Nominate your favorite Intelligent Optimist!

Peter H. Reynolds, the New York Times bestselling author/illustrator and co-founder of FableVision, Inc. (www.fablevision.com), is on a mission. As an advocate for off-the-path learners, Peter is dedicated to helping students of all ages reach their full potential. Fueled by an optimistic belief in the power of creativity to bring the world to a better place, Peter divides his time between developing “media that matters” and sharing creative teaching and learning strategies with children, parents, and teachers worldwide.

Along with his twin brother Paul, Peter formed FableVision in 1996, with the goal of combining meaningful storytelling (“fable”) and technology to make a positive, global difference. From its headquarters co-located at the Boston Children’s Museum, FableVision brings together animators, developers, writers, and producers to design educational media for clients ranging from The Jim Henson Company and PBS to the National Archives, Girl Scouts of the USA, and the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center. This year, Boston Business Journal honored FableVision with a Pacesetters Award, recognizing the company as one of Boston’s fastest-growing private businesses.   Read more...

Steph is an optimist because he believes that each person has something extraordinary to give to the world, just by being themselves. He calls it "being your ordinary." As an artist, singer, producer, writer and advocate (NO H8), he lives and breathes this mantra of truly being yourself. He even adopted the pseudonym, Mr. Ordinary.

Steph, an accomplished model, realizes that self esteem is an issue for many of us. It can hinder us from really embracing who we are and sharing with the world. Ever the intelligent optimist, Steph decided that he could help by bringing a group of folks together to focus on feeling better about themselves. He formed G.U.M.B.O (Get Up and Move your Behind Operation). GUMBO is a group of people who meet each week to exercise together and challenge themselves to feel better about whom they are. Using music, comedy, themes and sheer magnetism, Steph reached out to everyone to share in his free workout sessions. GUMBO is so much fun, that many forget that they are challenging themselves to their physical limits. Hundreds in all shapes, sizes and demographics have come for GUMBO and been motivated to continue in their health quests.   Read more...

I want to nominate Esrah'a Al Shafei because she is a very inspiring young woman who follows her heart, thinks global without boundaries.

Esra'a Al Shafei is the founder and Executive Director of MideastYouth.com, an award-winning independent interfaith network whose mission is to inspire and provide young people with the freedom and opportunity of expression. Her advocacy on the internet bridges seemingly impenetrable barriers of faith and geography to unite young people committed to fostering constructive discourse in the Middle East. She is also the director of a series of international campaigns for rights for ethnic, religious, and intellectual minorities, and for freedom of expression. Among those she runs is the influential global campaign to FreeKareem.org. She is a recent recipient of the Berkman Award from Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society for her "outstanding contributions to the internet and its impact on society." She is 22 years old and is based in Bahrain   Read more...

Michele graduated from high school in the top 1/4 of her class with the desire to continue her education to become an elementary school teacher. This was actually a dream of hers ever since she started kindergarten. Her personality was such that she really wanted to help others. She's always had an innate ability to teach. Her dream of attending college, unfortunately, did not come to fruition. Her family situation was not indicative of a support system. College was out of the question so she worked at a local factory to keep the bill collectors at bay. Yet she knew that she wanted to do more with her life, and the dream of being an educator never left her mind.

Life for Michele was filled with twists and turns. That dream of being a teacher seemed to be moving further away from ever being a possibility. She thought that raising her kids and working 60 hours a week was going to be her destiny, but fate had something different in store for her. She met someone who changed her life. This man became her leap into education that set the stage for where she is today.   Read more...

ODE to a Great Man…

Just wanted to start out with the statement that not all wealthy and famous people are uppity, overbearing and brash. A prime example of the opposite of these poor qualities is a dear friend of mine, Mr. Peter Burwash of Peter Burwash International, which is the top tennis firm in the world today. As they say “Like father like son” and in this case “Like President like company”.   Read more...

As an Aspiring Master of Curiosity, Rob Brezsny has worked with language, humor and insight for a long time to bring optimism to the possible fore.

I love his title of PRONOIA: Is the Antidote for Paranoia - How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings   Read more...

Michael Anschel is responsible for many great things. I'd like to highlight one in particular - bringing together the highly diversified and knowledgeable group of people to create Minnesota's first-ever green building and remodeling standards, one of the most aggressive set of standards in the country for residential construction. Why does this matter? Because almost all of us in the U.S. live inside some type of man-made constructed space. We breathe its air, we store our food in its compartments, we sleep under its roof. And, our spaces are intrinsically connected to everyone else's as we continue to build new and discard the old. It's more than just our bodies that are temples.   Read more...

Janine was an incredibly successful marketing entrepreneur when she found herself, like thousands of others, fleeing New York City on 9/11. She was moved to make changes in her life such that she would use her vast energy and significant talents to serve the needy in areas of the world that need help the most.   Read more...

Randy started the well-kept secret www.care2.com, to empower people to make a difference in their lives and the world. Randy's online community has grown to more than 11 million members working together on important causes like animal welfare, environmental protection and human rights.

Randy is an optimist because he believes everyone can make a difference just by taking small steps. He's designed Care2 to make giving easy with a way to click to generate a donation for a good cause (for free), an easy to use online petition creator, and lots of news and articles to keep members informed.   Read more...

Katyayani and Jeff have recently opened the Shruti Institute for Vedic Arts in Broomfield Colorado. They teach Sanskrit, chanting, meditation, and Jyotisha (Vedic astrology). Katyanani also practices Jyotisha. She sees clients from all over the world, helping shine light on their life's highest purpose.

They have developed a program called Sanskrit for Yogis which teaches Sanskrit in a way that no other program does. Jeff is a meditation master, and teaches Blissful Wave as well as other meditation techniques. Both Jeff and Katyayani are committed to making the universe a better place to live by helping people stay in tune with the cosmic light, and connected with transcendent consciousness.   Read more...