47 Notable alumni of
Vytautas Magnus University
Updated:
Vytautas Magnus University is 1077th in the world, 378th in Europe, and 3rd in Lithuania by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 47 notable alumni from Vytautas Magnus University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Marija Gimbutas
- Occupations
- prehistoriananthropologistuniversity teacherethnologisthistorian
- Biography
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Marija Gimbutas was a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis, which located the Proto-Indo-European homeland in the Pontic Steppe.
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Leah Goldberg
- Years
- 1911-1970 (aged 59)
- Occupations
- writerplaywrighttranslatorpoetliterary critic
- Biography
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Leah Goldberg or Lea Goldberg was a prolific Hebrew-language poet, author, playwright, literary translator, illustrator and painter, and comparative literary researcher.
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Rūta Meilutytė
- Occupations
- swimmer
- Biography
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Rūta Meilutytė Lithuanian pronunciation: [ruːˈtɐ mʲɛɪ̯ɫʊˈtʲi̇̂ːtʲeː]; is a Lithuanian swimmer. She is an Olympian gold medalist, the current world record holder in the short course 50 metre breaststroke, 100 metre breaststroke and long course 50 metre breaststroke. She is a former world record holder in the long course 100 metre breaststroke.
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Algirdas Julien Greimas
- Occupations
- semiologistphilosopherlinguistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Algirdas Julien Greimas was a Lithuanian literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for the Greimas square (le carré sémiotique). He is, along with Roland Barthes, considered the most prominent of the French semioticians. With his training in structural linguistics, he added to the theory of signification, plastic semiotics, and laid the foundations for the Parisian school of semiotics. Among Greimas's major contributions to semiotics are the concepts of isotopy, the actantial model, the narrative program, and the semiotics of the natural world. He also researched Lithuanian mythology and Proto-Indo-European religion, and was influential in semiotic literary criticism.
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Salomėja Nėris
- Occupations
- teacherpoliticianwritertranslatorpoet
- Biography
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Salomėja Bačinskaitė-Bučienė, mostly known by her pen name Nėris was a Lithuanian poet.
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Jonas Mačiulis
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Jonas Mačiulis is a Lithuanian professional basketball executive and former player, currently serving as the general manager for Lietkabelis Panevėżys of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL). Standing at 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in), he mainly played at the small forward position. As a member of the senior Lithuanian national team, he earned an All-EuroBasket Team selection in 2015, as Lithuania won the silver medal.
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Mantas Kalnietis
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Mantas Kalnietis is a Lithuanian former professional basketball player who last played for Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) and the EuroLeague. He was also a member of the Lithuanian national basketball team. He would preferably take the point guard position, but could play shooting guard as well.
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Paulius Jankūnas
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Paulius Jankūnas is a Lithuanian former professional basketball player who mainly played for Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) and the EuroLeague. He was also a member of the senior Lithuanian national team. Jankūnas played at either center or power forward, with power forward being his main position. He earned an All-EuroLeague Second Team selection in 2018.
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Antanas Škėma
- Occupations
- writerstage actoractortheatrical director
- Biography
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Antanas Škėma was a Lithuanian writer, playwright, stage actor and director. His best known work is the novel Balta drobulė (White Shroud).
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Ramūnas Karbauskis
- Occupations
- farmerpolitician
- Biography
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Ramūnas Karbauskis is a Lithuanian businessman and politician.
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Justas Paleckis
- Occupations
- translatorpoetjournalistpolitician
- Biography
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Justas Paleckis was a Lithuanian Soviet author, journalist, and politician. He was the nominal acting president of Lithuania after the Soviet invasion while Lithuania was still ostensibly independent, in office from 17 June to 3 August 1940. He then remained the nominal head of state of the Lithuanian SSR until 1967.
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Juozas Lukša
- Occupations
- partisan
- Biography
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Juozas Lukša, also known by other pseudonyms such as Daumantas and Skirmantas, was a leader of the anti-Soviet Lithuanian partisan armed resistance movement.
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Klaudzi Duzh-Dusheuski
- Enrolled in Vytautas Magnus University
- Studied in 1927
- Occupations
- journalistdiplomatpoliticianarchitect
- Biography
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Klawdziy Stsyapanavich Duzh-Dushewski was a Belarusian civil engineer, architect, diplomat and journalist. He is believed to be the creator of the national flag of Belarus in 1917.
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Jacob Gens
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Jacob Gens was the head of the Judenrat and Jewish Ghetto Police of the Vilna Ghetto. Originally from a merchant family, he joined the Lithuanian Army shortly after the independence of Lithuania, rising to the rank of captain while also securing a college degree in law and economics. He married a non-Jew and worked several jobs as a teacher, accountant, and administrator.
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Bernardas Brazdžionis
- Occupations
- poetliterary criticwriter
- Biography
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Bernardas Brazdžionis was a Lithuanian poet. He used various pen names, including Vytė Nemunėlis and Jaunasis Vaidevutis.
