Theme: Ideas in Action

Ideas in Action

Lincoln School
19 Kennard Road
Brookline, Massachusetts, 02445
United States

Abigail Noble

Abigail Noble is the CEO of The ImPact, a non-profit cofounded by visionary philanthropists who are committed to addressing the world's social and environmental problems through impact investing. As the former Head of Impact Investing at the World Economic Forum, Abigail has has travelled to 96 countries and worked closely with CEOs, Heads of State and grassroots entrepreneurs to bridge the worlds of social change and investment markets.

Agnis Stibe

Dr. Agnis Stibe is a Postdoctoral Associate of Changing Places group at MIT Media Lab His work is focused on persuasive engineering of Socially Influencing Systems (SIS) for behavior change. His research foundation is built upon an extensive knowledge base deriving from socio-psychological theories that describe various aspects of social influence. Agnis is an active member of the Persuasive Technology community, frequently chairing and speaking at annual research conferences (e.g. HICSS, ECIS, MobiWIS), and effectively collaborating with industry. Over more than 20 years, Agnis has gained professional experience in sales and marketing of IT services and products, development of interactive web solutions, and customer relationship management. He has worked for a number of multinational IT companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, and FirstData International.

Al Millar

Audiences the world over have been left breathless by Al's incredibly freaky body contortions, cheeky comedy and ridiculous, sky-high feats of danger. A mix of traditional vaudeville, circus sideshow and twisted comedy,THE HUMAN KNOT is a one-man, self-contained circus stunt-show. Al is now based out of Boston, MA and performs there regularly.

Albert Redo-Sanchez

Albert Redo-Sanchez is Research Specialist at the MIT Media Lab. He works in developing new technology for the inspection of cultural heritage objects using terahertz waves and other multi-spectral imaging methods. He is also an aviation enthusiast and he would like to become an astronaut.

Anjali Tripathi

A Los Angeles native, Anjali Tripathi is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Astronomy department at Harvard University. With a passion for astrophysics, Anjali has done everything from working on Mars Rovers to analyzing computer simulations of colliding galaxies. She holds an S.B. in physics from MIT, and an M.Phil from Cambridge University, where she was a Marshall Scholar studying the size and structure of the Milky Way galaxy. Her current Ph.D. research explores how planets form and evolve. Using computer simulations, she has traced the 3D structure of planetary atmospheres that are shrinking due to evaporation. Anjali now focuses on birth, rather than death, by using radio antenna observations of dust around stars to understand the birth environments of planets.

Anthony Flint

Anthony Flint is a fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the author of Modern Man: The Life of Le Corbusier, Architect of Tomorrow (New Harvest, 2014), Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City, (Random House, 2009) and This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006); and co-editor of Smart Growth Policies: An Evaluation of Programs and Outcomes (Lincoln Institute, 2009). He has been a journalist for 30 years, primarily at The Boston Globe, a policy advisor on smart growth for Massachusetts state government, a visiting scholar and Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and a fellow at The American Library in Paris and the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center. AHe is also author of the blogs At Lincoln House, Developing Stories, and This Land. @anthonyflint.

Aristides Rivas

Aristides Rivas is a cellist, native of Venezuela, who leads a versatile career as a teacher at Longy School of Music of Bard College and is the principal cello of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also toured extensively in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, both as a teacher and a performer with different groups and projects, including the YOA Leaders Program, world music Voci Angelica Trio, and the Grammy nominated for best contemporary jazz album Julian Lage Group.

Benjamin de Bivort

Benjamin de Bivort is a neuroscientist in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Center for Brain Science at Harvard University.

Carol Fishman Cohen

Carol Fishman Cohen, CEO, iRelaunch, is the co-author of career reentry strategy book Back on the Career Track and author of the "40-Year-Old Intern" article series in Harvard Business Review. She consults extensively with companies developing and running reentry internship programs for returning professionals. Carol originated and co-leads the Society of Women Engineers/iRelaunch STEM Reentry Task Force initiative in which 7 global engineering-based companies are piloting reentry internship programs for returning engineers. Carol's return to work at Bain Capital after 11 years out of the full time workforce is documented in a Harvard Business School case study.

