People
-
Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo
A Roman Catholic bishop, Belo played a vital and ongoing role in bringing peace to his country, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, during the Indonesian occupation that stretched from 1975 to 1999. He was born in 1948 in Wailakama, a small, rural village in East Timor, where he grew up in a farming family and…
-
Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama was born in 1935 in a small village in Tibet, and at the age of 2, he was recognized as the reincarnation of the previous dalai lama. It is believed that dalai lamas are manifestations of the bodhisattva of compassion and the patron saints of Tibet—beings who have vowed to be…
-
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges was born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi, the oldest of farmers Lucille and Abon Bridges’ five children. When she was 2 years old, her family moved to New Orleans in search of a better life. Perhaps it is no coincidence that 1954 also marked Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S.…
-
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges was born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi, the oldest of farmers Lucille and Abon Bridges’ five children. When she was 2 years old, her family moved to New Orleans in search of a better life. Perhaps it is no coincidence that 1954 also marked Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S.…
-
Andrea James
Attorney Andrea James has been engaged with criminal justice issues since her days as a youth worker. She is the founder and executive director of Families for Justice as Healing—a criminal justice reform organization that advocates for community wellness alternatives to incarceration, with a focus on women. She is a 2015 Soros Justice Fellow and…
-
Andrea Jenkins
Born in 1961, Andrea Jenkins was raised on Chicago’s West Side by a single mother from a working-class community. Her father battled addiction and was incarcerated through much of her childhood, but her mother was loving and emphasized the importance of a good education. Jenkins discovered literature and poetry at a young age, along with…
-
Gavin Grimm
Gavin Grimm grew up in Gloucester, Virginia. He came out as transgender in 2014 during his sophomore year at Gloucester High School. With his principal’s permission, he used the boys’ restrooms at school for several months without any problems, before a handful of parents went to the school board to complain. A public meeting was…
-
Jacob Tobia
Jacob Tobia (they/them) was born in 1991 and raised by a Methodist family in Raleigh, North Carolina. In high school, Tobia was president of the Gay-Straight Alliance and participated in student government. They applied and were accepted to Harvard but chose to attend Duke University, where they graduated summa cum laude with a degree in…
-
Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox was born in 1972 in Mobile, Alabama, and she and her identical twin brother were raised by a single mother and grandmother. At age 11, Cox attempted suicide—she was developing feelings for her male classmates and being bullied for not acting “the way someone assigned male at birth was supposed to act.” Cox…
-
Schuyler Bailar
Schuyler Bailar was born in New York City in 1996 and raised in McLean, Virginia. He was solo swimming before his first birthday and competing in the Junior Olympics by age 10. Five years later, he ranked as one of the top 15-year-old breaststroke swimmers in the United States. In 2012, Bailar broke his back…
-
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was born in 1965 in the Ethiopian city of Asmara (now in Eritrea). He graduated from the University of Asmara with a degree in biology and went on to earn a master’s in immunology of infectious diseases from the University of London, a Ph.D. in community health from the University of Nottingham,…
-
Anthony Fauci
Anthony Stephen Fauci was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1940 to parents of Italian ancestry. Young Tony worked in the family drugstore, attended Catholic schools, and was influenced by the Jesuit value of service to others. He graduated from Cornell University Medical College in 1966. In 1968, Dr. Fauci joined the National Institutes of…
Share