Every year, the MacArthur Foundation selects “25 Extraordinarily Creative People Who Inspire Us All,” celebrating the creative potential of individuals through no-strings-attached fellowships. Lavin is proud to represent a diverse contingent of MacArthur “Geniuses,” changing the world as we know it through social advocacy, journalism, science, art—and so much more.
2018 MacArthur Fellow | Award-Winning Painter and Sculptor
With more urgency than a headline, Titus Kaphar’s artworks capture the spirit of social justice and change in America today (exemplified in his TIME cover portrait of the Ferguson protests). Named a 2...
Founder of Street Symphony | 2018 MacArthur Fellow | TED Senior Fellow
Vijay Gupta is a violinist and educator whose efforts to merge music with mental health are changing the world, note by note. Named a 2018 MacArthur Fellow for “providing musical enrichment and valuab...
New York Times Magazine Staff Writer | MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow | Winner of the National Magazine Award
Nikole Hannah-Jones was named a MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow (one of only 24 people chosen, globally) for “reshaping national conversations around education reform” and for her reporting on racial re...
Photographer speaking on family, communities, and environmental racism
For LaToya Ruby Frazier, art is a weapon—a catalyst for social justice. Her photographs and videos document today’s America: post-industrial cities riven by poverty, racism, healthcare inequality, and...
Economist and MacArthur Genius studying economic inequality
How can we give disadvantaged children a better chance of success? A MacArthur “Genius” and one of the top economists in the world (The New York Times and The Economist), Raj Chetty tackles the core i...
Author of Grit, the #1 New York Times Bestseller | Pioneering Researcher on Grit, Perseverance, and the Science of Success
In her landmark research, psychologist Angela Duckworth reveals the importance of character to success in life. Her pioneering work on grit and self-control—showcased in her instant New York Times bes...
Bill Strickland created an empire by stoking genius in those who believed they had nothing. As a speaker, founder, and Executive Chairman of Manchester Bidwell—a $7 million from-scratch arts and train...
Pulitzer Prize Winning Author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse, and Upheaval (May 2019)
Jared Diamond is the epitome of a celebrity scientist—a Pulitzer Prize Winner, a #1 New York Times bestselling author, and one of the world’s Top 10 Public Intellectuals (Foreign Policy). He also uniq...