Colin Stokes

Colin was performing in a long-running off-Broadway show when his daughter was born. “I was singing and telling jokes for the delegates of the 2004 Republican Convention. There was such an intense conversation going on about values and the direction of the country. But as an actor my job was to distract from that. It dawned on me that there was more I could contribute.” Fatherhood then showed him how little he knew. Leaving Broadway behind, the family moved to Brookline. Colin found a new career in non-profit marketing and launched into fatherhood, a role that continues to challenge his curiosity. This is Colin’s third TEDx talk: his previous talks have examined the role that movies play in shaping our ideas about gender and race, and who should be the heroes of our lives. His role as a father continues to push him to examine life’s difficult questions, and he generously shares his thoughts with us.

Cornelia Liu Trimble

Dr. Cornelia Liu Trimble, Professor in the Departments of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Pathology, an Oncology, is a physician scientist who is involved not only in elucidating the reasons that distinguish why some patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers progress while others spontaneously regress, but also in using these insights in developing and delivering novel immune therapies effective for HPV disease. At Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, she has established a multidisciplinary program that is unique in the nation – the Center for Cervical Dysplasia.

Dave Friedman

Dave Friedman is a Senior Vice President of the Red Sox and board member of the Red Sox Foundation. He previously served as Massachusetts First Assistant Attorney General, was a Supreme Court Clerk, Harvard Law Review President, and Harvard College World Debate Champion.

Erica Dhawan

Erica Dhawan is the co-author of Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence. She is a researcher, strategist and keynote speaker on the new world of work and advises clients such as Google, Deloitte, Fidelity and the United Nations.

Frank van Mierlo

Frank van Mierlo is the CEO of 1366 Technologies, a solar technology company he started together with a team of MIT engineers in 2008. The goal of 1366 Technologies is to make silicon based solar cells competitive with coal generated electricity. Frank holds engineering degrees from MIT and Stanford and a business degree from Insead.

Hiawatha Bray

Hiawatha Bray is a technology writer for the Business section. He has contributed to a number of newspapers and magazines including Wired, Fast Company and Black Enterprise. He received an Overseas Press Club award for his series on the Internet in Africa.

Howard Gardner

Howard Gardner teaches psychology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, He has authored many books, including MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES and TRUTH, BEAUTY, AND GOODNESS REFRAMED. He has won many awards, including a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, and has received honorary degrees from over 30 institutions all over the world.

Isaiah Kacyvenski

Isaiah graduated from Harvard University with honors in Pre-Medicine. He played eight years in the National Football League, and was captain for the Seattle Seahawks first Super Bowl team. After transitioning from the NFL by earning his MBA from Harvard Business School. Isaiah is the Global Head of Business Development at high tech company MC10 Inc. Isaiah is also an investor in, and advisor to, several companies in technology, sports, biotech, media and sports medicine.

Jack Hidary

Jack co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of EarthWeb/Dice.com (NYSE:DHX), the leading online job board for the IT sector. Jack serves on several board including the Google X Labs advisory board, the Palo Alto Prize advisory board and is on the board of trustees of the X Prize Foundation. www.xprize.org Committed to community and philanthropic causes, he has received several industry and community awards as well as being recognized as a Global Leader of Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum, Davos. Jack is also a founding member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). Jack is currently chairman of Samba Energy www.sambaenergy.com Jack appears regularly on Bloomberg TV, Fox Business and CNBC addressing tech trends

James Miner

James Miner is an urban planner and managing principal at Sasaki Associates, Inc. Sasaki is a global design firm known for its culture of innovation and thought leadership in the fields of urban design, planning, landscape architecture, civil engineering, architecture, interior design, and graphic design.

