Who: Sabrina Hersi Issa, 30
Sabrina Hersi Issa was born in the United States after her parents arrived from Somalia with political asylum. Issa always knew she wanted to find a way to help her country. In a 2012 blog post she wrote, “I always wanted to direct my career in a way to give back to the country that gave my family a second chance at a peaceful life. Today, that career lives at the intersection of technology and social change — building technology to help people tell their stories and grow movements online.”
Issa founded Be Bold Media, a digital media firm for campaign organizers around the world and co-founded End Famine, a campaign dedicated to seeking sustainable solutions to global hunger and humanitarian aid assistance.
She is also a Truman Nation Security Partner, an adviser to Digital Democracy and proudly sits on the boards of Exhale Provoice, Web of Change and Women, Action & the Media.
Who: Adam Pendleton, 29
What: At the age of 18, Adam Pendleton convinced his father to help him move from his native Virginia to New York City with the intention of becoming an artist.
Ten years later, Pendleton signed with the powerful blue-chip Pace Gallery, and is the youngest person to do so since the 1970s, according to gallery president Marc Glimcher.
According to Pace Gallery, Pendleton is a “conceptual artist known for his multi-disciplinary practice, which moves fluidly between painting, publishing, photographic collage, video and performance.”
He has shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, the New Museum in New York City, and internationally, including at the once-every-three-year exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
Popular art publication BOMB calls Pendleton a “rare” and “avant-garde” artist.