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Viktoras Pranckietis
- Occupations
- university teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Viktoras Pranckietis is a Lithuanian agronomist and politician. He was the speaker of the Seimas.
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Kazys Boruta
- Occupations
- poetshort story writerpolitician
- Biography
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Kazys Boruta was a Lithuanian writer, poet and political activist.
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Siim-Sander Vene
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Siim-Sander Vene is an Estonian professional basketball player for Šiauliai of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL). Standing at 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in), he plays both the small forward and power forward positions. Vene represents the Estonian national basketball team internationally, and was named Estonian Basketball Player of the Year in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
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Agnė Širinskienė
- Occupations
- university teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Agnė Širinskienė is a Lithuanian politician. She was elected to the Seimas with the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union in 2016. One of the leading members of the party, she was described as "Ramūnas Karbauskis's hitwoman". She left the party in 2021 and joined Dawn of Nemunas in 2024.
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Juozas Ambrazevičius
- Occupations
- historianpolitician
- Biography
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Juozas Ambrazevičius or Juozas Brazaitis was a Lithuanian literary historian and politician who served as the prime minister of the Nazi-collaborationist Lithuanian provisional government in 1941. His own ideology and views are disputed.
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Jonas Aistis
- Occupations
- poetwriter
- Biography
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Jonas Aleksandravičius, better known as Jonas Aistis or Jonas Kuosa-Aleksandravičius, was a Lithuanian writer, poet, and essayist. Aistis was one of the most prominent neoromantic poets of Lithuania.
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Henrikas Radauskas
- Occupations
- poetwriter
- Biography
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Henrikas Radauskas was a Lithuanian poet and writer. Described as an "art alcoholic" by the contemporary Alfonsas Nyka-Niliūnas, Radauskas's works are marked by aestheticism, anti-lyricism, aesthetic distance, and poetic transformation of reality. He is described as "one of the most accomplished Baltic poets of the post-World War II years, and perhaps the greatest Lithuanian poet of the twentieth century".
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Vincentas Sladkevičius
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Vincentas Sladkevičius, M.I.C. was a Lithuanian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Kaunas from 1989 to 1996, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1988.
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Antanas Venclova
- Occupations
- poetliterary criticpolitician
- Biography
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Antanas Venclova was a Soviet and Lithuanian politician, poet, journalist and translator.
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Loreta Graužinienė
- Occupations
- accountantpolitician
- Biography
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Loreta Graužinienė is a Lithuanian politician and altruist former Speaker of the Seimas and former leader of the Lithuanian Labour party.
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Simonas Kairys
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Simonas Kairys is a Lithuanian politician, former Deputy Mayor of Kaunas and Kaunas City Councillor.
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Kęstutis Kėvalas
- Occupations
- university teacherCatholic bishopCatholic priest
- Biography
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Kęstutis Kėvalas is a Lithuanian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kaunas since 2020. He has been a bishop since 2012, serving first as an auxiliary bishop of Kaunas from 2012 to 2017 and then as bishop of Telšiai from 2017 to 2020.
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Meilė Lukšienė
- Occupations
- historianliterary scholarpedagogueuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Meilutė Julija Lukšienė née Matjošaitytė was a Lithuanian university professor, cultural historian, and activist.
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Kazys Bobelis
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticiansurgeon
- Biography
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Kazys Bobelis was a Lithuanian surgeon and politician.
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Juozas Girnius
- Years
- 1915-1994 (aged 79)
- Occupations
- philosopher
- Biography
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Juozas Girnius was a Lithuanian existentialist philosopher. His philosophy combined existentialism, Catholicism, and Lithuanian nationalism. Together with Antanas Maceina and Stasys Šalkauskis, Girnius became a cornerstone of modern Lithuanian philosophy. In 1994, he was awarded the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas.
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Adolfas Jucys
- Occupations
- mathematiciantheoretical physicistphysicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Adolfas Pranaitis Jucys was a Lithuanian theoretical physicist, and inducted member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in 1953, participated in mathematics. He graduated from Kaunas University in 1931 and later worked with both creators of the self-consistent field method – Douglas Hartree in Manchester (in 1938) and Vladimir Fock in Leningrad (1949–1951). Adolfas Jucys created the scientific school of theoretical physics in Vilnius, was the head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at Vilnius University (1944–1971). He organized the first Institute of Physics and Mathematics in Lithuania and was its first director (1956–1963), and later (1971–1974) the head of the institute's Department of Quantum Mechanical Calculations.
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Antanas Vaičiulaitis
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Antanas Vaičiulaitis was a Lithuanian diplomat, writer, and translator. Vaičiulaitis started writing in the 1930s, creating works distinguished by his particularly bright humanistic worldview and attention to the aesthetic perfection of literary form. Vaičiulaitis is one of the most prominent representatives of Christian humanism in Lithuanian literature, comparable to such 20th-century French and Italian literary masters as André Maurois, François Mauriac, and Giovanni Papini. Through his stylistic refinement and Western creative orientation, he resembles Jurgis Savickis and Henrikas Radauskas, and like them, represents the mature and free artistic culture of independent Lithuania.
