Katherine is a dedicated optimist. She has been a tap and jazz dance artist, teacher, choreographer, and community builder for over thirty years. Her lifetime body of work is a testament to her philosophy that a community that supports and involves artists is a more living, organic, vibrant organism. And she has taken that a step farther to incorporate non-dancers from all over and across the lines of communities she has worked with to create dance performances and creativity experiences rich with the stories and rhythms of local life.

She is a model of positive energy and happiness in her work, and all she works with warm right up to her. She brings out their confidence spirit, their love of movement freedom, and gives them the permission and tools to really express their lives and the opportunity to connect with vitally different parts of their communities. She is a real architect and builder of soul to soul living experiences, shouted out in performance that is accessible and meaningful to all.   Read more...

Willie Smits was a forest engineer when he rescued a baby orangutan in October 1989. He found the little girl, which he named Uce, on a garbish belt, already starving. This changed his life completely!

In 1991 he founded the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, which is now the largest project on this planet to save orangutans from extinction.   Read more...

"Janaia and Robyn, Peak Moment TV"

These gals video people making strides to bring about the Green Evolution. They also bring programs and speakers who warn about the consequences of doing nothing.   Read more...

Katie is the founder of Minga, a teen-run nonprofit dedicated to ending the child sex trade through the education and empowerment of youth.

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Minga has raised over $70,000 and has reached hundreds of thousands of people through speeches, workshops, conferences, and the media. Currently, Minga clubs are starting up at schools and in communities around the world in a unified effort to end the exploitation of children by involving youth everywhere in the movement.   Read more...

As President of the Atlantic Counties Utilities Authority, Rick Dovey (center in photo) has moved this waste management service provider far beyond their traditional role while staying true to their mission of enhancing the quality of life through the protection of waters and lands from pollution.

Under his stewardship, the ACUA constructed the first coastal wind farm in the US with 5 1.5 turbines producing clean, renewable power equavalent to 11,964 barrels of oil! And at the opening celebration he gathered canned goods for our local food bank!   Read more...

Martha started a nonprofit to create Living Earth Television (LETV), a global public television vehicle in order to foster better understanding between peoples as a path of peace and compassion. Martha has developed a good relationship with documentary producers and TV stations in China - and plans to launch LETV by translating some wonderful, compassionate nonfiction stories made by Chinese film makers in China - to be broadcast on public television stations in the US and on Link TV.

Martha put together her vision while in China weeks after the 9/11 attacks when she realized that the neighbors around the world must get to know each other. Documentaries often focus on the unusual and bizarre differences, but Martha finds films that focus on universal themes and how humans are so similar.   Read more...

Doc Holly helps thousands and my story is but one. This unforgiving, rugged, wretched road I chose for myself would have become my lifelong journey. If I hadn’t met Holly. I almost missed her.

I wrote my first business plan at 12 and opened my first business at 23. I went to college to get a degree, but ended up getting pregnant instead. Luckily, in the early 80’s, when I was a student, no computers were tracking prerequisites and I slipped into a 400 level marketing course in my third semester. I was done. I "got" it. I knew what I was going to be.   Read more...

“Paul is inspirational, totally dedicated, hard-working and committed ... I will have no hesitation in crossing seas and continents again to work with him.”

Those words - from a volunteer who worked with Paul Miedema - are just how people feel when they work with this extraordinary man. A white South African, Paul turned his anti-apartheid activism into a business model that benefits all segments of South African society. He combines responsible tourism with ethical volunteering and a core belief that the new South Africa will thrive only if there is real understanding of the history and culture of all peoples there. Through respectful township tours in his home area of the Eastern Cape, Paul’s Calabash Tours helps get the “unheard” black historical voice heard - debunking the myths that many tourists believe about township people and poverty in general. Visitors not only see the reality of these townships and people, but also understand the richness of their traditional cultures, still vibrant despite Apartheid. Over the last 4 years he helped some 12,000 tourists gain a better understanding of South Africa’s townships, with an estimated R1,5 million yield to township business.   Read more...

