[From Emerson Collective's Demo Day 2025](https://www.emersoncollective.com/events/demo-day/demo-day-2025)

In conversation: Actor Robert De Niro and artist JR with Laurene Powell Jobs

In conversation: OpenAI's Sam Altman and LoveFrom's Jony Ive with Laurene Powell Jobs

Making arts education accessible to all | Damian Woetzel

Rebuilding trust through local journalism | Mary Margaret White

Building community through books, coffee, and conversation | DJ Johnson

Developing leadership to unlock every child’s potential | Wendy Kopp

Reinventing women’s health through patient-led innovation | Kara Egan

Powering industry with the world’s first thermal battery | Andrew Ponec

Empowering the next generation through technology and design | Marie Lou Papazian

How AI is teaching robots to navigate the real world | Ali Agha

The role of journalism in shaping freedom around the world | Anne Applebaum

Demo Day 2025

Demo Day 2025 - Julia Reichelstein Video

Transforming how the world manages waste | Julia Reichelstein

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We fund writing workshops with The OpEd Project and The Goodman Center

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Emerson Collective is a company that invests in entrepreneurs and innovators driven by purpose and a sense of possibility, working to create a world of abundance for future generations. Complex challenges in education and economic mobility, immigration and the environment require audacious ideas, rigorous thinking and hard work.

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Mark Bradford (b. 1961 in Los Angeles) is a contemporary artist known for his large-scale abstract paintings created out of paper. Characterized by its layered formal, material, and conceptual complexity, his work explores social and political structures that objectify marginalized communities and the bodies of vulnerable populations. After accumulating layers of various types of paper onto canvas, Bradford excavates their surfaces using power tools to explore economic and social structures that define contemporary subjects. His practice includes painting, sculpture, video, photography, printmaking, and other media. In addition to his studio practice, Bradford engages in social projects alongside exhibitions of his work that bring contemporary ideas outside the walls of exhibition spaces and into communities with limited exposure to art.
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In 2015, Bradford co-founded Art + Practice in Leimert Park with his longtime partner, Allan DiCastro, and philanthropist and art collector Eileen Harris Norton. A+P supports transition-age foster youth and children experiencing displacement worldwide through collaborations with nonprofit social service providers First Place for Youth and PILAglobal. A+P also provides free access to museum-curated contemporary art, organized by the California African American Museum.
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Bradford received a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 1995 and an MFA from CalArts in 1997. He has since been widely exhibited internationally and received numerous awards. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art; Hauser & Wirth, Menorca; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Hauser & Wirth, London; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; and Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai.
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[From Emerson Collective’s Demo Day 2022](https://www.emersoncollective.com/events/demo-day/demo-day-2022)

Mark Bradford (b. 1961 in Los Angeles) is a contemporary artist known for his large-scale abstract paintings created out of paper. Characterized by its layered formal, material, and conceptual complexity, his work explores social and political structures that objectify marginalized communities and the bodies of vulnerable populations. After accumulating layers of various types of paper onto canvas, Bradford excavates their surfaces using power tools to explore economic and social structures that define contemporary subjects. His practice includes painting, sculpture, video, photography, printmaking, and other media. In addition to his studio practice, Bradford engages in social projects alongside exhibitions of his work that bring contemporary ideas outside the walls of exhibition spaces and into communities with limited exposure to art.

Mark Bradford Demo Day 2022

Mark Bradford in Conversation with Laurene Powell Jobs

In 2020, Dario Calmese made history as the first-ever Black photographer to shoot a cover for Vanity Fair—in its 106-year existence—with his portrait of Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis. But Calmese’s work goes well beyond photography; it sits at the nexus of art, fashion, and academia, pushing the boundaries of each to create unprecedentedly innovative projects that explore history, race, and what it means to be human. That same year, Calmese launched The Institute of Black Imagination (IBI), a design start-up that works to preserve, integrate, and cultivate the Black imagination through innovative and interactive experiences. IBI’s portfolio includes a widely acclaimed podcast, digital website, and a forthcoming location at the Oculus World Trade Center, all of which tap into the “Pool of Black Genius” to share the visions of the modern iconoclasts taking the reins on cultural thought and innovation. Currently a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Calmese serves on the global advisory board for Estée Lauder Companies and is a professor at The New School’s Parsons School of Design in New York City. He is also an NYC Urban Design Forum Fellow, show director for the fashion brand Pyer Moss, and he collaborated with Adobe Lightroom to design presets specifically for people of color.
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In 2020, Dario Calmese made history as the first-ever Black photographer to shoot a cover for Vanity Fair—in its 106-year existence—with his portrait of Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis. But Calmese’s work goes well beyond photography; it sits at the nexus of art, fashion, and academia, pushing the boundaries of each to create unprecedentedly innovative projects that explore history, race, and what it means to be human. That same year, Calmese launched The Institute of Black Imagination (IBI), a design start-up that works to preserve, integrate, and cultivate the Black imagination through innovative and interactive experiences. IBI’s portfolio includes a widely acclaimed podcast, digital website, and a forthcoming location at the Oculus World Trade Center, all of which tap into the “Pool of Black Genius” to share the visions of the modern iconoclasts taking the reins on cultural thought and innovation. Currently a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Calmese serves on the global advisory board for Estée Lauder Companies and is a professor at The New School’s Parsons School of Design in New York City. He is also an NYC Urban Design Forum Fellow, show director for the fashion brand Pyer Moss, and he collaborated with Adobe Lightroom to design presets specifically for people of color.


