Inspiring People: Stories of Innovation and Service

What does it mean to be human? The wisdom of Mary Gordon: Even the youngest child can explain that being human means you have emotions. Empathy is under attack in many quarters these days, but is also being heralded as the most important trait in leadership. Why does it matter? Without the ability to understand how another feels and be able to feel that same feeling, we will never be able to have deep connections with others. The new pandemic of loneliness is associated with poor mental health and general misery.Just as the first step in any conflict resolution is perspective taking, the closing of a conflict requires empathy. In 1996 Mary Gordon created the Roots of Empathy program for elementary school children using a baby as a teacher. She had come to understand that all forms of violence, whether domestic violence, child abuse, or gratuitous violence, had one thing in common – the absence of empathy. Mary Gordon is recognized internationally as an award-winning social entrepreneur, educator, best-selling author, child advocate and parenting expert who has created programs informed by the power of empathy. In 1996, she created the Roots of Empathy program, which as an international children's charity now offers programs on three continents. In 2005, she created Seeds of Empathy for 3 to 5-year-old children in childcare which is offered in Canada, the U.S. and U.K.Ms. Gordon speaks and consults for educational organizations and public institutions, including the World Health Organization and the United Nations. She is often a keynote presenter and panelist, discussing the role of empathy and social entrepreneurship at international conferences such as UBS Global Philanthropy Forum in Germany. In the last couple of years, Ms. Gordon has had a prominent presence at several notable events in the education sector. She contributed to a policy paper on global education, presented to G20. As a thought leader, she has participated in and spoken at international events such as Atlantic Rim Collaboratory (ARC) Summit for Ministers of Education hosted by the Scottish government, Equimundo’s Changemaker Summit in Rio this year, and the New Longevity Summit in Balboa, Spain, where she made the connection between empathy and longevity. She is the recipient of many awards recognizing her contribution to innovation in education and international social entrepreneurship, including being elected as Canada’s first Ashoka Fellow in 2002 and a Global Fellow in Stockholm in 2011. She is an Executive Member of the Ashoka Global Board of Directors in Washington DC.To learn more, go to:Roots of Empathy Website:https://rootsofempathy.org/BBC Video about Roots of Empathy:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH5mmBEMavIInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootsofempathy/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RootsofEmpathy/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/roots-of-empathy/X: https://x.com/RootsofEmpathy

What If Plants Could Talk Plants know more about their growing conditions than any individual sensor can reveal. Vivent Biosignals, a Swiss deep-tech company using artificial intelligence and plant electrophysiology to interpret plants’ biological signals. Vivent’s technology listens to the electrical signals produced by plants and uses AI to translate them into practical insights, helping growers understand when crops are under stress and when action is truly needed.This presentation explores how turning plant intelligence into business intelligence can enable earlier, better decisions, reduce unnecessary use of water, energy and agricultural inputs, and support a more productive and sustainable future for farming.Our speaker, Carrol Plummer, is a technology entrepreneur and organizational leader with more than 30 years of experience building, transforming and scaling businesses. An INSEAD MBA, she has held senior roles across manufacturing, strategy consulting and technology, combining operational leadership with a strong ability to connect scientific innovation to customer needs and commercial opportunity. Carrol is co-founder of Vivent Biosignals, a Swiss deep-tech company using artificial intelligence and plant electrophysiology to interpret plants’ biological signals. She has led Vivent’s development from an ambitious scientific concept into an international agricultural technology business, working with growers and leading agrifood companies to detect crop stress earlier and support more sustainable, profitable food production. She is particularly interested in using AI and biological data to improve agricultural decision-making and build a more resilient food system.To learn more, go to:https://vivent-biosignals.comHow Vivent uses AI to interpret plant signals:https://vivent-biosignals.com/artificial-intelligence-in-agricultureTo learn more about the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley, go to:https://rotary.cool

We make decisions every day that shape our careers, teams, and organizations, yet most of us were never taught how to decide well. Mo Fong introduces a research-backed framework for better decision making and shows how AI can serve as a thought partner, challenger, and bias-checker — helping you clarify what's really at stake, surface blind spots you didn't know you had, and move toward a decision with greater confidence and clarity. Whether you're navigating a career crossroads, a strategic tradeoff, or a difficult team decision, this talk will change how you approach the choices that matter most.Mo Lei Fong is an executive coach, international keynote speaker, and leadership consultant with over 25 years of experience spanning technology, finance, education, and entrepreneurship. She is an adjunct lecturer in Stanford University’s Department of Management Science & Engineering and serves as a career and executive coach for Harvard Business School. She is also the founder LeiFongCoaching, LLC and founding member and president of the Asian Women Coaching Collective. Previously, Mo served as Executive Director of STVP, the Stanford Engineering Entrepreneurship Center. She spent 15 years at Google as a Senior Director, leading global teams across technical solutions, financial operations, and education. She holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and an MA in Education from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.To learn more, go to CLEAR to Lead:https://cleartolead.substack.com/https://leifongcoaching.com

