Bernardsville Native, TIME Magazine Person of the Year to Speak for Women's History Month

Bernardsville, NJ -- Bernardsville native Katie Meyler, who was named TIME Magazine Person of the Year, will bring a message of female empowerment as she speaks at the annual Outstanding Women in Somerset County Awards dinner.

The Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders has proclaimed March 2016 as National Women’s History Month. This year’s theme is, “Working to Form a More Perfect Union: Honoring Women in Public Service and Government.”

Role model for women of all ages

Meyler -- the founder of More Than Me (MTM), a nonprofit organization using education as a catalyst for social change for every girl in Liberia -- is a role model for women of all ages.

Recently she spoke to a group of fellow Girl Scouts about her work in Liberia on March 6 at Bernardsville United Methodist Church.

Meyler joined the Girl Scouts as a Brownie and stayed until she was a Junior. During her time she learned how to pack a bag, which came in handy when she took her first job out of college in the bush of Liberia.

“I grew up in poverty in the US, and before I knew what real poverty was abroad, Girl Scouts helped me level the playing field,” Meyler told Patch. “It opened up social circles for me and allowed me to make friends beyond what I would have been able to otherwise. I've always been a social butterfly, but Girl Scouts helped me learn how to make friends with all types of people.”

Forming More Than Me

“It all started with a girl,” Meyler said. “When I was working my first job in Liberia over 10 years ago, I met a girl who was selling herself for clean drinking water in the West Point slum of Monrovia. She asked me if I could help get her to school, and I started raising money on MySpace for her tuition fees because school in Liberia isn't free.”

That one girl turned to 10 then 20, and Meyler was eventually advised to start an organization.

“I kept thinking: ‘I'm not Ivy League! I'm not smart enough - I don't have a masters degree! I didn't come from money!’” Meyler said. “Then, a good friend of mine looked at me and gave me the best advice of my life. He said, ‘Katie, get over yourself. It's not about you.’”

More Than Me was born from that advice. Her organization then grew from a scholarship program to running the first all-girls tuition-free academy serving the most vulnerable girls in West Point and Central Monrovia.

“Behind all of that is that first little girl; no girl should ever have to sell herself for basic needs when all she wants to do is go to school,” Meyler said.

TIME Magazine Person of the Year

With her work, Meyler was named a TIME Person of the Year for her work during the Ebola crisis. Now, she is working with the government of Liberia to overhaul the nation's entire educational system.

Being given this honor is “bittersweet” for Meyler.

“Obviously, it is an incredible honor that I am so happy to receive, but it was awarded for the hardest months of my life,” Meyler said. “Working on the front lines of Ebola changed me; I saw a lot of people die, and I stayed to ensure that those deaths weren't amongst our students. The best thing about the award, though, is that I can use it as a platform to make sure that the world addresses the conditions that allowed Ebola to take the toll it did and to make sure it never happens again. This award for me is an opportunity to call the world to action and bring global momentum to the broken education system in Liberia.”

The Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders will host its annual Outstanding Women in Somerset County Awards dinner March 18 at The Imperia in Franklin, honoring 10 county residents as well as guest speaker Meyler.

For more information on More Than Me visit morethanme.org.

(Photo 1 provided: Katie Meyler)

(Photo 2: Somerset County Freeholder Director Patricia Walsh, left, presented the annual Women’s History Month proclamation to members of the county Commission on the Status of Women at the freeholder board’s March 8 meeting. Pictured left to right with Freeholder Walsh are Smriti Agrawal of Raritan, Susan Sun of Bridgewater, Marti Kalko of Green Brook, Commission Chair Janice Fields of Bernards, Victoria Okereke of North Plainfield, Jeanette Ash of Green Brook and Jennifer Dinardi of Hillsborough.)