So often mission and purpose driven folks have fascinating stories about where they draw their inspiration from. Often it’s a historical figure and so we’ve highlighted some of those conversations around historical figures and what some of the best and brightest have learned from them.

Audrey Bell-Kearney

There is a wall in my office with pictures of 10 women who I draw my inspiration from daily. One of those is a picture of Madam CJ Walker. Madam Walker was the first female self made millionaire in America. When I first learned about Madam CJ Walker I was just in awe of her story. She had a dream and she turned that dream into an empire and a legacy. What’s so important about her journey was that she did it in a time when African Americans were still fighting for their rights in America. Read more>>

Hammy Sorkin.

I’m gonna cheat a little here and provide an active researcher I look up to — Clarence Ntesa. As a teenager I moved to Namibia to attend university there, and while I left before completing my conservation degree, I gained more experience and knowledge than I ever thought I could. Universities in Namibia (and a lot of other parts of the world, as I understand), focus heavily on experience rather than book memorization. We took a LOT of field trips to learn directly from the world around us. Read more>>

Shannon Coen

Picking a topic for this section was difficult, but I think when it comes to my photography, one photographer has influenced and inspired me more than anyone else. Her name is Diane Arbus. If you are familiar with the photography greats, you perhaps have come across her name before. She was an American photographer who photographed a wide range of subjects including strippers, carnival performers, nudists, people with dwarfism, children, mothers, couples, elderly people, and middle-class families. Read more>>