“All people share the wish for peace and comfort, to spend our days in happiness,” explained Her Holiness Shinso Ito, addressing the endless crowd of people gathered on Ala Moana Beach in Honolulu, Hawai’i. I was among this solemn yet hopeful crowd, holding onto my young daughter as she stared up at the illuminated stage…
Build the world you want to live in
Kayla McMenamin I visited Italy for the first time when I was 14. I was very fortunate that my parents, after many years vacationing exclusively at the Jersey Shore, had finally saved up enough money to travel internationally. As the much younger of three kids—the “oops baby” you might say—they decided to take me with them. The…
Joy Portella One thing we can likely agree on about the last few years is they haven’t been predictable. Many people experienced job loss, burnout, or a transition to work-from-home that blurred the lines between work and home. A global pandemic overwhelmed our medical system, heightened feelings of fear and isolation, and changed our ways of being.…
Sara Veltkamp “Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.” – Toni Morrison We often don’t think about how powerful our words are—they create worlds and experiences for everyone around us. Living in a country colonized by oppressors, we have been conditioned to casually…
Kati Rodríguez Pérez Renowned Black political activist, scholar, and author, Angela Davis proclaimed, “In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist. We must be anti-racist.” I agree, and I push her words further. In a deeply unjust society, it is not enough to be anti-injustice; we must be pro-justice. Pro-Black. Pro-Indigenous. Pro-queer. Pro-youth. Pro-disability. Pro-climate…
Gaby España Minerva Strategies started as just me, at my kitchen table, with an idea. It wasn’t revolutionary, but it felt right: Let’s build a special kind of agency that brings together great, smart people to do great, smart work for great, smart clients. And let’s make it all about creating positive impact in the world. That’s…
Global health folks use a lot of big numbers. And why wouldn’t they? The globe is a big place with lots of people. To measure progress in population health, we need to track outcomes at the population level. But personally, I find it hard to relate to big numbers. When I read a news article…