Hipparchus of Nicaea (c. 190 – c. 120 BCE) is considered the greatest ancient astronomical observer. The lost Star Catalogue of Hipparchus is the earliest known attempt to record accurate coordinates of many celestial objects, observable with the naked eye. However, evidence for the contents of Hipparchus' Star Catalogue has been scarce. Four years ago, members of our speaker's multidisciplinary team performed multispectral imaging of the ancient Greek palimpsest known as the Codex Climaci Rescriptus (CCR), revealing new evidence for Hipparchus' Star Catalogue. These recent breakthrough findings are exciting, but there are about 11 folios in the CCR, and significant sections had yet to be uncovered. In February the team employed X-ray fluorescence imaging at the Stanford synchrotron combined with advanced data analysis to generate high-resolution maps of the missing sections of the overwritten Hipparchus Star Catalogue. Uwe will describe the experiment and show some of the astonishing new findings leading to a better understanding of one of the most influential astronomers of antiquity.Our speaker, Uwe Bergmann, got his PhD in Physics from Stony Brook University and is the Martin L. Perl Professor in Ultrafast X-ray Science in the Department of Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research activities focus on the development and application of novel synchrotron and X-ray laser techniques. His scientific interests include studies of the structure of water and aqueous solution, active centers in metalloproteins with focus on photosynthetic splitting of water, hydrocarbons and fossil fuels, functional 2D materials and magnetic membranes, and imaging of ancient materials and fossils. Bergmann has done his graduate research at the National Synchrotron Light Source and since worked at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, the Linac Coherent Light Source, and at the Stanford PULSE Institute at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.For More Info: https://bergmann.physics.wisc.edu/

At least a billion people around the world need glasses they cannot get, not because the technology is complicated, but because the global eyewear supply chain was never designed to reach them. GoodVision Executive Director Matt Gianino and GoodVision founder and inventor Martin Aufmuth trace the cost, complexity, and carbon footprint of how glasses are made and sold today, then show how a portable, electricity-free bending machine and $1 in materials are serving the communities a $180 billion industry has left behind.Martin is a mathematics and physics teacher from Erlangen, Germany, who has relied on glasses since childhood. In 2010, reading Paul Polak's book "Out of Poverty," he was struck by the argument that a pair of affordable glasses could be one of the most transformative inventions for people living in poverty, and spent two years experimenting in his basement until he had developed both a spring steel eyeglass frame and the hand-powered bending machine to produce it. In 2012, he loaded the machine onto a bicycle and ran the first GoodVision eye camps in Uganda. What began in a basement in Erlangen now operates in 11 countries, with more than 1 million pairs of glasses delivered to communities that the conventional eyewear supply chain was never designed to reach.Matt is the Executive Director of GoodVision USA, the American nonprofit arm of GoodVision International. He has more than 20 years of nonprofit leadership experience across the United States and internationally, and is guided by the conviction that where we are born should not limit what we are able to become. His approach centers on building systems that communities can lead themselves, rather than programs that depend on outside intervention. At GoodVision USA, he is building the community of donors, partners, and advocates whose support will scale this work to every community around the world that needs it.To learn more, go to:https://goodvisionusa.org/ To watch how GoodVision's glasses are made, go to: https://youtu.be/_SjRqCmx6gA?si=CU4RfuRKR_nKHywP

Tiffany Loeffler, is the Founder and Executive Director of The Alliance: Defending the Cause of Kids & Families, a united movement of more than 100 agencies, nonprofits, and churches serving vulnerable children and families throughout the Greater Sacramento Area. Since 2010, Tiffany has been a dedicated advocate for at-risk youth and is deeply passionate about collaboration, firmly believing that meaningful partnerships are the key to preventing and healing childhood trauma. Tiffany and her husband, Matt, are parents to three children, two of whom were adopted from Haiti in 2017 following a remarkable six-and-a-half-year international adoption journey. In addition to her nonprofit leadership, Tiffany has worked in the healthcare field since 2007. She holds a degree in biology and a Doctorate in Physical Therapy and continues to treat patients in private practice, bringing the same compassion and commitment to care that defines her leadership in the nonprofit sector.Leveraging Collaboration to Prevent & Heal Childhood Trauma explores how meaningful, cross-sector partnerships can transform outcomes for vulnerable children and families. This presentation highlights the innovative model of The Alliance, which unites and mobilizes more than 100 organizations across the Greater Sacramento region to work toward a shared vision of prevention, early intervention, and healing. Attendees will gain insight into how coordinated efforts spanning nonprofits, schools, service providers, and community leaders can reduce duplication, close service gaps, and create a more responsive and compassionate system of care.This talk also offers an honest look at the challenges that come with collaboration, including aligning priorities, building trust, and navigating complex systems. Through real-world examples and lessons learned, participants will better understand what it takes to move from siloed efforts to true partnership, and why the impact is worth it. Ultimately, this presentation demonstrates that while collaboration is not always easy, it is one of the most powerful tools we have to prevent and heal childhood trauma at scale.To learn more, go to:The Alliance website: https://www.defendingthecause.org/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAllianceDTCInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thealliance_dtc/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-alliance-defending-the-cause-of-kids-and-families-bb1497228/