Arlene Goldbard is a writer on the intersection of culture, politics, and spirituality. She is this county’s number one advocate for and theorist of the field of Community Cultural Development (CCD). As she has articulated, CCD “describes a range of initiatives undertaken by artists in collaboration with other community members to express identity, concerns and aspirations through the arts and communication media, while building the capacity for social action and contributing to social change.” Her recent book, New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development, is the seminal textbook for the field (New Village Press, 2006). Arlene’s clear articulation of the principles and values underlying this work enables a vast number of individuals and organizations to bring about positive social change in their communities.

Arlene Goldbard is the epitome of an Intelligent Optimist. Intelligent because of her membership in “The Auto Club:” her nickname for the extended family of autodidacts, people who have pursued their own educations on their own initiative, without benefit of college degrees. Optimist because of her outlook on life: she believes life is not a struggle filled with arbitrary punishments, but rather, that each experience represents a movement toward growth, toward becoming more fully oneself. Her mantra is, “Share stories fearlessly. The art of social transformation is unstoppable.”   Read more...

Dr. Peter Hotez has dedicated his life to raising the profile of - and developing vaccines for - the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) that impact over one billion of the poorest people around the world. NTDs like hookworm, elephantiasis, and onchocerciasis are debilitating, disabling, stigmatizing, and even deadly, but as their name suggests, they have long been overlooked by the public health and international communities and overshadowed by other diseases.

Dr. Hotez saw the need for integration of the existing, vertical efforts to treat specific NTDs. In collaboration with colleagues around the world, Dr. Hotez helped launch the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases at the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, designed to fight the seven most common NTDs together to maximize impact and reduce inefficiencies.   Read more...

Who rides the roads with a garden in his truck? Baby it’s the Gestalt Man. Who stows the hoes and vows never to mow? Baby it’s the Gestalt Man.

Voted one of the top 25 people most likely to change the South, Gestalt Gardener Felder Rushing will make us laugh so hard we cry, and assures us that if we can grow mold in a coffee cup, we can garden. Be it a pocket terrarium in a translucent film canister, a window box, a massive lawn or his own truck-bed-garden, Intelligent Optimist Felder Rushing shares bottom-line how to succeed in gardening without really trying. He maintains his Radio Garden in just 15 minutes a week, and has no need for chemicals because of the healthy mix of edible and traditional landscape plants in a rich tapestry described by his own mama as a kaleidoscope having a stroke.   Read more...

Intelligent Optimist Larry Jarrett was born and raised in rural Union County, Mississippi. A maverick independent small businessman, he has helped promote sustainable forestry practices, including nature based tourism, non-timber forest products and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

As an Audubon Board member, he helped launch the Audubon Naturalist Program at Strawberry Plains Audubon Center in Holly Springs, Mississippi. After graduating from the program he went on to get a Master's degree in Environmental Studies with a focus on Sustainability from Prescott College, which opened the door for his current position as a Greenways Coordinator for Desoto County, Mississippi. His crowning glory, however, is the Natural Resources Initiative(NRI) (www.nrims.org) volunteer networking group he launched in 2001, bringing together a wide range of community and government organizations, all with a like-minded goal to stimulate effective new programs in sustainable growth.   Read more...

Dr. Susan Corso changes my life. Yes, actively and consistently! She is simply my fairy Godmother. Dr. Susan Corso is not yet famous, but she isn’t so ordinary. Susan Corso posses two invaluable yet often mutually exclusive skills: a hypnotic command of the written and spoken word and the uncanny ability to deeply listen, hearing the hidden desires of the speaker’s heart.

A powerful wordsmith and author of “God’s Dictionary: Divine Definitions for Everyday Enlightenment,” Susan reveals the inner meaning of language. Her writings are pithy seeds of inspiration (her weekly e-reminder ‘Seeds’ celebrates its 10th year), morsels to satisfy cravings for positive ways of living (‘Seeds for Sanctuary’, her personal blog), and divine 3 course meals of peace, love and enlightening entertainment.   Read more...

