Grace Forrest

Grace Forrest is the Founding Director of Walk Free, an international anti-slavery organization. She established Walk Free over a decade ago after living and working in Nepal at a rescue home for children who had been subjected to various forms of exploitation. “She witnessed the extent of the extreme and continued commodification of human beings,” according to Walk Free. She is a featured keynote speaker at the 2025 Design for Freedom Summit.

In a relatively short time, Forrest and her organization have made significant impacts. In 2024, Forrest received the Roosevelt Institute’s “Freedom from Fear” award, a think tank, a student network, and the nonprofit partner to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. “From that experience, working on the frontline, I learned the hard way that for every person that is pulled out, another person will go in. Modern slavery is sadly one of the most profitable organized crimes in the world,” she said in a CNN interview. Forrest is the first Australian woman to ever receive this prestigious award. Four Freedom awards are presented each year to individuals committed to the four principles championed by U.S. President Franklin D Roosevelt in his historic 1941 State of the Union address speech, commonly known as the “Four Freedoms” speech.

Walk Free produces the Global Slavery Index, the most comprehensive dataset on modern slavery, used to inform global laws and policies, partnering with businesses, governments, and frontline organizations. In collaboration with the United Nations, Walk Free develops the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, providing the world’s first global consensus on the scale of modern slavery.

Forrest also serves as a Commissioner on the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. She is also a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Australia and previously served as a board member for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and the Freedom Fund. She recently joined Former UK prime minister Theresa May’s, Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, alongside UN Under-Secretary General Adama Dieng, Former First Vice-President of Costa Rica Epsy Campbell-Barr, and Director of Programs and Development at the Elman Peace Centre, Ilwad Elman, according to Philanthropy Australia.

Together they work “towards putting modern slavery on the global political agenda, especially urging action from G20 countries.”