Jeff Marlow

Jeffrey Marlow is a Geobiologist and Postdoctoral Scholar at Harvard University, where he studies deep-ocean microbiology and the inner workings of methane-metabolizing microorganisms. In addition to his scientific research, Marlow writes for Discover Magazine, and is the founder of the Mars Academy, a global education project that brings the excitement and inspirational power of exploration to some of the world’s most disadvantaged communities.

Jing-Ke Weng

Jing-Ke Weng is a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and an Assistant Professor of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on deciphering the mechanistic basis for the evolution of chemical diversity in Nature.

Joe Kearns Goodwin

How can we truly make America great again? Joe Kearns Goodwin argues that the answer can be found in national service. By asking all young American’s to do something, somewhere – be it in the Peace Corps, Teach for America, Americorps, City Year, military service, or any number of other opportunities – we can train a generation of leaders who will be able to replicate the great social achievements of the past and overcome the toxic racial, political and cultural divisiveness in our society today. If you want to learn more about the effort to promote a year of national service, please visit Joe’s website at www.josephkearnsgoodwin.com.

John Danner

UC Berkeley and Princeton faculty member; anchors international executive leadership programs; advisor to major enterprises and emerging ventures on strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship; frequent keynote speaker at conferences globally; author

Jonathan Ortheden

Jonathan Ortheden is a Swedish entrepreneur who, at age 15, developed an app that became an instant global success, threatened the SnapChat business model which almost resulted in a lawsuit. Turning this early defeat into opportunity, he now runs an award-winning and rewarding development business with clients including Porsche and WordBolt. He dives in to the truth of what it takes to become a success, and how you can identify big lessons from any business challenge. Now with over a million downloads he’s shaping the future in tech.

Joy Ladin

Joy Ladin's return to Yeshiva University as a woman after receiving tenure as a man made her the first openly transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish institution and made page-3 news in the New York Post. Her memoir of gender transition, Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders, was a finalist for a 2012 National Jewish Book Award, and winner of a Forward Fives award. She has given over 120 talks about transgender identity, and holds the Gottesman Chair in English at Yeshiva University.

Juan Enriquez

An active investor in early stage private companies in the life sciences and big data sectors, Juan is one of the world’s leading authorities on the uses and benefits of genomic code. He is the co-author of a recently published book Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Shaping Life on Earth (March 2015) which describes a world where humans increasingly shape their environment, themselves, and other species. He is also the author of the global bestseller As The Future Catches You and of The Untied States of America, and co-author of Homo Evolutis. Juan writes, speaks, and teaches about the profound changes that genomics and other life sciences will cause in business, technology, politics, and society. He is one of the top speakers at TED and other venues. He and Bill Gatess were the first outside guest curators for TED.

Justin Constantine

As a Marine officer, Justin deployed to Iraq and suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Extremely fortunate to survive such an injury, Justin is now an Inspirational Speaker and a nationally-renowned thought leader in the veteran space. Despite being shot in the head, he recently completed an advanced law degree, published an illuminating book about leadership, runs several businesses and is involved in a wide variety of nonprofit organizations.

Kandice Sumner

Kandice A. Sumner, M.Ed, is a doctoral student in Urban Education Policy and successful Boston Public School teacher. Going from being one of a few Blacks in her school to learning at a historically Black college to teaching in the underserved and predominately Black neighborhood of Dorchester, Kandice has spent a lifetime traversing the race, class and gender lines of Boston, Mass.

Kenneth Sebesta

Dr. Kenneth D. Sebesta has made a career of flight, drones, and robotics. His work includes animal inspired flight and the invention of a consumer drone, the LVL 1.

Kevin Gosnell

Kevin calls himself unbelievably blessed to have his best friend and soul mate as his partner in life; he’s been married to his wife, Kathy, for 20 years. Together they have 3 amazing sons. Kevin graduated from Framingham State, where he played football; his tenure as captain during his senior year was his first real experience in leadership, which turned out to be a passion of his. In order to pay for college himself, he started T&K Asphalt Services with a childhood friend. T&K has grown to serve greater New England, with 150 employees and over $25 million/year in sales. He has been involved in other businesses and has a deep passion and knowledge in marketing, sales and leadership. He believes in self-education and is a student of any challenge he tackles. Kevin received a diagnosis of ALS in May 2015. He then immediately learned that there are no real treatment options - and that was unacceptable. Since then he has worked on getting his personal life in order so he can help ALS.

