Valarie Kaur

Los Angeles, CA

Valarie Kaur is a civil rights activist, lawyer, documentary filmmaker, and social movement organizer. In the aftermath of September 11th, she was called to social justice work, documenting the violence unleashed on Sikh and Muslim American communities in her first of many award-winning films, Divided We Fall. Ms. Kaur has since leveraged her legal background and storytelling talent to drive policy change in relation to racial profiling, immigration detention, gun violence, marriage equality, and Internet freedom. An expert in movement-building and organizing, she founded the Yale Visual Law Project, Faithful Internet, and Groundswell Movement to empower the next generation of social action advocates.

Guided by Sikh tradition, Ms. Kaur’s leadership is grounded in love, and as the founder and leader of the Revolutionary Love Project, she is inspiring others to lead in the same way. Her most recent book, See No Stranger, tells the story of her own awakening to the revolutionary power of love. Ms. Kaur has been named a national faith leader to watch by the Center for American Progress and Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She is a frequent contributor to CNN, PBS, NPR, Huffington Post, and The Washington Post. She holds degrees from Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Law School.