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Robert Krulwich
Co-host of Radiolab, WNYC’s Peabody Award-winning program about ‘big ideas’ and one of public radio’s most popular shows, carried on more than 500 radio stations, and its podcasts are downloaded over 5 million times each month; author of the “Curiously Krulwich” blog, featured on National Geographic, where he illustrates hard-to-fathom concepts in science using drawings, cartoons, videos, and more.
Irwin Kula
A 7th-generation rabbi and co-president of Clal, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a “do-tank” committed to making Jewish a Public Good; a thought leader on the intersection of innovation, religion, and human flourishing who has worked with leaders from the Dalia Lama to Queen Noor and with organizations, foundations, and businesses around the world to inspire people to live with greater passion, purpose, creativity, and compassion.
John Maeda
Technologist, designer, engineer, artist, investor, author, and teacher. He was recently appointed chief experience officer at Publicis Sapient, the technology consulting and delivery arm of communications and marketing conglomerate Publicis; held positions with Automattic—the parent company of WordPress.com, the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, led research at the MIT Media Lab, and served as president of the Rhode Island School of Design; author of several celebrated books, including The Laws of Simplicity and Redesigning Leadership.
Roger Mandle
Founding partner, Advisory Partners, advising and activating online education in art and design for academic, cultural and commercial endeavors; president and CEO of Roger Mandle Associates, a strategic development firm that works with cultural and higher education institutions, providing strategic planning, program development, crisis assistance and core management evaluation; served as president of Rhode Island School of Design from 1993 to 2008.
Irshad Manji
Renowned author, educator, and advocate of a reformist interpretation of Islam; bestselling author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith, published in more than 30 countries, and Don’t Label Me: A Conversation for Divided Times; founder of the Moral Courage Project.
Davis Masten
Creates customer-inspired breakthroughs for his clients with innovative brand and product experiences; currently the chair-designate of the Presidents’ Circle of the National Academies (National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council) and a member of the oversight committee for the Division of Earth & Life Studies (DELS), one of six study divisions of the National Academies.
John McCarter
Life trustee and president emeritus of The Field Museum, where he served as president and CEO from 1996 to 2012; is an emeritus trustee of the University of Chicago and a former trustee of Princeton, a member of the board of governors for Argonne National Laboratory, a regent at the Smithsonian Institution, a trustee of the National Recreation Foundation, an emeritus trustee and former chairman of Chicago’s Public Television Station Channel 11; he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
William McDonough
Architect and globally recognized leader in sustainable development; served as the inaugural chair of the World Economic Forum’s Meta-Council on the Circular Economy.
Alisa Miller
Executive chairman of PRI-PRX, the broadcast network formed when Public Radio International (PRI) merged with Public Radio Exchange (PRX); named CEO of PRI in 2006, the first woman and youngest CEO to head a major public radio network; named by Fast Company as a Most Influential Woman in Technology, is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Pat Mitchell
Editorial director of TEDWomen; throughout her career as a journalist, Emmy-winning producer and pioneering executive, she has focused on sharing women’s stories; chair of the Sundance and the Women’s Media Center boards and a trustee of the VDAY movement, the Skoll Foundation, and the Acumen Fund; advisor to Participant Media and served as a congressional appointment to The American Museum of Women’s History Advisory Council; author of Becoming a Dangerous Woman: Embracing Risk to Change the World.
Stephen Petranek
Science writer and technologist; author of How We’ll Live on Mars; editor-in-chief of the technology newsletter Breakthrough Technology Alert; served as editor-in-chief of Discover, senior science editor at Life Magazine, editor of The Washington Post Magazine, and founding editor and editor-in-chief of This Old House; co-founder and president of Arc Programs, an organization seeking to bring together health, IT, and biomedicine.
Charles Porter
Joined the Crispin Agency in 1988 as creative director and partner; the agency was renamed Crispin & Porter and, within three years, doubled in size to become one of the top 15 creative shops in the country; his leadership has contributed to recognition as AdAge’s Agency of the Decade; past chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, and of Advertising Week in New York, North America’s preeminent communications industry event; inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2015.
Michael Porter
Economist, researcher, author, advisor, speaker, and teacher; throughout his career at Harvard Business School, he has brought economic theory and strategy concepts to bear on many of the most challenging problems facing corporations, economies and societies, including market competition and company strategy, economic development, the environment, and health care; his extensive research is widely recognized in governments, corporations, NGOs, and academic circles around the globe; recognized as the most cited scholar today in economics and business.
