LEADERSHIP

MISFIT PIONEER: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
Born a slave on a Virginia farm, Washington (1856-1915) rose to become one of the most influential African-American intellectuals of the late 19th century. In 1881, he founded the Tuskegee Institute, a black school in Alabama devoted to training teachers. Washington was also behind the formation of the National Negro Business League 20 years later, and he served as an adviser to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Click image for more information.

EVAN WILLIAMS: Founder of Twitter and Blogger is a MISFIT PIONEER.
Born in Clarks, Nebr., Evan Williams grew up working on his family's soybean and corn farm. He went through some tough times and dropped out of U. of Nebraska. It was then he learned to write computer code and, with a friend, launched a software-development outfit from which they created blogging platform Blogger. They sold it to Google in 2003. He spent two years at Google then left to work on a startup that became Twitter. Williams was CEO from 2008 to 2010, before leaving to start social blogging platform Medium. He still holds a nearly 10% stake in Twitter.

MISFITS are pioneers. On March 1, 1912: Isabella Goodwin became the first female first grade detective in the New York City Police Department. Her salary was $2,250 a year. #misfitstrong

Fred Rogers, an iconic television pioneer and children's educator, this MISFIT pioneer dedicated his life to serving children. His relentless commitment to all that is best in people led to an astonishing array of honors, from induction into the Television Hall of Fame to The Presidential Medal of Freedom. Perhaps his greatest contribution is that he was able to translate complicated child development theories into easy to understand and affirming messages--life lessons that resonate with all of us, young and old.

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

EVAN WILLIAMS

Isabella Goodwin

Fred Rogers

Malala Yousafazi

Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, Pakistan. As a child, she became an advocate for girls' education, which resulted in the Taliban issuing a death threat against her. On October 9, 2012, a gunman shot Malala when she was traveling home from school. She survived, and has continued to speak out on the importance of education. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2013. In 2014, she was nominated again and won, becoming the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.