Morgan Appel is Assistant Dean for Education and Community Outreach (ECO) at the Division of Extended Studies at UC San Diego, overseeing a diverse array of programming for PK-post retirement, including opportunities for students, practitioners, administrators, parents, and community stakeholders across the globe. He previously served as Director of Education Programs at UC Irvine’s Division…
Andrew Beiter is an 8th grade American history teacher at Springville Middle School, outside of Buffalo, New York. He is also the director of the Summer Institute for Human Rights of Buffalo, a regional education coordinator for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the board president for the Educators’ Institute for Human Rights, an organization…
Linda Sarsour was born in 1980 in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of seven children of Palestinian immigrants. Her father owned a small market in the Crown Heights neighborhood—he called it Linda’s. She entered an arranged marriage at age 17 and had three children by the time she was in her mid-20s. But motherhood did…
In 1963, Keith Ellison was born to a Catholic family in Detroit, Michigan, the third of five sons. From a young age, he was greatly influenced by his family’s involvement in the civil rights movement, including his grandfather’s work as a member of the NAACP in Louisiana. After graduating from Wayne State University with a…
Born in New Jersey, Obeidallah is the son of a Palestinian father and a Sicilian mother—an atypical upbringing that has fueled his comedy-filled life. And he has been using his wit and wisdom to educate and entertain ever since. A former attorney, he’s the host of SiriusXM radio’s “The Dean Obeidallah Show,” making him the…
Born in New Jersey, Obeidallah is the son of a Palestinian father and a Sicilian mother—an atypical upbringing that has fueled his comedy-filled life. And he has been using his wit and wisdom to educate and entertain ever since. A former attorney, he’s the host of SiriusXM radio’s “The Dean Obeidallah Show,” making him the…
Muhammad was born in 1990 to Muslim parents in Jamaica, Queens, New York. She began running as a child and has shown no sign of slowing her pace. When she was only 4 years old, representatives from the NY Novas Track Club in Brooklyn witnessed Muhammad’s long jumps, encouraged her to join the team, and…
Born in Baltimore City, Maryland, in 1988, Maybin competed as an All-American linebacker at Penn State University before being chosen as the 11th overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills. After a five-year career with the New York Jets and the Cincinnati Bengals, he chose to leave the NFL in 2014…
Mogahed was born in Cairo, Egypt, and was just 4 years old when her family immigrated to the United States. Her upbringing was very traditional, and being a good student was priority number one. Yet, by the time she was 17, in addition to her studies, activism had captured her heart. She earned her undergraduate…
Sultan was just 24 years old when he began his work on behalf of children in his homeland of Mozambique. He was a teacher at the start of the brutal civil war in Mozambique (1985-1992) which left 2 million children dead, 250,000 displaced, 200,000 orphaned, and numerous others drafted into the fighting as child soldiers.…
Pérez Esquivel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1931. Despite family poverty, he attended school and trained as an architect and sculptor—his large-scale murals and other work reflect his faith in humankind and foundational belief in God. He was also a professor of architecture for 25 years. But he worried about human rights abuses…
Born in 1959, Bryan Stevenson grew up in rural southern Delaware and spent his early classroom years at a “colored” elementary school. By second grade, his school was formally desegregated, but Black kids still played separately from white kids and often continued to use the back door to enter the doctor’s office. Stevenson’s father took…
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