Chris Rainier
Considered one of the leading documentary photographers working today, with a personal mission to put on film the remaining natural wilderness and indigenous cultures around the globe, and to use images to create social change; co-directs the National Geographic Society’s Cultural Ethnosphere Program as well as the All Roads Photography Program; contributing editor for National Geographic Traveler magazine, specializing in culture; contributing photographer for National Geographic Adventure magazine; correspondent on photography for NPR’s Day to Day radio show; heads National Geographic’s Enduring Voices Project, which is documenting the world’s most endangered languages.
Karen Relener
Executive vice president, chief administrative officer, and co-founder, Children’s Health Fund; provides major leadership on Children’s Health Fund’s newest initiative, Healthy and Ready to Learn, a program designed to ensure that disadvantaged children are not hampered by health conditions that are known to interfere with learning; served as executive director of Children’s Health Fund’s nationally recognized NY Flagship Program (Community Pediatric Programs) at Montefiore Health System.
David Rockwell
Founder and president of the Rockwell Group, 250-person award winning, cross-disciplinary architecture and design practice is based in New York City, with a satellite office in Madrid; his work ranges from restaurants, hotels, airport terminals, and hospitals, to festivals, museum exhibitions, and Broadway sets; a fellow of the American Institute of Architects; Rockwell Group was named by Fast Company 2008, 2014 and 2015 as one of the most innovative design practices in their annual World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies issue; currently serves as Chair Emeritus of the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA) and as a board member of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Citymeals on Wheels, and New York Restoration Project.
Paul Rothemund
Research Professor at Caltech with interests at the intersection of computer science, biology, and chemistry, and how processes in biology and chemistry can act as computers and execute molecular algorithms; areas of study include the integration of DNA origami into microfabricated devices, and the applications of this technology to nanophotonics, nanoelectronics, and biology, and RNA origami architectures for folding RNA into arbitrary shapes; among the group of principal investigators who were awarded a $10 million grant National Science Foundation Grant for developing the Molecular Programming Project.
Ben Saunders
One of the world’s leading polar explorers, and a record-breaking long-distance skier who has covered more than 7,000km (4,350 miles) on foot in the Polar Regions since 2001; his accomplishments include leading The Scott Expedition, the longest human-powered polar journey in history, and the first completion of the expedition that defeated Captain Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton, a 105-day round-trip from Ross Island on the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back again; the third person in history to ski solo to the North and South poles, and holds the record for the longest solo Arctic journey by a Briton.
Forrest Sawyer
Veteran journalist with experience with ABC, NBC, and MSNBC, including extensive work as a network anchor; award-winning documentary producer and reporter and veteran war correspondent.
Tom Shannon
Award-winning sculptor and artist, with exhibitions throughout the world over his career; designer of the TED Prize trophy.
Cameron Sinclair
Trained architect and community leader with 20-plus years’ experience creating and implementing community development programs, educational programs, post-disaster, and post-conflict reconstruction and social impact initiatives; recent work has included designing and building schools for 4500 refugee children in Jordan and advising on cultural sustainability and preservation projects in Japan and South Africa.
Anna Deavere Smith
Women Leaders; award-winning actress, playwright, teacher and author; recipient of: the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal (2012), the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for achievement in the arts (2013), recognition for achievements in the humanities as the Jefferson Lecturer (2015), the Ridenhour Courage Prize (2017), and the George Polk Career Award in Journalism (2017).
Jim Steyer
CEO and Founder Common Sense Media, National Children’s Policy Expert and Media Entrepreneur, and one of the most respected experts and entrepreneurs on issues related to children’s media and education in the United States; founder and chairman of the Center for the Next Generation; nationally known author, having written the widely acclaimed book Talking Back to Facebook in 2012, as well as another highly successful book, The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media’s Effect on Our Children.
Tierney Thys
While at Sea Studios Foundation, served as Director of Research for National Geographic’s Strange Days on Planet Earth project and Senior Science Editor for The Shape of Life project; has written, narrated and/or produced shorter films—several with Kip Evans—including Wave of Change: California’s Marine Protected Areas, California Hopespots and Cordell Bank: Blue Water Oasis.
Imagine Solutions and the 501(c)(3) Searching for Solutions Institute were founded in 2008 with the mission to bring leading-edge speakers and thinkers to engaged audiences of change-makers, addressing matters of societal importance related to science, medicine and healthcare, business, social entrepreneurship, nonprofit, social sciences, the arts, conservation and the environment, exploration and discovery, and more, and the vision of generating real conversations and the space for impact, influence, and connection.