These 16 leaders refuel our hope for what comes next.

Meet the Future Makers.

They are creating more equitable access to medicine and vaccines all over the world, bringing grocery stores to food deserts in Oklahoma, and leading a revolution of abortion storytellers. They are using science to challenge social systems and decolonizing wealth in the U.S.  They are transforming our collective relationship to grief.  

They are putting stunning solutions into practice and are clearly building something better for all of us. 

Welcome our 2023 FRESH Speakers class, who are redesigning a more beautiful and just future.

Anthony Barrows brings a behavioral scientist’s precision along with a degree from the school of hard knocks to his work on how systems have to be co-designed with real people in mind.

Jennifer Bailey is an ordained minister who has become a critical thread in the fabric of the multi-faith, multi-racial movement for justice in the U.S. at this moment. 

Renee Bracey Sherman is creating a bold and inclusive movement of abortion storytellers who are shifting the way the media understands the context and complexity of accessing abortion care. 

Majora Carter is a pioneer in sustainable economic development whose words are already on the walls of the Smithsonian:  “Nobody should have to move out of their neighborhood to live in a better one.”

Shari Davis believes that budgets are moral documents and wants to heal our democracy through truly public processes – where local residents help decide how government money gets spent.

Celina De Sola designs programming that helps the youth of some of the most violent countries in the world find their purpose, connect with mentors, and stay in the countries they love. 

Aaron “AJ” Johnson is healing the history of racialized violence in Tulsa, Oklahoma by bringing the first full-service grocery store to the food desert of North Tulsa’s predominantly Black neighborhood. 

Priti Krishtel is a health justice lawyer exposing the structural inequities that make medicines and vaccines hard to access across the Global South and in the United States. 

Jabraan Pasha frames up the ways in which racism gets in the way of our ability to be impactful, and helps work teams go deep on where their culture needs to change. 

Brenda Palms is the founder of an urban beekeeping social enterprise which has shown us that creative, radical approaches to re-entry can reduce the country’s recidivism rate; she knows there is transformative power in honey.

Emily Pilloton-Lam is a designer, builder, and lifelong lover of power tools who inspires girls and gender-expansive youth of color that they have the power to remake the world. 

Marisa Renee Lee is charting new territory on grief by exploring what healing truly requires, which she says is “not about getting over the things that hurt us, but finding a way to let them transform us.” 

Faye Sahai is a longtime innovator in venture capital who has become a leader in the digital wellness movement.

Edgar Villanueva has been teaching that when it comes to racial justice, money is medicine and self-examination and accountability are necessary, transforming philanthropy in the process.

Sara Wahedi is creating a safer Afghanistan through technology she built after the Taliban takeover which gives citizens real time reports of bombings, gun violence, and roadblocks. 

Gloria Walton is shaking up the climate philanthropy sector by channeling money and resources to the everyday people creating climate solutions where they live, work, and play.

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