Kitty Pechet

Kitty got on a surfboard for the first time in her 50s. It changed her life, and she never looked back. She rode her board to freedom. She went on to win dozens of surfing competitions in all categories, including “men only!” Before that, she had been a staid housewife, mother, and calligrapher; suddenly, she became a free spirit. Instead of perfect little letterforms, she started creating big, wild paintings. She has exhibited in City Hall in Bermuda, the Danforth Museum in Framingham, and the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and had solo shows at Emmanuel College and Harvard University.

Leila Mankarious

Leila has been in academic medicine at Harvard for 20 years and has a great interest in understanding the service-leadership connection and how that skill set is improved by caring for families.

Liam Kerr

Liam is the founding Massachusetts state director of the political advocacy group Democrats for Education Reform. He started his career with AmeriCorps, helping expand a library-based adult literacy program, and later worked in management consulting and as a project manager for a venture philanthropy fund. He has advised nonprofits in New England and Europe, and worked on statewide political campaigns in Massachusetts and Vermont. Liam attended Massachusetts public schools and Providence College; he holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where he was awarded the Herman Feldman 1929 Memorial Prize for leadership. Liam serves on the Advisory Committee of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Columbia University. He co-founded No Boston Olympics, which led the initial public opposition to the private effort bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to Massachusetts. Liam lives in Boston with his wife, son, and Irish Wheaten Terrier.

Lin Yang

Lin Yang is a Harvard trained China public policy specialist and a media veteran (former China Central Television TV News Anchor and Forbes columnist on US-China). She is named as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Linda Sue Park

Linda Sue Park is the author of many books for young readers, including A SINGLE SHARD, winner of the 2002 Newbery Medal, and A LONG WALK TO WATER, on the New York Times bestseller list for more than two years. She has traveled to 46 states and 16 countries to talk to audiences of all ages about books, reading, and writing.

Lisa Nip

Lisa Nip is a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab and uses her training in biochemistry and biotechnology to translate synthetic biology into real-world applications. She spends much of her time concocting biological solutions to long-duration space travel and works to make them a reality.

Margaret Bourdeaux

Dr. Bourdeaux is a physician and global health policy analyst working at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital Division of Global Health Equity.

Mark Kirby

Mark Kirby is a passionate technologist, doer, and life-long learner focused on enabling large organizations build and inspire teams that excel at harnessing technology’s potential. Mark has been entrusted by leading global corporations - Capgemini, Liberty Mutual, BellSouth (AT&T), Dimension Data, Disney - to define and execute strategic technology and transformation efforts. He began his career in his home country of Botswana, has worked across four continents, and holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University.

Mary Lou Jepsen

Mary Lou is one of the world’s foremost electro-optic and display innovators, with an exceptional track record of inventions paralleled by years of working with Asia’s largest manufacturers. She has founded 3 startups including One Laptop per Child, and has served as ab executive at Intel, Google and Facebook, as well as a professor at both MITs (MIT and RMIT).

Matt Kohut

Matthew Kohut is co-author of Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities that Make Us Influential, and the managing partner of KNP Communications. His writing has appeared in publications ranging from Harvard Business Review to Newsweek.

Michael Crickmore

Michael Crickmore is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and runs a research lab in the FM Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children's Hospital.

Michele Ferrari

Michele Ferrari has spent a lot of her life passing as middle-class. She grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn and went on to the Ivy League, eventually earning a PhD. Since moving to Cambridge, she has been doing advocacy work with educational programs like 826 Boston and Posse.

