Platinum-selling, Grammy-winning recording artist Kendrick Lamar is one of the rare artists who has achieved critical and commercial success while earning the respect and support of those who inspired him. A native of Compton, California, young Kendrick released Overly Dedicated and Section 80 in 2010–11. Both made Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop charts and caught the attention of Dr. Dre, who signed him to his Aftermath label, releasing good kid, m.A.A.d city in 2012. The album debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top 200 album charts, spawning three chart-topping singles and garnering seven Grammy nominations. In 2015, Kendrick released To Pimp a Butterfly, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums. It was also nominated for a whopping 11 Grammys, tying the record set by Michael Jackson’s Thriller and winning five. In 2016, he surprised fans with the sudden release of untitled unmastered, again reaching No. 1.
Band
Foster the People was founded by Mark Foster in Los Angeles in 2009. The group achieved success with the 2011 release of its debut album, Torches, selling nearly two million albums and more than ten million singles worldwide. Torches features the number-one hit “Pumped Up Kicks,” which Spin declared “the year’s anthem,” and the chart-topping singles “Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls),” “Houdini,” and “Helena Beat.” Foster the People garnered three Grammy nominations for its monumental debut, including Best Alternative Music Album, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Pumped Up Kicks,” and Best Short Form Music Video for “Houdini.”
Owner, LA Rams
Denver sports and entertainment mogul E. Stanley Kroenke is the owner of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, the MLS’s Colorado Rapids, and the state’s lacrosse team, Colorado Mammoth, as well as the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. He is also the majority shareholder of storied English Premier League football club Arsenal FC. His company, Kroenke Sports Enterprises, owns several TV networks, including Altitude Sports & Entertainment, the Sportsman Channel, World Fishing Network, and the Outdoor Channel. He also owns several FM and AM radio stations and oversees several venues in Denver: the Pepsi Center, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the Paramount Theatre, and 1STBank Center. Away from the court, one of Kroenke’s priorities has been the Colorado community. More than $16 million in contributions have been made to Colorado charities through Kroenke Sports Charities and the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche community funds.
Visual Artist and Filmmaker
Fab 5 Freddy is a late-1970s graffiti artist and one of the first to exhibit his paintings internationally. Along with friends and contemporaries like Futura 2000, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Lee Quinones, Fab was key in elevating New York graffiti into the art movement that would eventually give birth to street art. Born Fred Brathwaite in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, his introduction to pop culture came courtesy of a name check on Blondie’s 1980 hit “Rapture.” In addition to his art, Fab produced, starred in, and composed the cult classic movie Wild Style and went on to produce music videos for numerous hip-hop stars. He hosted Yo! MTV Raps and was later the head of independent label Pallas records. Fab has lectured at schools and universities around the world, published articles for publications including Vibe, XXL, and The New York Times Magazine, and written a book on hip-hop slang called Fresh Fly Flavor, Words and Phrases of the Hip-Hop Generation. Today Fab is focused on making visual art, and was recently featured in the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s Art in the Streets.
fab5freddy.com
@FABNEWYORK
Chef
Einat Admony is chef and owner of the Balaboosta, Bar Bolonat, and Taïm restaurants in New York City and author of Balaboosta: Bold Mediterranean Recipes to Feed the People You Love.
Her life has been an adventure. After growing up in Tel Aviv, she secured illicit rations for her kitchen as a cook in the Israeli Army, walked away from college after two months, traipsed around Germany as a gypsy, then packed up her life to move to New York City and work at “a million venerable kitchens around the city,” according to The New Yorker.
Then things got interesting. Inspired by the street food of her native Tel Aviv, Einat opened the falafel joint Taïm (tah·eem) in Manhattan’s West Village in 2005. In 2010, she launched Balaboosta in Nolita where the manner of cooking is not so much Middle Eastern as Mediterranean. Her most recent venture is Bar Bolonat, a West Village eatery named one of the best new restaurants of 2014 by New York Times critic Pete Wells.
Her way with ingredients has been lauded repeatedly by The New Yorker, The New York Times, and New York Magazine, among many others, and her way with people was noted by The New York Times’ critic Sam Sifton: “Admony…runs Balaboosta exactly as if she’d invited a room full of strangers for dinner, then told her family to be nice to them.”
