"one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, who is really changing the world"
—Tom Brokaw, on Greg Mortenson

In 1993, Mortenson climbed Pakistan's K2, the world's second highest mountain, in the Karakoram range. While recovering in a local village called Korphe, he met a group of children sitting in the dirt writing with sticks in the sand, and made a promise to help them build a school. From that rash promise, grew a remarkable humanitarian campaign, in which Mortenson has dedicated his life to promote education and literacy, especially for girls, in remote, volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

By 2007, Mortenson had established over 61 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. These schools serve over 25,000 children, including 14,000 girls, for whom few education opportunities existed before.

His work has not been without difficulty. In 1996, he survived an eight-day armed kidnapping in the Northwest Frontier Province tribal areas of Pakistan. He has overcome two fatwehs from enraged Islamic mullahs, endured CIA investigations, and also received hate mail and death threats from fellow Americans after 9/11, for helping Muslim children with education.

Mortenson is a living hero to rural communities of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he has gained the trust of Islamic leaders, military commanders, government officials and tribal chiefs from his tireless effort to champion education, especially for girls. He is one of few foreigners who have worked extensively in the past fifteen years in the region now considered the front lines of the war on terror, spending over 65 months in 34 trips.

His cross-cultural expertise has brought him to speak on Capital Hill, to groups in libraries and universities, in churches, mosques and synagogues. From March 2006 through 2007, he visited over 110 cities to share his message of peace through education.

Mortenson advocates girls' education as the top priority to promote economic development, peace and prosperity, and says, "you can drop bombs, hand out condoms, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won't change."

Greg Mortenson is the co-founder of nonprofit Central Asia Institute, Pennies For Peace, and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea, which has been a bestseller since its release and was Time Magazine's Asia Book of The Year.

In conjunction with Greg Mortenson's appearance at Kentucky Author Forum, and through the generosity of Greg and his Central Asia Institute, 1000 copies of Three Cups of Tea were distributed throughout the Louisville community. The distribution effort was a partnership between Kentucky Author Forum and Carmichael's Bookstore, and allowed for free copies of this inspiring book to be given to schools, libraries, hospitals, and community centers.

Greg Mortenson was interviewed at Kentucky Author Forum by Jacki Lyden, currently Senior Correspondent and Alternate Host for National Public Radio. Lyden, who traveled extensively in the Middle East as Foreign Correspondent for NPR, interviewed Ambassador Dennis Ross at Kentucky Author Forum in 2004.