James A. White Sr. believes that every person and organization has incredible potential. He works to help them understand it — and communicate it to others.

Billie Jean King won 39 Grand Slam titles during her tennis career, and has long been a pioneer for equality and social justice.

Ashton Applewhite asks us to look at ageism -- the assumption that older people are alike and that aging impoverishes us.

Nick Hanauer is one of the world’s most provocative thinkers about our society’s growing inequality and the dire consequences it creates for our democracies.

Stacy Smith shows how Hollywood’s homogenous (and overwhelmingly male) culture systematically excludes women and minorities.

As co-founder and CEO of MASS Design Group, Michael Murphy envisions and creates community-centric structures with healing built into their core.

Ronald Sullivan is a leading theorist in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, trial practice and techniques, legal ethics and race theory.

Keith Payne studies how inequality shapes the human mind.

Global scholar, University of Pennsylvania civil rights sociologist and law professor Dorothy Roberts exposes the myths of race-­based medicine.

Engaging scientific knowledge, Nancy N. Chen examines the intersections of medicine, political economy and social inequality.

In his memoir, "There Will Be No Miracles Here," Casey Gerald reimagines what it means to truly live and succeed in our society.

A social psychologist at Stanford University, Jennifer L. Eberhardt conducts research on race and inequality.

Paul Piff studies how social hierarchy, inequality and emotion shape relations between individuals and groups.

David Wengrow proposes new ways to think about the history of human social development -- and the rise of inequality.

In "Plutocrats," Chrystia Freeland explores the growing gap between the working poor and the increasingly disconnected mega-rich.

Isabelle Boemeke is the world's first nuclear energy influencer.

Danny Dorling teaches and writes about the geography of our human world.

William A. "Sandy" Darity Jr. is the Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies and Economics and the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University.

Kriti Sharma creates AI technology to help address some of the toughest social challenges of our time -- from domestic violence to sexual health and inequality.

Richard Wilkinson was one of the first people to train in epidemiology from a background in the social sciences rather than medicine.

Deepa Narayan is an international advisor on poverty, gender and development with more than 25 years of experience working at the World Bank, the UN and NGOs.

Chelsea Shields is a biocultural anthropologist, a research and strategy consultant, and an outspoken activist for women's rights.

An author of speculative fiction, professor of physics and interdisciplinary researcher, Vandana Singh is one of the four inaugural Climate Imagination Fellows.

David Autor's work assesses the labor market consequences of technological change and globalization.

Darrick Hamilton crafts and implements innovative routes and policies that break down social hierarchy and move society towards greater equity, inclusion and civic participation.

Mia Birdsong advocates for strong communities and the self-determination of everyday people.

Michelle Kuo believes in the power of reading to connect us with one another, creating a shared universe.

TED Fellow Jess Kutch is the cofounder of Coworker.org, a nonprofit that helps people join together to improve their jobs and workplaces.

Marily Oppezzo studies how the movement of the body can affect the movement of the mind.

As a pioneer in critical race theory, Kimberlé Crenshaw helped open the discussion of the double bind faced by victims of simultaneous racial and gender prejudice.