Einat is married to Stefan Nafziger. Together they own and operate Balaboosta, Bar Bolonat, and Taïm. They live in Brooklyn with their two young children, Liam and Mika. When Einat is not at the restaurant she can be found at home, cooking for the crowd of family and friends continually gathered around her dining table.
Director of MIT's Glenn Laboratory for the Science of Aging, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Elysium Health
Leonard P. Guarente is the director of MIT's Glenn Laboratory for the Science of Aging, where he is a Novartis Professor of Biology. Dr. Guarente is best known for his research in longevity, in which his lab discovered that sirtuins, a type of protein, slow the aging process in a wide variety of organisms. He is the author of Ageless Quest: One Scientist's Search for Genes That Prolong Youth. In addition, Dr. Guarente is also co-founder and chief scientist of Elysium Health, a company dedicated to delivering scientific breakthroughs in health and making them accessible to consumers.
Activist, President, Dolores Huerta Foundation
Dolores Huerta is the labor legend and civil rights activist who founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF) and co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Ms. Huerta has received numerous awards for her community service and advocacy for workers', immigrants', and women’s rights. Among these awards are: The United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, The Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights, The Eugene V. Debs Foundation Outstanding American Award, and the Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca, Mexico’s Orden of the Aztec Eagle Award and nine honorary doctorates from Universities throughout the United States. As a role model and living legend to many, Dolores Huerta has become a leader in efforts to improve the Latino, labor, and LGBT communities.
Professional Skateboarder and Owner, Birdhouse Skateboards
Now the most recognized action sports figure in the world, Tony Hawk was nine years old when his brother changed his life by giving him a blue fiberglass skateboard. By age 14 he’d turned pro, and by 16 he was widely considered the best skateboarder on earth. In 1999, he became the first skater ever to complete a 900. Tony has created a brand portfolio that includes Birdhouse Skateboards, Hawk Clothing, Tony Hawk Pro Skater video games, and toys, and has authored the New York Times bestseller Hawk: Occupation: Skateboarder. His foundation has given more than $5.3 million to 560 skatepark projects throughout the United States.
tonyhawkfoundation.org
@tonyhawk
Breathwork Meditation Teacher
Lisa De Narvaez has been immersed in studying, teaching, and facilitating the healing arts for over two decades. She is an NYU certified life coach, breathwork facilitator, and human design specialist. Her primary work is to help her clients realize their full potential and heal their deepest fears, blocks, and negative beliefs by helping them tap into and remember who they truly are with compassion and grace. She specializes in working with individuals who are seeking to deepen their own awareness and find true life balance and fulfillment and has worked with clients in the US, Europe, Africa, and South America. Her vision, commitment, and driving force is to facilitate a true and sustainable shift from a paradigm of fear, limitation, and separation to a paradigm of love and connection.
Founder & Creative Director, Bounce Fitness
A native of New Iberia, Louisiana, Marissa “MoeJoe” Joseph specializes in folk dance, labeling her dance style, as well as herself, Afro-Creole. MoeJoe is a performer, teacher, dance fitness leader, and entrepreneur who showcases the Southern and Creole dance experience through her dance workout, Bounce Fitness, for which she is the founder and creative director.
Disability Rights Advocate and White House Honoree
White House Champion of Change, Forbes 30 Under 30 leader, and a featured hero on BBC’s Women of Africa, Haben Girma is the first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School. An acclaimed inclusion advocate, Haben champions equal access to information for people with disabilities. Drawing on her training in law, sociology, and technology, she advocates for design of digital services and development of policies that will ensure future opportunities for everyone. Haben recently had the honor of introducing President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House Celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Co-founder and Executive Chairman, New Peak Group
Gang Yu is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of New Peak Group (www.111.com.cn). Dr. Yu received Bachelor of Science from Wuhan University, Master of Science from Cornell University and Ph. D. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Prior to founding New Peak Group, he was the co-founder and Chairman of Yihaodian - a leading ecommerce company in China.