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Virginija Baltraitienė
- Enrolled in Vytautas Magnus University
- 1976-1981 studied economics
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Virginija Baltraitienė is a Lithuanian politician and public figure, she was formerly the Minister of Agriculture in the Butkevičius Cabinet. She is the Vice Mayor of the Kėdainiai district.
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Leonas Prapuolenis
- Occupations
- economist
- Biography
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Leonas Prapuolenis was a Lithuanian public figure, commander, and leader of the June Uprising of 1941 in Lithuania.
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Genadijus Linas Vodopjanovas
- Occupations
- Catholic deaconCatholic bishopCatholic priest
- Biography
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Linas Vodopjanovas is a Lithuanian clergyman and bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Panevėžys. He was ordained in 2000. He was appointed bishop in 2016.
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Petras Babickas
- Occupations
- journalistpoet
- Biography
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Petras Babickas was a Lithuanian journalist, poet, writer, traveler, filmmaker, diplomat, and photographer who pioneered radio journalism and artistic photography in interwar Lithuania.
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Augustinas Povilaitis
- Occupations
- military personnelpolitician
- Biography
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Augustinas Povilaitis was a captain of the Lithuanian Army and Director of the State Security Department of Lithuania. Together with Minister of the Interior Kazys Skučas, Povilaitis was a target of anti-Lithuanian Soviet propaganda in the days leading to the 1940 Soviet ultimatum and occupation of Lithuania. Directly after the Red Army invaded Lithuania on 15 June 1940, Povilaitis was arrested and transported to Moscow. He was executed in 1941. In 2006 he was awarded the Order of the Cross of Vytis.
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Zenonas Puzinauskas
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Zenonas Puzinauskas was a Lithuanian basketball player. He won two gold medals with the Lithuania national basketball team during EuroBasket 1937 and EuroBasket 1939.
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Ari Ankorion
- Occupations
- politicianlawyerwriterjournalistadvocate
- Biography
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Ari Ankorion was an Israeli politician and lawyer.
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Juozas Paukštelis
- Occupations
- translatorwriter
- Biography
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Juozas Paukštelis born Juozas Ptašinskas was a Lithuanian author and translator. His works have been translated into Russian, Polish, and Kazakh.
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Birutė Valionytė
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Birutė Valionytė is a Lithuanian politician. In 1990 she was among those who signed the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania.
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Vaclovas Sidzikauskas
- Occupations
- diplomatjurist
- Biography
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Vaclovas Sidzikauskas was a prominent diplomat in interwar Lithuania and post-war anti-communist.
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Audrius Beinorius
- Occupations
- linguistphilosopher
- Biography
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Audrius Beinorius is a Lithuanian philosopher, orientalist (specialist of Indology, Buddhist studies and Comparative Studies), translator, Habilitated Doctor of Humane Letters.
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Jonas Puzinas
- Occupations
- archaeologist
- Biography
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Jonas Puzinas was a Lithuanian archaeologist and specialist on the prehistory of Lithuania. He belonged to the first generation of Lithuanian scholars who matured in independent Lithuania (1918–40). He was the first scientifically trained archaeologist of Lithuania and he laid the foundations, including some of the basic terminology and periodization, for future archaeological studies. His work in Lithuania was cut short by World War II. In 1944, he retreated to Germany and then to the United States. There he continued his academic work, notably editing Lithuanian encyclopedias.
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Vytautas Augustaitis
- Occupations
- sports executive
- Biography
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Vytautas Augustauskas-Augustaitis was a Lithuanian educator, scientist, sports organizer, and one of the Lithuanian physical education system creators.
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Jonas Acus-Acukas
- Occupations
- chemist
- Biography
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Jonas Asevicius-Acus-Acukas was a Lithuanian army officer and chemist. From 1909 to 1918, he served in the Imperial Russian Army at Kaunas Fortress. He fought in the First World War and the Russian Civil War. In 1921 he returned to Lithuania and was mobilized into the Lithuanian Armed Forces, where he attained the rank of colonel (1927) and served until 1940. Acus graduated from Vytautas Magnus University in 1930. He lectured on chemistry and commodity science at Vytautas Magnus University (1934–1940), Vilnius University (1940–1950), and Lithuanian University of Agriculture (1951–1957). He wrote textbooks on foundations of commodity science (1949) and a short course in physical chemistry (1957). Acus was awarded the Commander's Crosses of the Order of Vytautas the Great (1938) and the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas (1928).
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Dalia Leinartė
- Occupations
- women's rights activisthistorianuniversity teachersociologisthuman rights defender
- Biography
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Dalia Leinarte is an international human rights expert and historian. In January 2025, as a joined candidate of the Baltic states, Leinarte was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (CCPR) in by-elections held in New York. Leinarte is Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge. She also served to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). In 2018, Apolitical selected her as one of the 100 most influential people in gender policy around the world.
