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” speakers, who are 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
Urgent and timely, 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 2018 MacArthur Fe...
Founder of Street Symphony | 2018 MacArthur Fellow | TED Senior Fellow
Vijay Gupta believes that the work of the artist and citizen is one: to make a daily practice of the connected, creative, and courageous world we long to live in. Hailed by The New Yorker as “a vision...
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Creator of The 1619 Project | New York Times Magazine Staff Writer | MacArthur Genius | Winner of the National Magazine Award
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES is a MacArthur Genius for “reshaping national conversations around education reform.” This is but one honor in a growing list: She is the creator of the New York Times Magazine’s “...
Photographer | Associate Professor at School of the Art Institute of Chicago | MacArthur Genius
One of the nation’s most acclaimed photographers, LaToya Ruby Frazier’s work depicts the unsettling reality of today’s America: post-industrial cities riven by poverty, racism, healthcare inequality, ...
Economist and MacArthur Genius studying economic inequality
A MacArthur “Genius” and one of the top economists in the world, Raj Chetty tackles the inequality in American society—including in education, housing, and longevity—through the powerful lens of econo...
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...
As the founder and chairman of the Manchester Bidwell arts and training center, Bill Strickland inspires hope, generates jobs, and empowers citizens to become experts in any field—regardless of their ...
Pulitzer Prize Winning Author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse, and Upheaval
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...
