Artists as Activists: Using Creative Talent for Social Progress
Speakers
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Soprano and Co-Founding Director, Sing for Hope
Camille Zamora is the Co-Founding Director of Sing for Hope, a leading non-profit that brings arts outreach programs to communities in need and presents initiatives – including NYC's summertime street pianos – that make the arts accessible to all. An internationally acclaimed soprano, she has appeared with ensembles including LA Opera and Glimmerglass Opera and with collaborators ranging from Plácido Domingo to Sting. A graduate of The Juilliard School, she has performed recitals on five continents and live concerts on NPR, BBC Radio, Deutsche Radio and Sirius. She has been recognized by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and named one of CNN’s Most Intriguing People, NY1’s “New Yorker of the Week” and one of the “Top 50 Americans in Philanthropy” by Town&Country. A regular contributor to The Huffington Post and a leading voice in the “citizen artist” discussion, Camille has performed and spoken at Fortune Most Powerful Women’s Summit, Aspen Ideas Festival, and The United Nations.
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Director, ESTAMOS Organização Comunitária
Feliciano dos Santos was born on June 9, 1964 in Niassa Province, northern Mozambique. Married father of six children. Executive Director of ESTAMOS, a Mozambican NGO working on water and sanitation projects, natural resources, HIV and AIDS, and good governance. Winner of Goldman Environmental Prize in 2008 for his social activism and promotion of good sanitation practices in particular ecological sanitation. By National Geographic, is selected as Emerging Explorer in 2010 for the promotion of hand washing with features music and other innovative ways. The same year by AmcowAfricaSan selected as Grassroots Champion of sanitation in Africa. This latest award was extended to his Massukos group applauded internationally. With the group conducts health and sustainable use of natural resources campaigns. His group already recorded 3 albums; the songs speak of issues of poverty, health and education, and in particular about sanitation and washing hands.
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Director / Producer, Noujaim Films
Jehane Noujaim is an Egyptian-American filmmaker who has worked on countless award winning documentaries. Before graduating from Harvard, she was awarded the Gardiner Fellowship for Mokattam, an Arabic film she directed about a garbage-collecting village near Cairo, Egypt. She then produced StartUp.com, which won many awards including the DGA and IDA awards for best director. Jehane's 2004 film, Control Room, opened in theaters internationally and broke box office records for a documentary on Middle East Affairs. The Square, Jehane's Oscar nominated film chronicling the heart of the Egyptian revolution, is her 5th feature-length documentary. The Square was the recipient of several awards including the audience awards at Sundance, Toronto, and Dubai Film Festival and the IDA award for best documentary.
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Soprano and Co-Executive Director, Sing for Hope
Monica Yunus is the Co-Founding Director of Sing for Hope, a leading non-profit that brings arts outreach programs to communities in need and presents initiatives -- such NYC's summertime street pianos -- that make the arts accessible to all. An internationally renowned soprano, Ms. Yunus has performed with the world's leading companies, including The Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, The Zouk Festival, and in recitals in Spain, France, and her native Bangladesh. She has been honored with a 21st Century Leaders Award and, in 2013, received a Congressional Citation, was honored as "New Yorker of the Week" by NY1, and was named one of the "Top 50 Americans in Philanthropy" by Town&Country. A leading voice in the "artist as citizen" discussion, she has performed and spoken at the Fortune Most Powerful Women’s Summit, Nexus Global Summit, and The United Nations. The daughter of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus, Ms. Yunus is a graduate of The Juilliard School.
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Founder and Chairman, THE 99
Naif Al-Mutawa is the creator of THE 99, the first group of comic superheroes born of an Islamic archetype. THE 99 received positive attention from the world’s media. Forbes named THE 99 as one of the top 20 trends sweeping the globe and named Naif Al-Mutawa as one of the 7 most influential designers in the world.
Al-Mutawa has a PhD and a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Long Island University. He holds a Masters in Organizational Psychology from Teacher’s College, Columbia University and an MBA, also from Columbia University. He earned his undergraduate degree from Tufts University, where he triple majored in clinical psychology, English literature and history.
A social entrepreneur, Al-Mutawa was recognised by The Schwab Foundation with a Social Entrepreneurship Award at the 2009 World Economic Forum and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011.
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Founder, PhotoPhilanthropy
Nancy Richards Farese is the Founder and Board Chair of PhotoPhilanthropy, a San Francisco-based non-profit that rewards and promotes the work of photographers globally who work with community organizations using visual storytelling to show the most critical issues of our time. Nancy is also a social documentary photographer known for creating evocative and dignified images of critical non-profit work. She travels extensively and has worked with The Carter Center, Mercy Corps, Room to Read, The UNHCR and the International Rescue Committee, among others. She also lectures and writes on the evolving use of photography as a critical social awareness tool, and the role of visual media in non-profit storytelling. Nancy currently serves on the Board of KQED Public Media, with a personal interest in the intersection of education and high quality content delivery on new media platforms. She is from Carrollton, Georgia and now lives in Marin County, California.
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CEO, Tennyson Center for Children
Ned is a proud 2011 Skoll Award recipient who has been focused on next generation monitoring and evaluation linked to systems change work for close to 3 decades. Ned's work in the water and sanitation sector coalesced around a movement originally entitled "Everyone Forever", which forced sector role players to operate at scale, track results over time and rewired the way local governments and national Ministries of Finance allocated, tracked and ultimately financed WASH. Ned pivoted to a whole new sector to see if the systems transforming principles that underpin his work in water and sanitation could be applied elsewhere. He is now CEO of the Tennyson Center for Children, attacking the way $490m is allocated for child welfare in Colorado. Ned's personal journey mirrors that of the life-stories of the children experiencing trauma from abuse and neglect that he sees and supports at Tennyson.
