Sophia Kianni Keynote Speaker

Sophia Kianni is an Iranian-American climate activist and social entrepreneur studying at Stanford University. She is a popular keynote speaker on topics including climate change, women in leadership, Generation Z, sustainable fashion, social entrepreneurship, and youth activism.

She is the founder and executive director of the world’s largest youth-led climate non-profit, Climate Cardinals, which translates climate information into over 100 languages, and has over 10,000 volunteers in 40+ countries.

Sophia represents the United States as the youngest member of the inaugural United Nations Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change.  She sits on several other boards and advisory councils including for The New York Times, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, World Economic Forum, American Lung Association and Ashoka.

Her social following has grown to over 200,000 and her work is regularly featured in several media publications including Business Insider, CNN, Vogue, The New York Times, The Guardian, ELLE, and the front page of The Washington Post.  Sophia has previously worked as a freelance journalist for TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue and MTV News.

She is an inspiring storyteller and an experienced speaker. Her climate activism has taken her across the world speaking at various universities including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Cambridge, and Princeton.  She was the winner of the TED global idea competition and her debut TED Talk has been viewed over 2 million times.

Sophia was named VICE Media’s youngest Human of the Year, a National Geographic Young Explorer, and featured in several reputable lists including Forbes 30 under 30: Social Impact, Business Insider’s Climate Action 30, and Teen Vogue’s 21 under 21.