Heated debate over President Obama's bill that mandates employer sponsored insurance plans to cover female contraception took a nasty turn last week. Despite talk of religious freedom and the proper role of the state in the private sector, one can't help but wonder how much of these political discussions is...

"As a mom, I was shocked to learn that the leading cause of death of children in developing countries is respiratory illness," says The Adventure Project co-founder Jody Landers, in describing the problem of toxic indoor smoke.

Every day, 3 billion people in developing countries are exposed to toxic...

Scrolling through Jody Landers' blog is a strangely intimate experience -- one that embodies the way that the Internet has transformed our personal and private lives. Pages are colored with birthday cakes, first days of school and grandpa hugs; she openly blogs about her challenges as a parent and a...

According to a 2011 report by the University of New Hampshire's Center for Venture Research, only 13 percent of U.S. angels were women.

Investor Halla Tomasdottir described the benefit of women investors in her 2010 TEDWomen talk in terms of diversifying interests and decision-making:

It's a warm early summer night in Brooklyn, and the walls of VII Agency are covered with Peter DiCampo's Life without Lights exhibit -- dark faces illuminated by the glow of candles, flashlights and fires. DiCampo has worked to portray energy poverty for the last five years, highlighting...

Al Gore opened the Games for Change Conference in New York last week, touting the growing importance of games. "This is a very large, extremely significant industry with a wildly diverse and rapidly-growing audience of players on all kinds of platforms. We already know the immense...

In the front yard of his second home, Johnson Nduati takes a spin on his new motorcycle. His two young sons have just returned from private tutoring. His wife, Lucy, gently bounces their youngest daughter on her hip. This scene would seem ordinary, if one didn't know that the Nduati...

Simonida Cvejic flashes a devilish smile after I inquire whether her bootstrapped success is a cultural byproduct. "My mother's side is Liburni -- maybe that's why I am so stubborn."

The Liburni were an ancient seafaring society in Croatia, speculated to be the region's only matriarchical society. Cvejic makes...

"It was a good week to be a black man in America," smiles Darryl Burton, thinking back to the week of August 28, 2008. President Obama was the first black man to be nominated for the presidential office, and Darryl Burton was exonerated one day later -- after spending 24...

"I would visit rural Africa, and in every village, someone could point me in the direction of the nearest broken well," explains Becky Straw, founder of the Adventure Project.

With 1.1 billion people -- roughly one sixth of the world's population -- lacking access to...

Jane Wurwand is passionate about beauty salons.

As the founder of the global skincare company, Dermalogica, she has made beauty her business and is passionate about the relationships that make the beauty industry so unique.

On her whirlwind tour publicizing the new joint Dermalogica and

"I love the dude's music," says one of my Haitian friends, "but do you realize that he is the R. Kelly of Haiti?"

Yes, that would be Michel Martelly, aka "Sweet Micky," the front runner in the Haitian elections a mere 20 days away. A search of...

Nationally, one in eight people -- and one in five children -- received emergency food help in 2009, up 46 percent from 2005. Yet, two-thirds, or more than 190 million Americans, are overweight or obese, with women and children living below the poverty level...

Rosalva immigrated to the U.S. 20 years ago, struggled to get by as a babysitter, house cleaner, and community service worker, while raising children. In 2002, Valarie lost her husband to gun violence in Hayward, leaving her as a young single mother to take care of...