The city of Los Angeles is massive, but you’ve probably already heard that. This notoriously sprawling city is a whopping 500+ square miles in the heart of Southern California, spread out so wide that it can take well over an hour to drive across town. Try to visit the city during a holiday weekend, and you’ll likely miss the diversity of people, ideas and neighborhoods that can easily take an entire lifetime to explore. Since the beginning of the 21st century, new industries (like the aptly named “Silicon Beach” in Santa Monica) are evolving the Hollywood identity of LA. This city is now home to some of the most innovative tech startups and socially-driven organizations in the world that thrive off the creative lifestyle and culture of Southern California.

Los Angeles is also going through its own physical revitalization. Historic districts like Downtown LA are beginning to attract a new breed of young creatives. New buildouts in these neighborhoods are giving LA a stronger feeling of a bustling city; however, urbanization has led to heated debates around gentrification and overpriced housing, and is already pushing many families outside of the areas they know and love. Projects and campaigns to address these broader cultural challenges have begun to take shape in hopes of a more healthy future, not to mention efforts to tackle the larger environmental crises across Southern California. But with the broader social and industrial changes happening across the city, the overall spirit of Los Angeles is rich with potential. Yes, it might be easy to get lost here, but if you have the patience, you’ll find communities who are consistently pursuing good, generously including new ideas, and innovating far quicker every day.

City Ambassador

Carolyn Sams
With a creative background rooted in social impact, Carolyn helps organizations define new and meaningful ways to make a difference through storytelling, strategy and community engagement. She is co-founder of First Seating, an innovative consulting group that helps organizations tackle their biggest challenges through a thoughtfully curated strategy workshop and meal. Carolyn draws upon her decade’s-worth of experience at Invisible Children, Participant Media/TakePart, and GOOD to help organizations find smart solutions in a setting that is collaborative and creative. Carolyn has spoken at SXSW, Creative Visions, and USC, and was part of Seth Godin’s exclusive nano-MBA program. She has also produced dozens of award-winning websites and short videos, with accolades ranging from the Webby Awards to TED Ads Worth Spreading. She grew up – and still lives in – Los Angeles, CA. Follow her on both Twitter and Instagram.

Good is:
Having clarity, purpose and a voice in your work. Good is learning how to work together, despite wanting to run things ourselves. Good is listening well, and knowing how to ask questions that need to be answered. Good is being kind to a stranger on the elevator, and being humble in addressing the world’s greatest challenges.

Alex Molloy

Alex was born in Canada, grew up the Bay Area, lived in South Africa, worked in China and double majored in Global Studies and Art. Be it the experience her hand or walking the Camino de Santiago, she continually seeks out new ways to understand people.

After working as a photojournalist, she worked for a few SF startups and was the first first full-time United States employee for a Chinese mobile company. With their design and development team based in China, she grew fascinated by difference user behaviors across cultures and lead design in the US.

Now an experience designer – a curiosity about the world and the way in which design can be used for social impact is what drives Alex.  She is founder of Super Curious, a social impact design firm based in Los Angeles and guest lecturers at UC Berkeley’s Haas Business School on design thinking for business students.

To keep a positive life balance, you can also find Alex exploring new (and sometimes off-limits) places, organizing social impact design thinking events, learning about the science of deduction, doing tripod headstands, attending museums and a consuming a healthy serving of documentaries.

You can find Alex on Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Good is:
Recognizing your whole self and using your skills consciously. Good is knowing no one is that different and dreaming for the whole.

© HWGI? 2017 | Created and designed by Marc O’Brien.