Matilda Raffa Cuomo (1931- ) Advocate for women, children and families, Matilda Raffa Cuomo has been described as the “most active first lady in New York State history.” As First Lady (1983-1995), she established the first state-wide, school-based, one-to-one mentoring program. By 1995, ten thousand children had been mentored by volunteers from corporations, schools and government and the groundwork laid for Mentoring USA and international extensions. Since its establishment, the program has expanded ages it serves and offerings to address LGBT, Bias Related Anti-Violence Education, fostercare and workplace mentoring. Matilda Cuomo co-chaired the Governor’s Commission on Child Care; chaired NY Citizens’ Task Force on the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect; led New York in the UN’s World Summit for Children and the US ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Born in Queens, Matilda Cuomo’s experiences as a first-generation American engendered her lifelong dedication to mentoring. Having had whole worlds opened by a teacher, she graduated cum laude from St. John’s University Teachers College and taught at Dutch Broadway School (Long Island). Wife and mother of five children, fourteen grandchildren, and one great grandson, Matilda Cuomo wove together her life and life’s passion into mentoring understood as relationships building awareness and respect for one’s own and others’ cultural heritage. As she said to Kingsborough College graduates: “do what must be done to encourage a more intelligent, constructive and reasonable acceptance of our nation's unique diversity, through dialogue … hard work and respect…. a whole new world awaits building.” Matilda Cuomo received the first Liberty Partnerships Lifetime Achievement Award and honorary degrees from Marymount Manhattan and Siena College. Author of “Simple Acts of Kindness” in What We Know So Far (1996) and editor of The Person Who Changed My Life: Prominent Americans Recall Their Mentors (1999, 2011), Matilda Cuomo currently chairs New York’s re-instated Mentoring Program. Temple Grandin (1947- ) Temple Grandin has, as far back as she can remember, been an inventor. Growing up she learned to “convert abstract thought into visual pictures,” experimenting with designs such as model airplanes and bird-shaped paper kites and, by 18, after visiting her aunt on a cattle ranch, a “squeeze machine” to alleviate her stress and nervousness. “Thinking with pictures” is part of her invention equation. Another is using her experiences of anxiety and feeling threatened by her environment. Seeing situations from the visual perspective of others, including animals, Temple Grandin applied her insights to design a cattle dip vat, corrals and other devices, and quality standards in livestock industries. Diagnosed at two with Autism Spectrum Disorder, her life and work have as much “revolutionized the study of autism” as understandings that “The World Needs All Kinds of Minds.” Her twinned paths -- opening the doors on autism and reimagining humane treatment of animals -- undergird Dr. Grandin’s research, teaching and international consulting as a renowned expert on cattle behavior and on autism. Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1947, Temple Grandin’s early years were filled with speech therapy, being read to by her mother, and play intended to draw her out. Her parents sought supportive private schools, enabling her to go on to a B.A. in psychology and Masters and Ph.D. (University of Illinois) in animal science. While completing her Masters work, she founded her own company, Grandin Livestock Handling Systems. Author of 12 books and several hundred publications, Temple Grandin’s steadfast determination to learn about herself and the world, to invent and to do things, and to educate has brought her well-earned recognition, including in the HBO award winning “Temple Grandin,” recognition as one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) A groundbreaking playwright, essayist and advocate for change, Lorraine Hansberry authored A Raisin in the Sun, becoming the first African American woman to have a Broadway show produced, the first black playwright and youngest American to receive, in 1959, the prestigious New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play, and the first African American to win the distinguished Drama Desk Award. To Hansberry, the play expresses an America that knows “we have among our miserable and downtrodden ranks people who are the very essence of human dignity.” As Hansberry reminded Studs Terkel, “in order to create the universal, you must pay attention to the specific.” As importantly, Hansberry also stated: “the most oppressed group of any oppressed group will be its women,” and those who are “twice