Valarie Kaur is a national interfaith leader, documentary filmmaker, and lawyer who centers her work around the power of storytelling. She is the founder of Groundswell at Auburn Seminary, a non-profit initiative with 100,000 members that equips people of faith in social movements. Working with students and communities, she has made award-winning films and led campaigns on hate crimes, gun violence, racial profiling, immigration detention, and solitary confinement. Valarie is a prolific public speaker on college and university campuses and frequent political contributor on MSNBC to the Melissa Harris-Perry Show. Her opinion essays regularly appear on CNN, The Washington Post, and The Huffington Post. Valarie earned degrees at Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Law School, where she founded the Yale Visual Law Project to train students in the art of storytelling for social change.
Valarie has been called “a stand-out figure in the world of interfaith organizing and activism” and “one of the most exceptional speakers and thinkers.” The Center for American Progress lists her among 13 national faith leaders to watch. In 2013, she was named one of eight Asian American women of influence, won a Person of the Year award by India Abroad, and delivered the Baccalaureate address for Stanford University.
My Definition Of Success | Success is leading a whole-hearted life.
I Am Driven By | I’m inspired by people who suffer from injustice – racism, poverty, homophobia, religious bigotry, gender violence, and other unspeakable pains – and still ask me how I’m doing. They drive me to pursue a lifetime career in public service.
A Key Talent | When the world gets me down (which might be daily), I turn to my friends, family, and faith to lift me back up again onto the Sikh path of “Chardi Kala” – boundless optimism even in darkness, ever-rising high spirits even in hardship.
Principles I Live By | The way we make change is just as important as the change we make. When we are angry at those who disagree with us, make decisions out of fear and a sense of scarcity, or drive our bodies into the ground with stress, we inhabit the very dysfunctions we are trying to change in our society. To make a lasting difference, we must embody the health, wellness, non-violence and kindness we want to see in the world.
How I Use My Mind | “The arc of the moral universe is long,” said the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, “but it bends toward justice.” Injustice has gone on long before we were born and will continue after we die. But while we are on this earth, we have a chance to bend that arc with optimism and joy.
Lessons I Have Learnt | I have learned that courage comes at a cost. It can cost you your job, popularity, sense of security, or even life and limb to speak truth to power or blaze your own path. But it can also give you the meaning of your life – and change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
Performing At My Peak | Sleeping eight hours each night. Working for not more than 90 minutes at a time. Writing at a standing desk. Devoting one hour each day to meditate, stretch, dance, or walk along the sea with my husband and dog, looking for dolphins.
The Meaning Of Life | To leave the world a little more just and beautiful than how we found it.
The Best Advice I’ve Received | This is your story. It is written. And you are writing it.
Richard Griffin is the managing director of dinner theatre and restaurant group Madame Zingara Holdings. He has a talent for creating unique dining experiences for customers and his focus on delivering personalised service is almost fanatical. Every night that Madame Zingara runs, Richard Griffin and his crew transform the famed Belgian tent of mirrors into […]
Sterling Hawkins is out to break the status quo to create what’s actually possible for humanity in our time. He has spent his career igniting new views and inspiring people to act on them. He went on to be involved with the launch, growth or investment in over 50 companies. Today, Sterling reviews over 1,000 […]
Phil has more than 24 years’ experience in the fast-moving consumer goods industry in various senior positions. Phil has previously served as COO – Africa for Coca Cola SABCO and as an Executive Director at Tiger Brands. My Definition Of Success | Success is two-fold. My job is extremely important to me. That said, as […]
Jake Harriman graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy and served seven and a half years as an Infantry and Special Operations Platoon Commander in the Marine Corps. Jake believes that the “War on Terror” won’t be won on the battlefield alone, but that disenfranchisement, lack of education, and extreme poverty must also be […]
Kojo Baffoe is best known as at the editor of Destiny Man magazine where he has combined his interest in business, and his a passion for people with his obsession with writing. His prolific writing and creative drive has seen him spread to poetry, blogging and everything else. What I Do | I guess it […]
Rachel Goble grew up in an interconnected and multicultural world. Whether traveling to Central America with her family to survey land for the founding of a non-profit or trudging through the Sierra Nevada mountains as her parents sought to awaken Christians to our role as creation’s caretakers, Rachel learned early that the world’s peoples and […]
Nolan Watson is a Canadian businessman, humanitarian, and philanthropist. He is known for his contribution to finance innovation in the mining industry. Watson began working in mine finance with Silver Wheaton Corp., where he was named the Chief Financial Officer in 2006 and was the youngest CFO (age 26) of a New York Stock Exchange […]
Jessica Lawrence is the Executive Director of NY Tech Meetup (NYTM), the largest Meetup in the world and a non-profit organization supporting New York’s growing technology community. NYTM’s goal is to build a sustainable and diverse technology industry that drives economic growth, leads innovation, and creates positive, high-impact change. The organization’s perennially sold-out monthly events […]
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