Nicholas Negroponte

Nicholas is founder and chairman of the One Laptop per Child non-profit association. He is currently on leave from MIT, where he was co-founder and director of the MIT Media Laboratory, and the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Technology. A graduate of MIT, Nicholas was a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design, and has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1966. Conceived in 1980, the Media Laboratory opened its doors in 1985. He is also author of the 1995 best seller, Being Digital, which has been translated into more than 40 languages. In the private sector, Nicholas serves on the board of directors for Motorola, Inc. and as general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment. He has provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies, including Wired magazine.

Nick Benson

Nicholas Benson is the owner and operator of the John Stevens Shop, founded in 1705, and a third generation stone carver. He is an NEA National Heritage Fellow and a 2010 MacArtur Fellow .

Nick Donohue

Nick Donohue is the President & CEO of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the largest philanthropic organization in New England focused exclusively on education. Nick was previously Commissioner of Education in New Hampshire.

Pete Kalvert

A consummate teaching artist and dually certified New Jersey Teacher of Music and Social Studies, Pete Kalvert has proven himself to be a galvanizing force for Music education as the Founder & Director of Music Ascension. Since 1999, he and his team have produced over 80 CDs featuring the lyrics, music, and artwork of thousands of children throughout the United States.

Phil Sanderson

Phil Sanderson is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who invests, bloggs and tweets about entrepreneurship, technology, music and gaming. You can follow him on Twitter @SanFranciscoVC and www.SFVC.com

Rachel Pritzker

Rachel Pritzker is president and founder of the Pritzker Innovation Fund, which supports the development and advancement of paradigm-shifting ideas to address the world's most wicked problems. She chairs the Breakthrough Institute Advisory Board and is a board member of the Center for Global Development and Third Way. Rachel also serves on the advisory committee of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, and is a co-signor of An Ecomodernist Manifesto, which outlines a powerful alternative approach to climate mitigation and human development.

Rebecca Ryan

Rebecca Ryan is a professional futurist, economist, and author of The Next Big Things: The Next 20 Years in Local Government; Regeneration: A Manifesto for America's Future Leaders; and Live First, Work Second: Getting Inside the Head of the Next Generation.

Robert Waldinger

Robert Waldinger is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and Zen priest. He directs the Harvard Study of Adult Development at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and teaches at Harvard Medical School. To learn more about The Good Life and keep abreast of research findings, insights, and more, visit www.RobertWaldinger.com.

Ron Dantowitz

Dantowitz is the Director of the Clay Center Observatory at Dexter Southfield, in Brookline, MA. An aeronautical engineer with six NASA achievement awards and 25 years of experience in science education, he has learned the most from being a dad of three naturally curious scientists.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Rosabeth Moss Kanter wrote her first novel at the age of 11. Not one to rest on her childhood laurels, Kanter’s ambition and fierce intellect earned her a BA in sociology and English Literature from Bryn Mawr, followed by an MA and PhD in Sociology from the University of Michigan. Her dissertation on 19th-century utopian communities set the stage for a long and incredibly distinguished career in business research and academia. Kanter taught at Brandeis, Harvard and Yale before joining the faculty at Harvard Business School as the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business and director and chair of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative. A prolific writer, Kanter has published numerous books on business management, gender and race in the workplace.

Russ Howard

Scott Kirsner

Scott Kirsner has written the Boston Globe's Innovation Economy column since 2000. He is the editor of Innovation Leader, a website about corporate innovation, and author of the books "Inventing the Movies" and "Fans, Friends & Followers."

Shad Deering

Colonel Shad Deering is a high risk pregnancy doctor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Uniformed Services University. He has delivered babies in 10 different states and a combat zone, been awarded the Bronze Star Medal, and created an obstetric emergency simulation program now in place throughout the world that focuses on saving mothers and babies.

Sonia Lo

CEO

Steve Koppel

Retired after 20 years as a management consultant with Accenture, Steve found inspiration for his next endeavor at the intersection of photography as an artistic hobby, and the challenges he and his family faced when dealing with mental illness. In 2013, Steve founded the EDI Institute as a non-profit dedicated to promoting recovery and emotional resilience through imagery people create on mobile devices.