oppressed” may become “twice militant.” Both reminders resonate in revivals of her best-known play as Hansberry captured the particularities of Southside Chicago racism, African American women’s lives, and the universality of human dignity, commitments equally manifest in her civil rights and justice efforts. Born on May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Hansberry was shaped by her family history and the black intellectual world visiting her family, including sociologist W. E. B. Dubois and poet Langston Hughes. Working on the staff of Paul Robeson’s Freedom Magazine, writing letters to the Ladder and for the Village Voice, Hansberry’s voice was cut short by her death from pancreatic cancer at 34. In her unfinished play Les Blancs, produced most recently in 2015, investigations of colonialism and the Middle Passage represent Hansberry’s vision informed by art, the world, and her African scholar uncle, Leo Hansberry. At her funeral, Martin Luther King Jr. observed "Her creative ability and her profound grasp of the deep social issues confronting the world today will remain an inspiration to generations yet unborn." Inspiring artists and citizens, Nina Simone’s song “Young, Gifted and Black” echoes Hansberry’s 1964 words to Readers Digest/ United Negro College Fund creative writing awardees: “though it be a thrilling and marvelous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so, doubly dynamic – to be young, gifted and black.” Victoria Jackson (1955 - ) Entrepreneur, innovator, author, and philanthropist, Victoria Jackson has built a company, a foundation and an exemplary life conjoining the idea that “When you look better you feel better” with a commitment to creativity, communication and change. Born in Long Island, NY, Jackson carved out a career as a Hollywood makeup artist, designing cosmetics rooted in her belief that the route to change comes through self-esteem. Her extensive volunteer work, including hundreds of hours in women’s prisons, youth support and cancer treatment centers, was also founded in her belief that helping women build inner self confidence “help[s] them take some control.” As founding CEO of Victoria Jackson Cosmetics, Jackson led the company to more than a billion in worth and millions of loyal customers. Her innovative use of infomercials coupled with her philosophy transformed not only her company but communication venues worldwide. In recent decades, Jackson has turned her attention to her daughter’s Neuromyelitis Optica spectrum disease, and, by extension, autoimmune diseases more broadly. Self-described as a “mom on a mission,” Jackson, mother of three, co-founded, with her husband Bill Guthy, the Guthy-Jackson Foundation, bringing together 175 innovative problem solvers from 28 countries and working on over 50 scientific projects. Her insight into the power of collaboration and open exchange transformed the landscape of medical research approaches to “orphan diseases” by enhancing global collaboration, revamping research models and international clinical consortia, and increasing access to clinical trials. Author of Saving Each Other: A Mother-Daughter Love Story (Vanguard, 2012) Redefining Beauty: Discovering Your Individual Beauty, Enhancing Your Self- Esteem[1] (Warner, 1993) and Make Up Your Life: Every Woman's Guide to the Power of Makeup[2] (HarperCollins, 2000), Victoria Jackson and her daughter Ali were invited speakers at the Vatican’s 3rd Annual Regenerative Medicine Conference and are global leaders devoted to improving and saving lives. Recipient of multiple awards, Jackson is a passionate advocate for women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship. Sherry Lansing (1944-) Visionary leader and filmmaker in the motion picture business for thirty years, Sherry Lansing shattered the glass ceiling of major film studios becoming the first woman president of 20th Century Fox, in 1980. Hollywood’s “Queen of Firsts,” she was also the first woman studio head honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and hand- and footprints in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Hailing from Southside Chicago, Lansing was born July 31, 1944, attending University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and Northwestern University, graduating cum laude with a bachelor of science. Her early passion for acting led her to Los Angeles where she auditioned while teaching high school math and English. Landing “parts in the 1970 movies ‘Loving’ and . ‘Rio Lobo,’” Lansing discovered she loved reading scripts more than acting. She worked as an independent producer and formed the production company, Jaffe-Lansing Productions. In 1992, Lansing became Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, remaining at the helm for an exceptional