The Aspen Institute

Representation matters and yet, in the U.S. publishing world, it is hardly actualized. Join us for a discussion with the 2020 winners of Aspen Challenge: Louisville who recognized this problem and attacked it head-on. For their winning project, Team AmaZing from Marion C. Moore High School in Louisville, Kentucky wrote, illustrated, and published a children’s book, The Alphabet of Compassion, which seeks to empower young minds to create communities that encourage spaces where we can show up as our authentic selves. In a discussion moderated by Kitty Boone, Executive Director of the Aspen Ideas Festival, hear from these eight high school students as they explain their inspiration for the project, their plans for future books, and their advice for how to be exactly who you are—without apology.

Kitty Boone
Vice President
Public Programs and Executive Director, Aspen Ideas Festival

Kitty Boone is responsible for oversight of a broad array of public-facing programs and events at the Aspen Institute. She is the primary executive in charge of the Aspen Ideas Festival, a week-long conference that is hosted by the Institute and The Atlantic magazine each summer in Aspen. She also supports and works with colleagues on numerous additional programs, which the Institute partners in or manages, including Aspen Ideas Health, Aspen Abu Dhabi Ideas Forum, City Lab, and various smaller initiatives. Kitty has worked at the Aspen Institute since 2003.

Prior to joining The Aspen Institute, Kitty served as Vice President, Marketing and Sales at Aspen Skiing Company, where she worked for 11 years.

A native of San Francisco and a graduate of Stanford University, Kitty began her career in Washington DC as an intern for a national environmental group, ultimately coming to Aspen in 1989, after stints in the public and private sector and earning her Master’s in Public and Private Management at Yale School of Management.  A proud mom of twins, her daughter is about to graduate from college and her son serves in the US Navy. Kitty sits on two boards in Aspen and is passionate to learn why some people are so curious.

Featuring: Aspen Challenge: Louisville Winner: Marion C. Moore’s Team AmaZing

Marion C. Moore’s Team AmaZing aims to empower kids to create communities that welcome everyone’s whole, authentic selves through their book The Alphabet of Compassion. In a world too often divided by prejudice, people are not able to bring their “whole” selves to work. Team AmaZing’s children’s book teaches the “alphabet of compassion” and empowers these malleable minds to create communities that encourage all of us to bring our authentic selves to the places of school work.