In January, Helen Little, a 77 year old Methodist from Clayton, NC will make her 43rd trip to Haiti. Her mission, to help the people of this poverty stricken country anyway she can.

Helen’s husband, Reuben died of leukemia in 1984, months after he was diagnosed with the disease. He was 56. A short time later, Helen attended a church service and listened to the spokesperson from Mission to Haiti describe the extreme poverty which had overtaken this nation. Two years later, she retired and took the first of 42 trips to the poverty-stricken Caribbean country. She traveled to remote towns with doctors to instruct people on how to take donated medicines. She was horrified by what she saw, little boys walking around naked, families living in 12-foot wide huts, women bathing in filthy water from a ditch.   Read more...

Charlotte Hunter was born January 19, 1949 in Harlem, New York City. From a young age she was always looking beyond the limits of the world around her, seeking a kinder, more loving reality, and longing to bring joy to other, less fortunate children.

At the age of 29 she embarked on an inner spiritual journey that also led her to travel far and wide, in search of a way to make a difference in the world.   Read more...

In 1991 Rosanne established Common Ground, a non-profit organization that has become the preeminent supportive housing provider in the country and an innovative developer of strategic solutions for the problem of homelessness.

Common Ground has created more than 2,000 units of permanent and transitional housing in New York City, Connecticut, and upstate New York.   Read more...

Mary Saint-Marie, as a luminary and bringer of beauty, is in global service to the Whole.

She is both an intelligent optimist and a Keeper of the Ideal. Following is the story:   Mary Saint-Marie responded to the call of global Oneness in 1997 when she had a vision of the profound unification of earth care by the people themselves.  EarthCare Global TV.   Read more...

Dr. Weidemann, known worldwide as a microlending specialist who has written extensively on this topic, understands the power of microfinance programs.

The Weidemann Foundation, established in 1998, identifies and collaborates with organizations conducting exceptional programs that have the greatest potential to become self-sustaining when donor support is withdrawn. The Foundation also assists individual donors to identify excellent projects around issues or regions they wish to support.   Read more...

Gary Schineller founded Hello, From My Heart Days in 2002 in order to promote Peace and eliminate violent crime. The simple invitation from September 11th - 21st, coinciding with the International Day of Peace, is to greet everyone we meet with a smile and the words "Hello, From My Heart."

This allows us all to participate in a way that can and has changed the world wherever practiced. We would all like to live in a happier, healthier, more peaceful communities. If we seek change, we must become the change we seek. "Hello, From My Heart" greetings are simply a way to be that change. This is the only statistically measured successful peace effort to show a drop in crime as well as lower rates of absenteeism.   Read more...

Deb Naybor is founder and executive director of Both Your Hands, a nonprofit that connects caring communities for global self sufficiency. She owns her own small land surveying business, is working toward her PhD in Global Gender Studies and remodels her 1940’s log home in environmentally responsible methods and materials in her “spare time.” She is an award winning photographer and poet and author of “Making A Difference: 182 ½ Ways to Change the World.”

But Deb’s true passion is helping communities in impoverished areas of the world to create their own opportunities through economic, educational, infrastructure and health development programs. Both Your Hands works with adults and children on over 60 projects in 14 countries. Her programs range from as little as a $50 microloan to $5000 in school improvements. Both Your Hands has provided Christmas gifts of snow suits for children of battered women in arctic Alaska, built the first free secondary school in Malawi and provided traditional drum making lessons to orphans in Uganda. Deb has a hectic life but she believes that if she can find time to help the poor, anyone can. “I work 60 hours a week, go to school at night and save the world on weekends,” Deb says with a smile.   Read more...

My wife/partner Mary has helped completely rejuvenate the Chemical Dependency Treatment Center here in Charlotte, now under a new name, Anuvia, pushed by Mary. She is the first marketing expert they've had on the board and is working hard with other board members to make Anuvia more appealing aethetically on both the inside and outside. The Anuvia Treatment & Recovery Center has helped thousands of people in our community recover fully from the ravages of addiction. Mary's marketing expertise has helped make the Center's ability to service our community stronger than ever. She is passionate about it!!

