
Affectionately known as "America's #1 Success Coach," Jack Canfield is the originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and a leading authority in the areas of self-esteem, achievement motivation, and peak performance. [www.jackcanfield.com]

Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and Editor in Chief of the Huffington Post and the author of twelve books. [www.huffingtonpost.com]

Seth Godin is a prominent author, blogger and speaker. [www.squidoo.com/linchpin]

Krishna Kaur is the founder of YOGA for Youth, a program that takes yoga, meditation, and stimulating discussions on the philosophy of yoga to urban youth. [www.yogaforyouth.org]

Norman Lear has enjoyed a long career in television and film. He is also a political and social activist and philanthropist. [www.normanlear.com]

Leilani Münter is a professional race car driver and an environmental activist who uses her voice in the number one spectator sport in America as a catalyst for change. [www.leilanimunter.com]

By going undercover to meet slaves and slaveholders, Kevin Bales exposed modern slavery's penetration into the global economy. He co-founded Free the Slaves, which has helped to liberate thousands of slaves. [www.freetheslaves.net]

Sophie Chiche, lifebyme.com founder and curator, enjoys asking deep questions and living a life of meaning. Today she's launching Shape House, an urban sweat lodge, a place to melt away fears and fat. [www.shapehousela.com]

Entrepreneur and writer Mastin Kipp founded TheDailyLove.com, which merges pop culture with inspiration, and co-founded The Love Yourself Company, an apparel company that has started a global self-esteem movement. [www.TheDailyLove.com]

Liz Phair is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. [www.lizphair.com]

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is Chairman of The Elders, a group of world leaders who address some of the world's most pressing problems. He works energetically for human-rights and in his ministry. [www.tutu.org]

Zainab Salbi is the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, a group dedicated to helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives. [www.womenforwomen.org]

Despite his physical challenges, Sean Stephenson has taken a stand for a quality of life that has inspired millions of people around the world. He's a professional speaker, psychotherapist, and author. [www.timetostand.com]

Kia Miller teaches Yoga at Yoga Works in Los Angeles, leads teacher trainings, and runs retreats and workshops on meditation, chakras, pranayam, and mantras, and other practices. [www.kiamiller.com]

Simon Mainwaring is an ex-Nike/Wieden creative, former Worldwide Creative Director at Motorola/Ogilvy, branding/advertising writer, author/speaker/blogger, Australian, idea geek. [www.simonmainwaring.com]

Shannon Bindler is a style editor, life coach, and the co-founder of Get Up Girl, an empowerment company that inspires women to shine. [www.getupgirl.com]

Grammy-nominated art director/designer/photographer Mathieu Bitton has designed over 450 CDs and movie posters. He's a renowned collector of and authority on black films and their soundtracks. [www.candytangerine.com]

Opus Reps founder and agent-producer Jorge Perez travels the world producing photo shoots with great photographers and celebrities. He's also very involved with Meals on Wheels in Los Angeles. www.opusreps.com
hope

A focus of my life is the issue of how we can change the world through gender equality. How do we support solutions that come from women’s leadership or girls’ leadership out in the field, so their ideas and solutions can be utilized, implemented, resourced, and actually work to make a difference for their whole community? If we don’t bring women and girls to the table, we’re missing half of the assets of the community in terms of building solutions.
At home, when I was growing up, we talked about issues like philanthropy and justice. I grew up in Hawaii when it wasn’t yet a state. My dad was a Lutheran missionary. We lived in a small town where we were the minority. So I grew up with an interesting world view. I was surrounded by a lot of different cultures and raised by parents who focused their attention on how to make the world a better place for people.
Then we moved back to the mainland, right into the middle of the upheaval of the civil rights and the anti-war movements. All of that solidified my belief in and my search for justice and the kind of social change that makes a difference in people’s lives.
As I think about my future, one of the things that excites me is business people talking about social change. There’s a wonderful movement around developing businesses for doing good. Part of doing that involves diving deep into social change. People often believe that social change comes about by, for instance, giving a girl an education or a scholarship that will make a difference in her life. While it does make a difference in her life, it doesn’t necessarily make a difference in her community or in the world. Doing that takes what I call deep-dive social change.
My passion as I move forward is working with people so they truly understand that if we’re going to make a difference it has to be change at the individual level, but also change at the community level, and then systemic change.
What’s given me my passion and whatever insight I have are the wonderful and incredible conversations I’ve had with small groups of women with the kind of smarts to explore the question of how to make changes on the institutional level to get women and girls to the table. What would that take?
– Christine Grumm

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