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 is a violinist and educator whose efforts to merge music with mental health are changing the world, note by note. Named a MacArthur Fellow for “providing musical enrichment and valuable hu...
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 was named a MacArthur Genius for “reshaping national conversations around education reform.” This is but one honor in a growing list: she’s won a Peabody, a Polk, and, for her stor...
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
Is the American dream attainable anymore? And what can we do to help disadvantaged children have a real shot at it? A MacArthur “Genius” and one of the top economists in the world (The New York Times ...
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. The Founder and Chairman of Manchester Bidwell—an arts and training center with a $10 million annual budget—...
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...