Dario Calmese Demo Day 2022

Cultivating the Black Imagination Through Innovative and Interactive Experiences | Dario Calmese

Shirley M. Collado’s mission is to help remove the obstacles that hold students back from fulfilling their educational potential. She has broken down barriers over the course of her career; as the ninth president emerita at Ithaca College, Collado was not only the institution’s first president of color, but also the first Dominican American to be president of a four-year institution in the U.S. Today, she serves as president and CEO of College Track, a college completion organization focused on fulfilling the promise of higher education for all students. By working to advance innovative approaches that expand student access and success, Collado opens doors that will not only lead to economic mobility, but to broader social change.
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Earlier in her career, Collado served as executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer at Rutgers University-Newark; dean of the college and vice president for student affairs at Middlebury College; and executive vice president of The Posse Foundation. She is the Brooklyn-born daughter of Dominican immigrants, and the first person in her family to graduate from college.
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Shirley M. Collado, Ph.D.

Shirley M. Collado’s mission is to help remove the obstacles that hold students back from fulfilling their educational potential. She has broken down barriers over the course of her career; as the ninth president emerita at Ithaca College, Collado was not only the institution’s first president of color, but also the first Dominican American to be president of a four-year institution in the U.S. Today, she serves as president and CEO of College Track, a college completion organization focused on fulfilling the promise of higher education for all students. By working to advance innovative approaches that expand student access and success, Collado opens doors that will not only lead to economic mobility, but to broader social change.


Shirley Collado Demo Day 2022

Removing Obstacles to Fulfill Educational Potential | Shirley M. Collado, Ph.D.

When her first son was born, Julia Collins knew she needed to do something to help mitigate the climate crisis for future generations. So in 2019, she founded Planet FWD, an organization dedicated to empowering sustainable brands with its carbon management platform. Planet FWD’s proprietary technology provides consumer and food service companies with the tools to understand, reduce, and neutralize their carbon footprint, and get on a path to net zero emissions. Collins also created Moonshot, Planet FWD’s climate-friendly snack brand.
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Food has always been at the center of Collins’ life and work; she spent her early career at industry-leading food companies such as Union Square Hospitality Group, Mexicue, Murray’s Cheese, and Harlem Jazz Enterprises. She went on to co-found Zume Pizza, where she became the first Black woman to lead a company that reached unicorn status. She currently sits on the advisory council for Launch With GS and the Food for Climate League as well as supporting other diverse early-stage founders as an adviser and angel investor. She resides in San Francisco with her two sons and partner.
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[From Emerson Collective’s Demo Day 2022](https://www.emersoncollective.com/events/demo-day/demo-day-2022)

When her first son was born, Julia Collins knew she needed to do something to help mitigate the climate crisis for future generations. So in 2019, she founded Planet FWD, an organization dedicated to empowering sustainable brands with its carbon management platform. Planet FWD’s proprietary technology provides consumer and food service companies with the tools to understand, reduce, and neutralize their carbon footprint, and get on a path to net zero emissions. Collins also created Moonshot, Planet FWD’s climate-friendly snack brand.

Julia Collins Demo Day 2022

Empowering Sustainable Brands and Decarbonizing Global Supply Chains

Since 2021, investigative reporter Caitlin Dickerson has reported on migration for The Atlantic from three continents and dozens of American cities. In September 2022, she published a piece in The Atlantic titled “We Need to Take Away Children: The Secret History of the U.S. Government’s Family-Separation Policy.” The breakthrough story dug deep into the behind-the-scenes workings of the Trump-era family-separation policy, uncovering how the government came to the point of tearing children away from their families as a way to deter immigration—and who was responsible for it. It took 18 months to investigate and report the story—during which Dickerson conducted more than 150 interviews and reviewed thousands of legal documents—and it eventually became one of the longest stories published by the magazine.
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Dickerson previously spent nearly five years as a reporter at The New York Times and five years as a producer and reporter for NPR. She is a Peabody and Edward R. Murrow Award recipient, and a three-time finalist for the Livingston Award. She is currently writing a book for Random House about the systemic impact of deportation on American society.
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Since 2021, investigative reporter Caitlin Dickerson has reported on migration for The Atlantic from three continents and dozens of American cities. In September 2022, she published a piece in The Atlantic titled “We Need to Take Away Children: The Secret History of the U.S. Government’s Family-Separation Policy.” The breakthrough story dug deep into the behind-the-scenes workings of the Trump-era family-separation policy, uncovering how the government came to the point of tearing children away from their families as a way to deter immigration—and who was responsible for it. It took 18 months to investigate and report the story—during which Dickerson conducted more than 150 interviews and reviewed thousands of legal documents—and it eventually became one of the longest stories published by the magazine.