Mary is active in her Rotary Club, as am I, whose motto is "Service Above Self." Mary truly embodies those three words. When I first met her here in 1990, she was always at work in this activity or that ranging from St. John's Episcopal Church to Friends of the Opera to the Symphony Guild.   Read more...

Jim and his wife, Terry, began My Brothers Keeper after being moved by a film of a mother and child who had no home. The website is : mybrotherskeeper.org. This will tell their story much better than I could summarize. It is a blessing to know this couple and their selfless ways and extraordinary faith.   Read more...

Dr. Gordon is a phychiatrist who started the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C. He has been working all over the world in places where large numbers of people are experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from wars, such as in Kosovo, Israel, Gaza, New York after 9/11, and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

He is teaching hundreds of health care workers a very effective model of stress management in his Mind-Body Medicine Skills trainings. They in turn are going into the communities and working with the sufferers of PTSD. His research results are showing an 80% decrease in PTSD symptoms after the training. He is also training Cancer Guides who work collaboratively with people with cancer to create safe, effective, humane, individualized programs of care.   Read more...

I could not describe this. I could no more describe this than I could describe what it is to be alive. Farland is a creature who embodies positive change; her whole being revolved and evolves in this direction. She flits between worlds, living off the land and traversing the country with her dogs and her love and her ability to see beauty, and to find a home, wherever she is. She is not an ambassador of life, but the very spirit of it.

Farland is an inspiration. She lives in a tiny hand-hewn cabin outside Moab; she gathers her own food and collects only the water she needs. She tends to children and animals with the intensity of attention and fierce caring of a four-legged mother. She's politically active but her campaigning is secondary to her enactment of what the world could be: she lives out her beliefs and her persuasiveness is not that of an elegant orator but of someone living a life of such integrity that it's impossible not to want the same. She has touched more lives than she could ever know, and she allows herself to be touched by them.   Read more...

The employees at Greenfeet.com wish to nominate Valerie Reddemann as our favorite intelligent optimist. Valerie is the founder and president of Greenfeet.com, an internet retailer founded in 1997. Valerie started the company in her home, motivated by the idea of sustainability. Her vision is to bring quality, eco-friendly products and ideas into the peoples’ homes, no matter where they are on the "path" to green living. She envisions the business as a forum for spreading the word about sustainability.

She is a well-respected woman in the notably sustainable community of Chico, CA and has recently won the title of “2008 Entrepreneur of the Year Award” for the Chico Chamber of Commerce’s Women in Business recognition program. Valerie is a regular speaker at community and corporate events, and she guests on television and radio to inform and inspire people to investigate alternatives to the norm. She has volunteered for the Barry R. Kirschner Wildlife Foundation for years, a non-profit organization dedicated to Education and Conservation. She created and co-hosts a weekly podcast called "More Hip Than Hippie" which reaches listeners around the world. This year, she partnered with TerraPass to offset the carbon generated by Greenfeet's shipping, without passing the cost to the customer. She also joined with Ebay's "World of Good" Fair Trade shopping site, which recently launched with much fanfare.   Read more...

Johan is a Montessori primary teacher. He works at an urban Montessori school in Cleveland, OH. Johan has dedicated his life to bring education to children of all socio-economic backgrounds. He enters the classroom before 7AM each morning and doesn't leave until well after 5PM each night. He spends hours planning, preparing and creating work that will inspire and delight the children, to encourage each one to reach their full potential.

Johan is a one in a million teacher and my daughter has been forever blessed by having him as her guide for 4 years. He has drawn out all of Antoinette's amazing capabilities. That is why I would nominate Johan as an Intelligent Optimist.   Read more...

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist who had a stroke of her own 12 years ago. She was not only able to fully recover, but also to eloquently describe her experience of the stroke through her background as a brain scientist. Her book, Stroke of Insight, is a fascinating and inspiring take on human existence, spirituality, health, and vitality.

  Read more...