CORI STERN

Co-Founder, Strongheart Fellowship

The creation of The Strongheart Fellows Program has been Cori's deeply-held goal since she was thirteen years old, after reading Time Magazine's CHILDREN OF WAR by Roger Rosenblatt. A writer and social entrepreneur - as well as a documentary and narrative film producer - Cori's involvement in global issues intensified during the civil war in Cote d’Ivoire when she learned of Centre SAS, an orphan-care center caught behind rebel lines in Bouake. Over 1,000 children were trapped without food or medicine, cared for by a handful of workers. Moved by their situation, Cori raised enough funds privately to purchase $100,000 worth of medicine and coordinated a convoy with UNAIDS and the Red Cross to transport her shipment in to the children. Since that time, Cori has coordinated numerous international relief and assistance efforts including a major vaccination campaign in Northern Nigeria, building a self-sustaining primary school in a refugee settlement in Ghana, and an education sponsorship program for former street and slave children in The Gambia.  Together with Dr. Arthur Ammann, she created Cradle of Life, a global effort to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV through training village birth attendants in HIV testing and administration of Nevirapine.  Her additional projects include co-founding The Next Right Thing, offering free medical treatment and transport for critically ill or injured children from developing nations, as well as The Name Campaign, a major campaign that helped to end the active LRA atrocities in Northern Uganda. Her work has been covered by NPR, BBC, ABC World News, the Oprah Winfrey Show, and National Geographic.

ZOË ADAMS

Co-Founder, Strongheart Fellowship

Zoë Adams serves as the Executive Director of Strongheart Fellowship. The mission of Strongheart has been Zoë’s life purpose since she was a teen. An internationally-known speaker and youth activist, at the age of nineteen, she founded Earth Dwellers, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating youth on the world's interconnectedness, instilling environmental and social responsibility and inspiring community activism. Zoë, whose purpose was to empower young people to live purposefully and compassionately, guided them in the form of camps, seminar programs and youth support networks where she exposed young people to innovative thought leaders from across a multitude of academic and industry arenas ranging from economics to environmental sciences to researchers in the field of human potential. Zoë was awarded the National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation for leadership in environmental causes and was the keynote speaker at the National Youth Environmental Summit, a conference for global leaders of environmental youth organizations from around the world. As a young adult, she was also a featured speaker at Aspen’s Windstar: Choices for the Future Symposium. In her adult years, she became a social entrepreneur known for her visionary leadership and ability to build solid organizational infrastructure around forward-thinking people, projects and concepts. For over eighteen years, Zoë has led and supported both non-profit and for-profit corporations in their establishment from seed stage through growth. Zoë’s career spanned media, technology, public policy and economic development - becoming a key team member and senior executive for Saban Entertainment, Fox Family Worldwide, Fox Kids Europe, and TechAmerica. Zoë awakens each day in awe of the tremendous potential of human transformation.

KRISTI MANNING

Co-Founder, Strongheart Fellowship

For more than fifteen years consultant, project director, and international event organizer for a variety of nonprofit organizations. She has built a career providing ongoing strategic and tactical support for nonprofit initiatives with a focus on improved quality of life for youth both in the United States and abroad. In 1996, Kristi worked with the Olympic Games, where she was involved with managing all elements of planning and operations including accreditation, transportation, administration, asset management, communications, logistics, security, and venue management.  She also worked with Starbright Foundation, where she directed the expansion and implementation of a private online network in 95 hospitals across North America and Canada designed to improve the lives of seriously ill children. Most recently, her work includes Development Manager for the Painted Turtle Camp and co-founder of The Next Right Thing, offering free medical treatment and transport for critically ill or injured children from developing nations.  Most recently, Kristi worked in Dubai for DUBAI CARES, an initiative that raised approximately 1 billion dollars for primary education in developing countries in support of the Milennium Goals. Recognizing that the increasing globalization of the world economy creates the need for greater cross-cultural connections and strong compassionate leadership, Kristi is excited to contribute to the success and sustainability of Strongheart.