Dr. Yu served as Vice President; Worldwide Procurement at Dell Inc. and Vice President, Worldwide Supply Chain at Amazon.com.
Before Amazon, Dr. Yu served as Chair Professor at University of Texas at Austin, and Director of the Center for Management of Operations and Logistics, and co-Director of the Center for Decision Making under Uncertainty.
Dr. Yu has received numerous international awards including: the 2002 Franz Edelman Management Science Achievement Award from INFORMS, the 2002 IIE Transaction Award for Best Application Paper, the 2003 Outstanding IIE Publication Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the 2012 Martin K. Starr Excellence in Production and Operations Management Practice Award from POMS. Dr. Yu has published over 80 journal articles, 4 books, and he holds 3 US patents.
Dr. Yu is the founder and CEO of CALEB Technologies Corporation in 1995 in the US, the company was later acquired by Accenture.
EVP of Corporate Relations and Chief Philanthropy Officer, Salesforce
Suzanne DiBianca is the Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations and Chief Philanthropy Officer of Salesforce. In this role, Suzanne leads Salesforce’s stakeholder strategy—including all corporate giving, community relations and sustainability efforts. Suzanne was previously co-founder and president of the Salesforce Foundation and Salesforce.org.
Under Suzanne’s leadership, Salesforce pioneered the 1-1-1 model of integrated corporate philanthropy, which dedicates 1% of Salesforce’s equity, employee time or product back into the community. Today, Salesforce serves as a successful model for corporate social responsibility, with hundreds of companies adopting this model through Pledge 1%.
Suzanne is a recognized leader in corporate philanthropy. She has been named one of Inside Philanthropy’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Philanthropy and is member of the San Francisco Business Times’ Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business hall of fame. She serves on the boards of Box.org, Classy, Inc., Tides, Twilio.org and the World Affairs Council’s Global Philanthropy Forum. Former board service includes Goodwill Industries, the San Francisco School Volunteers and Zynga.org.
Prior to joining Salesforce, Suzanne was a principal at CSC Consulting, where she led mergers, acquisitions and technology implementations for Fortune 500 companies. Before CSC, Suzanne was the marketing and program director for Partners for Democratic Change, an organization providing conflict management and dispute resolution training around the world. Suzanne is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Founder and CEO, Timebanks USA
Former Counsel and Speechwriter to Robert F. Kennedy
Co-presenting with:
Christine Gray, Ph.D.
Scholar, Consultant, Adjunct Faculty
University of District of Columbia, School of Law
Full biographies forthcoming.
Poet
Aja Monet is a poet originally from Brooklyn, NY and the youngest person to win the legendary Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe Grand Slam title. As an educator, Aja uses poetry to empower and encourage holistic healing in youth education. She was awarded the YWCA of the City of New York’s “2014 One to Watch Award,” an award established in honor of Aja’s work to empower women and eliminate racism. Aja received a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2012, she collaborated with poet Saul Williams to edit a poetry anthology entitled, “Chorus,” and has published several books and chapbooks independently, including, “The Black Unicorn Sings.” She is the co-founder of Smoke Signals Studio and currently resides in little Haiti, Miami.
Co-Founder, Earthseed Consulting and Black Permaculture Network
Author, Shades of Green
Pandora is the co-founder of Earthseed Consulting LLC, a holistic consulting firm whose work expands the opportunities for sustainable living for diverse communities. She has taught groups as diverse as Iraqi and Indonesian youth to men serving in San Quentin creating inspiring and hands on programs around permaculture design, sustainability, and outdoor and environmental education.
Her most recent projects include co-founding the Black Permaculture Network, working with Toyota to design and currently serving as a coalition member of the Toyota Green Initiative, which supports African Americans in understanding the benefits of adopting sustainable lifestyles and co-designing, teaching with and directing Pathways to Resilience-a permaculture and social entrepreneur training program that worked with men and women returning home after incarceration,
She has studied four languages and lived and worked in over twelve countries and her other achievements include presenting at Tedx Denver and SF, and being awarded internships and fellowships to Columbia University, Green For All, the Bronx Zoo and the Applied Research Center.
When she is not working you can find her spending time with her beloved mother and cats or in the redwoods.
