment in 2006 to pursue writing and public speaking full-time.

Cannold is oft-noted as one of Australia's leading public thinkers and women. In 2005, she was named alongside Peter Singer, Gustav Nossal and Inga Calendinnen as one of Australia's top 20 public intellectuals. In 2013, she was named in the Power Index's Top Ten List of most influential brains.

Cannold's fortnightly Moral Dilemma column has appeared in Sydney's Sunday Sun-Herald since 2007. Prior to that she was an occasional columnist for The Age. Her opinions have also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, Crikey!, The Herald Sun, ABC The Drum Unleashed, The Courier Mail, and the national broadsheet The Australian. In 2011 she was recognised with an EVA for a Sunday Age opinion piece on sexual assault.

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