Laila Alawa
Laila Alawa
2015
CEO and founder
Biographie
Laila Alawa is the CEO and founder of Coming of Faith, a leading media company where the world goes to hear the voices and stories of underrepresented women. With more than half a million monthly visitors, the site covers everything from life to humor, entertainment to news. She is also the host for The Expose, a weekly Coming of Faith podcast tackling tough topics with snark and wit. Her work has been mentioned in The Guardian, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, Mashable, Color Lines, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe. She has also appeared on Al-Jazeera America, BBC World News, NPR, and Huffington Post Live. In 2015, she was named an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow.
Prior to founding Coming of Faith, Laila was a research specialist at Princeton University, studying socio-cognitive processing under the framework of community identity and belonging. During her time in college, she spent time dissecting stereotype threat for women in the sciences, consumer behaviorism and minority stereotyping and judgement. In 2014, Laila was selected as a social media leader to attend the U.S. Department of State's International Women of Courage Award Ceremony. Michelle Obama told her that her move to DC was a smart one. Laila has a bachelor's degree from Wellesley College.
Project
Coming of Faith. http://www.comingoffaith.com/
Jessie Mooberry
Jessie Mooberry
2015
Biographie
Jessie Mooberry is the vice director of Uplift Aeronautics, a UAV company building drones to deliver humanitarian aid. She is a serial entrepreneur and became involved in her first startup at Pitt while studying Finance and Chinese. She won Pitt’s Randall Family Big Idea Competition twice: first with The CON Project, which used crowdsourcing to fight corruption in India and second with Orro, which resold recycled electronics to raise money for local causes.
Jessie serves on the board of Uplift Aeronautics, Inc and People’s Light and Theater Company. She is a 2015 Ariane de Rothschild Social Entrepreneurship Fellow and is working towards her Private Pilot’s license. Jessie currently lives in Istanbul.
Project
Uplift Aeronautics, Inc and People’s Light and Theater Company.
Guy Ben Aharon
Guy Ben Aharon
2015
Artistic Director and Founder
Biographie
Born in Israel, Guy is the Producing Artistic Director and Founder of Israeli Stage (www.IsraeliStage.com), an initiative dedicated to sharing the diversity and vitality of Israeli culture and building cultural bridges through theatre and dialogue. After the success of Israeli Stage (Founded: November, 2010), Guy was asked by the Goethe-Institut Boston to develop German Stage (Founded: October, 2012), by swissnexBoston to develop Swiss Stage (Founded: September, 2013) and by the Austrian Cultural Forum to develop Austrian Stage (Founded: November, 2014). His dedication to bring theatre to younger audiences has resulted in tours up and down the East Coast from Toronto to Atlanta at various cultural and academic institutions. A proud Emerson College alum, Guy is the Waldman Award recipient for an exceptional promise for a career in theater and was chosen by the Combined Jewish Philanthropies as one of the top 18 influential leaders in Boston under 45. Guy is a member of the ROI Global Entrepreneurs Community (Schusterman Family Foundation in Jerusalem, Israel) and a former Theatertreffen International Forum Fellow (Berlin, Germany). His work has garnered him profiles in The Boston Globe, The Improper Bostonian, The International Herald Tribune Ha’aretz, The Washington Post, NPR, WBUR, WGBH, Yediot and numerous other press outlets.
Project
Israeli Stage (www.IsraeliStage.com), an initiative dedicated to sharing the diversity and vitality of Israeli culture and building cultural bridges through theatre and dialogue.
