Sophia Kianni

Sophia Kianni is an Iranian-American social entrepreneur and activist studying at Stanford University. She
is the founder and executive director of Climate Cardinals, the world’s largest youth-led climate nonprofit,
with 10,000 volunteers in 80+ countries. She has sat on boards and advisory councils for The New York
Times, World Economic Forum, Ashoka, American Lung Association, and Lady Gaga's Born This Way
Foundation. She is the youngest United Nations board member and advisor in US history.
Sophia has amassed a following of over 300,000 across social media platforms and her work has been
featured in news outlets including The New York Times, CNN, Vogue, Business Insider, BBC, NPR,
ELLE, The Guardian, NBC, and on the front page of The Washington Post. She was previously a fellow
with PBS NewsHour and has been a freelance journalist for news outlets such as TIME Magazine, The
Washington Post, MTV News, Cosmopolitan, and Teen Vogue.
Sophia is a prolific storyteller who has spoken at universities across the world including Harvard,
Stanford, Columbia, Yale, Cambridge, and Princeton. She won the TED global idea competition and her
debut TED Talk has two-plus million views.
She has been named VICE Media's youngest Human of the Year, a National Geographic Young Explorer,
among Business Insider’s Climate Action 30;’ one of Teen Vogue's 21 under 21; and a Forbes 30 under
30 honoree.