Marianne Larned is the best-selling author of the Stone Soup for the World series who uses the Stone Soup model to inspire people to work together we can build a more just, equitable, and sustainable world. In her new book, Stone Soup for a Sustainable World: Life-Changing Stories of Young Heroes, she spotlights 100 climate change trailblazers, environmental justice changemakers, green inventors and entrepreneurs, sustainable business leaders, and intergenerational legacy figures.

Marianne is an innovative educator, thought leader, sustainability champion, and business strategist with a lifelong commitment to humanizing education to prepare future leaders to build a better world. In her role as the Founding Director of the Stone Soup Leadership Institute, she has used these educational tools and trainings with multicultural young people who are on the frontlines of climate change, social justice, and economic equity. She is recognized as a public-private partnership consultant, a Design Thinking pragmatist, and a sustainable workforce development strategist. As a pioneer in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), she has assisted Fortune 500 companies, Chambers of Commerce, and education, government, civic, and community leaders to develop triple bottom-line solutions for improving education, health care, and economic development. She directs the Institute’s multicultural global team to develop the Institute’s Sustainable Education Platform is a video-enhanced, content-driven, values-based, blended experiential learning environment to train young people to build resilient communities for a sustainable economy in the 21st century. It leverages the Stone Soup for the World series and companion curriculum and is dedicated to the Institute’s long-time chairperson, Walter Cronkite.