Caitlin Dickerson Demo Day 2022

Uncovering Truths About Family-Separation Policy | Caitlin Dickerson

Attorney Marc Elias works to preserve democracy through legal action and advocacy. Throughout his expansive career, he has taken on hundreds of cases involving election law and voting rights, including those that followed Donald Trump’s contestation of the outcome of the 2020 election—his team secured 64 victories in the post-election period alone. Elias has successfully argued and won four cases before the U.S. Supreme Court—with two more cases coming up this year—as well as dozens of cases in state supreme courts and U.S. courts of appeal. He has also successfully represented several House and Senate candidates in post-election litigation, recounts, and challenges. He is the founder of Democracy Docket, the leading progressive media platform dedicated to providing information, opinion, and analysis of the law and policy governing elections and voting rights.
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Attorney Marc Elias works to preserve democracy through legal action and advocacy. Throughout his expansive career, he has taken on hundreds of cases involving election law and voting rights, including those that followed Donald Trump’s contestation of the outcome of the 2020 election—his team secured 64 victories in the post-election period alone. Elias has successfully argued and won four cases before the U.S. Supreme Court—with two more cases coming up this year—as well as dozens of cases in state supreme courts and U.S. courts of appeal. He has also successfully represented several House and Senate candidates in post-election litigation, recounts, and challenges. He is the founder of Democracy Docket, the leading progressive media platform dedicated to providing information, opinion, and analysis of the law and policy governing elections and voting rights.


Marc Elias Demo Day 2022

Preserving Democracy through Legal Action and Advocacy | Marc Elias

When Stacy Flynn took a production trip to China, she witnessed the direct effects of textile manufacturing on the environment and her own health. This led to an epiphany: She realized she must be a part of a sea change in the textile industry to move it in a sustainable direction. Since then, Flynn has become a textile and apparel environmental justice advocate and materials reuse expert. In 2014, she co-founded Evrnu, a textile innovations company that creates new materials from discarded textiles. Through Evrnu, Flynn aims to lead the charge for the circular textiles movement—a regenerative model in which materials are designed with multiple uses in mind. Prior to her role as Evrnu’s CEO, Flynn spent nearly two decades as a global textile specialist while working at DuPont, Eddie Bauer, and Target. She holds an MBA in sustainable systems from Presidio Graduate School and a B.A. in textile development and marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology.
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When Stacy Flynn took a production trip to China, she witnessed the direct effects of textile manufacturing on the environment and her own health. This led to an epiphany: She realized she must be a part of a sea change in the textile industry to move it in a sustainable direction. Since then, Flynn has become a textile and apparel environmental justice advocate and materials reuse expert. In 2014, she co-founded Evrnu, a textile innovations company that creates new materials from discarded textiles. Through Evrnu, Flynn aims to lead the charge for the circular textiles movement—a regenerative model in which materials are designed with multiple uses in mind. Prior to her role as Evrnu’s CEO, Flynn spent nearly two decades as a global textile specialist while working at DuPont, Eddie Bauer, and Target. She holds an MBA in sustainable systems from Presidio Graduate School and a B.A. in textile development and marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Stacy Flynn Demo Day 2022

Transforming Textile Waste into Raw Material Streams | Stacy Flynn

Dr. Holmes Hummel has made it their life’s work to create pathways for all to participate in the clean energy economy—on inclusive terms that are fiscally sustainable and financially scalable. Dr. Hummel founded Clean Energy Works to accelerate the adoption of essential clean energy upgrades through financial solutions, with the understanding that it is only through universal participation that we can achieve a clean energy economy. Working with Co-Director Tamara Jones, Dr. Hummel has built a team that supports rapidly expanding field work on the adoption of inclusive utility investment, promoting a practical model that makes clean energy solutions available to those who might not otherwise have access.
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Prior to spearheading Clean Energy Works, Dr. Hummel served as senior policy advisor in the Department of Energy’s Office of Policy & International Affairs from 2009–2013, where they convened the first agency-wide working group on finance with a focus on expanding participation in the clean energy economy. Dr. Hummel holds a doctorate from Stanford University and serves as the managing director for Energy Equity & Just Transitions at the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford. In collaboration with Dr. Anthony Kinslow II, Dr. Hummel has founded new courses in energy equity, including a course called Quest for an Inclusive Clean Energy Economy.
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Dr. Holmes Hummel has made it their life’s work to create pathways for all to participate in the clean energy economy—on inclusive terms that are fiscally sustainable and financially scalable. Dr. Hummel founded Clean Energy Works to accelerate the adoption of essential clean energy upgrades through financial solutions, with the understanding that it is only through universal participation that we can achieve a clean energy economy. Working with Co-Director Tamara Jones, Dr. Hummel has built a team that supports rapidly expanding field work on the adoption of inclusive utility investment, promoting a practical model that makes clean energy solutions available to those who might not otherwise have access.

Creating Pathways in the Clean Energy Economy | Holmes Hummel

Demo Day 2022 Highlights