Chantal Barlow
Chantel Barlow knew her grandfather as a loving, religious, and sober man.
At the age of 16, she learned that her grandmother, Maybleine Nelson Barlow, was shot to death by her grandfather in 1975 in Compton, California in front of her father. Maybleine died at age 36, leaving seven children motherless. Her grandfather never served time for this crime.
Chantal began her Unconventional Apology Project for women of domestic violence to allow these survivors freedom from their past violations by sharing their experiences and emotions so that they can live healthier lives.
Chantal’s unique approach has been recognized by USC, UCLA, the City of Los Angeles, and various magazines.
Jim Killon
Jim Killon created Changes for New Hope to help women and children out of poverty in Ancash Peru. Since 2009, Jim’s foundation enhances and empowers these lives with the following goals:
Integrity: Teaches and lives Haz lo Correcto (Do the Right Thing). In 2010, the mayor of Huarez adapted Jim’s “Haz lo Correcto” initiative and made it a city wide program.
Health: Fights malnutrition and anemia with supplements and Albebdazole (an anti-parasite medication).
Education: Provides a safe place for children and women to learn with clothing, shoes, school materials, books, games, and toys.
Tools: Provides eco-friendly, hand-crank washing machines to relieve women of the labor intensive hand-washing in glacier formed rivers.
To date, Jim’s foundation has helped over 6000 children. He has also authored the books A Gringo in Peru – A Story of Compassion in Action and Living Large; Living Deliberately.
Heidi Vladyka
Heidi Vladyka, an occupational therapist at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Washington, is the Director of Distributions of Push International – a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide mobility and facilitate sustainable development in the disabled community by giving wheelchairs to poor people. As Director of Distributions, Heidi stores and ships hundreds of pieces of mobility equipment (i.e. wheelchairs, walkers, canes, etc.) to Mexico.
Besides having a full time job and assisting various teams within Push International, Heidi frequently travels to a children’s therapy center in Mazatlan, Mexico. Using neurodevelopment therapy techniques and medical equipment, Heidi helps families of children with cerebral palsy, autism, down syndrome, and visual/auditory impairments. She provides occupational therapy evaluations, assessments, and intervention to help these children develop their cognitive, vision, and motor skills.
Neal D. Barnard
Neal D. Barnard, M.D., F.A.C.C., is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and the president and founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). Founded in 1985, this non-profit, research, and advocacy organization combines the clout and expertise of more than 12,000 physicians with the dedicated actions of 150,000 members across the United States and around the world. Its primary activities include emphasizing nutrition in medical education; conducting research into healthy diets; educating people about nutrition; shifting research from animal “models” to more effective, human-relevant studies; and promoting alternatives to chemical tests on animals.
As its founder and medical director, Dr. Barnard opened the Barnard Medical Center (BMC) in January 2016. Its physicians, nurse practitioners, and dietitians help patients combat chronic disease with proper life-style, including a plant-based diet, and preventive medicines.
Dr. Barnard’s online and telephone application, the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, has help over half a million people transition their lives to a plant-based life-style.
A couple of Dr. Barnard’s achievements include: Tyson withdrew its advertisements encouraging consumers to eat chicken for a healthy heart, and Burger King had to alert its consumers that its chicken products contained PhIP.
Dr. Barnard hosted three television programs, author over seventy (70) scientific publications, and wrote eighteen (18) books advocating better health and nutrition.
Nogol Pedram
Nogol Pedram created the Mind the Children Foundation that helps underprivileged children, on an individual basis, in the low-income areas of Southern California with food, emotional support, self-confidence, and personal counseling. Nogol has provided individual well-being to over 10,000 children from 340 low-income schools. She currently visits children in Skid Row and various shelters on a weekly basis and broadens their life experiences by taking them on field trips (i.e museums, parks, camping, etc.).
Nogal distributes “Circle of Excellence Certificates”, or food certificates, to help parents feed their children.
Nogol believes that when someone takes the time to personally care, feed, counsel, and motivate underprivileged children on a one-on-one basis, it creates a healthier and more productive environment for these young lives and their communities.
Tore Knos
Tore Knos, PhD., has helped victims in the Bahamas, Malaysia, Philippines, and Southern Sudan. Working with the rotary organization Disaster Aid International, Dr. Knos meets with the local humanitarian groups to find effective logistics to organize, use, distribute, and/or determine what supplies are needed to overcome each disaster.
Dr. Knos discovered that many of the people in these developing countries had major diseases because of poor sanitation and nutrition. With improper sanitation, bacteria spreads through the water and depletes the soil of all nutrients resulting in food shortages. His book, Urine Diverting Dehydrating Toilets, describes a safe and effective way of eliminating all pathogens from human excrement that can be used as an inexpensive fertilizer to help farmers grow crops.
Heather Connell
Heather Connell gives hope, faith, and happiness to the children and families who have extreme disabilities, birth defects, and/or injuries. Shortly after filming Small Voices: The Stories of Cambodia’s Children in 2001, Heather founded the Safe Haven Medical Outreach (SHMO), a non-profit educational and therapeutic program for disabled children in Siem Riep, Cambodia.
SHMO provides intervention and support for children with disabilities and medical issues, allowing them the opportunity to access the educational, medical, and therapeutic resources they need in order to reach their full potential, lead healthy lives, and reach their highest level of personal independence.
SHMO supports families to access other health services, including dental care, speech therapy, medical equipment, hospital services and surgical intervention, and helps them to navigate these services so they can better understand their children’s health conditions and make informed decisions about health and medical care.
SHMO’s team provides physical and occupational therapies, rehabilitation, nutritional support, health assessments and education, and ongoing monitoring and support for children with severe disabilities, multiple diagnoses, and complex medical issues.
Jarrod Taylor Foken
In 2002, Jarrod Taylor Foken, a Los Angeles Unified school teacher, created the Dance Masters Assembly to inspire and motivate students with leading break-dance and hip-hop professionals to offset the growing trend of students who had poor mental and physical health; a tendency for gang violence; selfishness and apathy; alcohol and drug abuse; and a high drop-out rate.
The Dance Masters Assembly combines comedy, dance, and urban acrobatic entertainment with student and teacher participation. Through this entertainment and these positive role models, students are taught that they too can overcome their adversities and achieve their goals with hard-work and dedication.
In the past ten (10) years, Dance Masters Assembly has performed for over a million middle and high school students.