Steven Schwaitzberg

Steven Schwaitzberg, MD, is a pioneer in the field of minimally invasive surgery. Over the course of his career, he has worked on developing the techniques and certification standards for this type of surgery, which is far less painful for patients and allows them to return to their normal lives sooner than with traditional surgery. Schwaitzberg is the Chief of Surgery at the Cambridge Health Alliance at the Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital. He recently served as the president of SAGES (Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons), a national organization that seeks to advance surgery and improve patient care. Now, he has his eye on teaching minimally invasive surgery techniques to surgeons who live and work across the globe — a task which has led him on a hunt for the right technology to allow for video conferencing and real-time translation in a surgeon’s native language.

Suezette Robotham

Suezette is a first generation immigrant child and a first generation college graduate. Lovingly called “The Talent Whisperer” by her friends and colleagues, Suezette’s key strengths and interests include talent acquisition, leadership development, strategic planning, and relationship building. She founded The Higher and Hire Group, LLC as a way of paying forward all of the development, love, and support she’s gotten throughout her career.

Susan Callender

Susan Callender is referred to as a "Star Maker" by her clients ranging from youth to senior executives who wish to develop a level of confidence and charisma which sets them apart in crowded, competitive environments and whose trajectory has soared under her tutelage She is the CEO of Oh My Gauche, a firm specializing in western etiquette, global protocol and interpersonal skills training.

Terri Lyne Carrington

Terri Lyne Carrington is a 3-time Grammy Award winning jazz drummer and producer. She received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music at age 11, and later became the youngest person to receive an honorary doctorate from the college as well. She has performed with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Al Jarreau, Stevie Wonder, Stan Getz, Lalah Hathaway, Dianne Reeves and is currently teaching at Berklee College of Music's Global Jazz Institute.

Tina Cassidy

Tina Cassidy is an author (Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born; and Jackie After O), a former journalist and public relations executive. She loves Thanksgiving and traditions.

Vladimir Bulovic

Vladimir Bulović joined MIT in 2000 and is a Professor of Emerging Technology and the School of Engineering’s Associate Dean for Innovation. He leads the Organic and Nanostructured Electronics Laboratory and is co-director of the eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center and MIT’s Innovation Initiative. He is an author of over 140 articles and an inventor of over 50 patents in areas of light-emitting diodes, lasers, photovoltaics, and others. He has founded several solar and other technology companies. Prof. Bulović’s many awards include the U.S. Presidential Early Carrier Award for Scientist and Engineers and the National Science Foundation Career Award. In 2012, he shared the SEMI Award for North America in recognition of his contribution to commercialization of the quantum dot technology. In 2008 he was named the Class of 1960 Faculty Fellow in recognition of his contribution to Energy Education, in 2009 he was awarded the Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellowship, MITs highest teaching honor.

Wayne Moses Burke

Wayne Moses Burke has been trying to save the world for over a decade, primarily through his nonprofit, the Open Forum Foundation. He also works at NASA JPL, where he wrangles brilliant people to do amazing things. He understands both technology and people and spends a lot of time figuring out how the two can work together.

William Foster

William Foster is a partner and head of the consulting practice at The Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit advisor and resource for mission-driven organizations and philanthropists. He has helped philanthropists structure some of the past decade’s biggest philanthropic bets on social change. William is a widely quoted thought leader on issues of philanthropy and social change and author of numerous articles on nonprofit funding and philanthropy, including “Making Big Bets for Social Change,” published in Stanford Social Innovation Review in November of 2015.

Ysaye Barnwell

Barnwell was a Professor at the Howard University College of Dentistry for over a decade. She has administered public health programs at Children’s Hospital National Medical Center and at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. Barnwell is a commissioned composer, author, and actress, and is best known as a vocalist and recording artist who for 34 years, was a member of the a cappella ensemble SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK. For 30 years, she has conducted her Building a Vocal Community Workshops, and led Community Sings, across the United States and on three other continents. She encourages everyone to feel the awesome power of their voices blended in song. "All that is required is a willingness to sing.”