Winfrey will receive the award for creating her Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa and the Oprah Angel Network.

She produced the Broadway musical The Color Purple. Winfrey is best known as the host of the Emmy Award-winning The Oprah Winfrey Show and has acted in film and television, most notably as Sofia in the film version of The Color Purple.

This year's Minerva Awards will also be given to former Supreme Court judge Sandra Day O'Connor; Operation Gratitude founder Carolyn Blashek; Oral Lee Brown, whose foundation assists high school students in Oakland, California; and Sister Terry Dodge, the executive director of Crossroads Inc., a residential program in Claremont, California that offers support and counseling to women who have been incarcerated.