Grand Challenges of Our Time

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Reverend Dr. William Barber II is the Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, a 2018 MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” Recipient and the New York Times best-selling author of White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy (2024).

As President of Repairers of the Breach and Professor at Yale Divinity School, Rev. Dr. Barber has dedicated his career to moral movement building and addressing systemic inequality. His leadership has earned him numerous accolades, including the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award, and he made history as one of few preachers invited to deliver the homily at the 59th Inaugural Prayer Service with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Dr. Albert Bourla is the Chairman and CEO of Pfizer. During his more than 25 years at Pfizer, Dr. Bourla has built a diverse and successful career, holding several senior positions across a range of markets and disciplines.

As the author of Moonshot: Inside Pfizer's Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible, an exclusive, first-hand, behind-the-scenes story of how Pfizer raced to create the first COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Bourla shares how a Greek immigrant, a child of Holocaust survivors, and a veterinarian, became the head of one of the world’s largest corporations and initiated a dramatic transformation of the organization just before a global health crisis would serve to test the organization, its scientists, and its leader, like never before.

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Ethan Brown M.P.M. ’97, founder, president and chief executive officer of Beyond Meat, is changing America’s eating habits while working to save the environment. His company has mushroomed from a University of Maryland-backed startup to the nation’s leading plant-based meat company. Brown is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and, along with Beyond Meat, has received the United Nations’ highest environmental accolade, Champion of the Earth.

The May 2020 murder of his older brother, George Floyd, sparked worldwide outpour protests against police brutality directed at Black people, and Philonise Floyd vowed that his brother’s death would not be in vain. Floyd has testified before Congress, urging passage of the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, and founded the Philonise and Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change.

Catherine Coleman Flowers is an internationally recognized environmental activist, MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, and author. Founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, Flowers has spent her career promoting equal access to clean water, air, sanitation, and soil to reduce health and economic disparities in marginalized, rural communities.

As the author of “Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret,” Flowers shares her inspiring story of advocacy, from childhood to environmental justice champion. She discusses sanitation and its correlation with systemic class, racial, and geographic prejudice that affects people across the United States.

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Reginald Dwayne Betts ’09 is a critically acclaimed writer, public speaker and advocate for incarcerated people. He spent nine years in prison for his role in a carjacking at age 16, during which time he discovered a passion for poetry and literature. After his release, he enrolled at Maryland, where he received a bachelor’s degree in English. He went on to earn an M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He is a Ph.D. in Law candidate at Yale and as a Liman Fellow, he spent a year representing clients in the New Haven Public Defender’s Office. His most recent book, “Felon: Poems,” received the 2019 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry.

Data, and the way it’s presented, can shape the world around us. Stephanie Evergreen has revolutionized the way we communicate data, best known for her research-based approach in helping organizations and researchers rethink data visualization in communicating their work.
Evergreen’s work—as founder of Evergreen Data Academy, prolific author and highly sought-after speaker—also extends to confronting and remediating social and racial injustice. Her clients range from small nonprofits and community foundations to Head Start and the United Nations.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha is the physician, scientist and public health activist who shined a national spotlight on the Flint, Michigan water crisis through her research revealing children had been exposed to dangerous levels of lead. The director of an initiative to mitigate the impact of this crisis, Hanna-Attisha also authored “What the Eyes Don’t See” and shares her inspiring personal story about speaking truth to power.

Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s appearance is co-sponsored by the Gemstone Honors Program, Honors Humanities, University Honors, Do Good Institute, University Libraries and Leadership & Community Service-Learning Voices of Social Change.