Dr. Jaime Banks: Millions of people now use artificial intelligence for emotional connection, treating them as confidants, collaborators, friends, or romantic partners. Public discourse is dominated by dystopian narratives and alarmist headlines about these AI companions, while the scientific data about user experiences paints a different picture. In this presentation, Dr. Jaime Banks will examine how "moral panics" may be distorting our understanding of AI companionship. Acknowledging the imbalanced public narratives, we will cover what current science actually suggests about these relationships' positive and negative impacts and where there are open questions about how AI can meaningfully advance humans' wellbeing.Our speaker, Jaime Banks (Ph.D., Colorado State University), is the Katchmar-Wilhelm Endowed Professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University and Director of the iSchool’s LinkLab.Her research is animated by questions of human-technology relations, especially those with AI, social robots, and videogame avatars. Her current work, funded by the NSF and Army Research Office, focuses on the dynamics of realizing benefits from AI companionship and on how humans judge AI when it behaves badly.To see Dr. Banks' recent publications, go to: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=e2LNDdIAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate Syracuse U iSchool's 'Infoversity' podcast with Dr. Banks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scbERi7PJFQ

Imagine being unable to ride your bike, what would you miss the most? Would you miss feeling the wind in your hair? When we ask people what they associate riding a bike with, they all say the same word…Ole is the founder of Cycling Without Age and an Ashoka Fellow, and Pernille is a cycling activist.To learn more, go to:Website: https://cyclingwithoutage.org/ Finn Larsen paradise is right here on earth: https://vimeo.com/134717099 Ice fishing on three wheels: https://youtu.be/hUwzykY_QJMThe right to relate, the story behind Cycling Without Age:

The world faces a problem of accelerating water scarcity combined with the considerable limitations of conventional coastal desalination. The Norwegian company Flocean, backed by strong US partners such as Xylem and Burnt Island Ventures, introduces a new approach to seawater desalination designed for resilient, low-impact, and cost-competitive drinking water supply.To the rescue is a subsea desalination system: operating at 400–600 meters depth where seawater is naturally clean, cold, and already pressurized. By leveraging these conditions, the system cuts energy use by ~30–50% versus conventional sea water reverse osmosis, reduces pre-treatment needs and coastal land requirements, and avoids chemicals and concentrated brine discharge. This presentation covers the path to scale—standardized, modular plants delivered as ""water-as-a-service,"" including the first commercial deployment, Flocean One, in the second quarter of 2026. Our speaker, Alexander Fuglesang, is an ocean technology entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Flocean, a Norwegian company developing subsea desalination systems that turn deep ocean water into drinking water. He holds a business degree from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) and previously worked as a venture capitalist in London. Raised around advanced pumping systems and a large industrial workshop, he developed a deep understanding of rotating machinery. His connection to the ocean is equally deep: he has training in marine biology, has sailed across the Atlantic, and is an active seaplane pilot and scuba diver.To learn more, go to:https://flocean.green

Grain of Hope is an initiative started by six people in rural Australia to ship 500 tons of wheat to Sudan in response to the hunger crisis there. If successful, it will feed thousands of people and test a powerful idea - that progress doesn’t have to begin with scale or big institutions. Sometimes it can begin quietly, with a handful of ordinary people who refuse to look away.Both guests are from Leeton, a small rural town in the heart of the Riverina on Wiradjuri Country, about five hours west of Sydney. They are part of the six-person founding team behind Grain of Hope, which is sending 500 tons of Australian wheat to Sudan in response to the global hunger crisis.Rob Houghton is a third-generation irrigator, and his property produces chickpeas, popcorn, cereal crops and cotton. Ken Dachi is the Multicultural Affairs Advisor at Leeton Shire Council where he stewards settlement programs for refugees and migrants. He’s previously worked in international development and is originally from Kenya.To learn more, go to:https://fixthenews.com/p/grain-of-hopeTo donate to the cause, go to:https://myriadaustralia.org/services/donate/grain-of-hope/#hunger #Sudan