2026 Resnick Aspen Action Forum
What defines our humanity in this moment—
and what does humanistic leadership demand in the era ahead?
July 21 – July 24, 2026 | Aspen, CO
From July 21 – 24, the Aspen Global Leadership Network welcomed more than 450 leaders from nearly 30 countries, including 100 young leaders, to Aspen, CO for the 2026 Resnick Aspen Action Forum. The week opened not with answers, but with questions: What does it mean to be human? What does humanistic leadership demand in the era ahead? It’s an inquiry leaders would return to again and again over the course of the week, through conversations on technology, justice, and connection.
Dar Vanderbeck, Vice President, AGLN, opened the Forum with a challenge that would echo throughout the days that followed. With live music from Daniel Bernard Roumain (Michael D. Eisner Arts and Culture Fellowship) underscoring the moment, Dar urged leaders to embrace uncertainty and find courage in the unscripted. From there, conversations turned to what it means to be human in an age of intelligent machines, surfacing themes of connection, care, vulnerability, and the wisdom it takes to keep pace with technology without losing sight of what matters most.
Some of the week’s most powerful moments came through personal testimony. Former USAID Administrator Gayle Smith and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dele Olojede (Africa Leadership Initiative – South Africa) reflected on bearing witness to atrocity and the enduring responsibility to act, even amid institutional erosion and growing indifference. Laurie Schott, Kristin Bride, and Marlon Peterson (Civil Society Fellowship) shared stories of profound loss, showing how grief can be transformed into healing, advocacy, and a reclaimed sense of humanity.
Alongside these plenary moments, AGLN Fellow-led Impact Sessions invited participants to engage with some of the most pressing questions shaping communities and the world – from the implications of artificial intelligence on many facets of life and work to economic opportunity, from the future of international development to building trust across difference. Classic Aspen Seminars offered space for deeper reflection on the responsibilities and possibilities of leadership. And through Move & Metabolize sessions, participants stepped into the natural beauty of the Aspen mountains, creating time for embodied practices for creativity and pause that allowed for the ideas of the week to take root.
The week also looked forward, with the introduction of a new model for the 2027 Resnick Aspen Action Forum: regionally rooted gatherings hosted by Fellows in their own communities around the world.
By week’s end, a key idea had surfaced: the future isn’t something we simply navigate. It’s something we have the imagination, courage, and collective power to shape. Participants left inspired, refreshed, and with a renewed sense of agency to drive positive change.
Take a closer look at the moments, voices, and ideas that defined the Action Forum.
“The Action Forum reminded me that we are all miracles walking around on a miraculous earth and mostly acting as if we don’t realize it. We have a short time to use this amazing life to make a positive impact … and it’s time to get on with it!”
Mandy Powers Norrell (Liberty Fellowship)
What Makes Us Human? A Conversation on Meaning, Technology, and Leadership in the Age of AI
The Arc of History Doesn’t Bend Itself
Reckoning with the World We’ve Built
Love, Power, and Action
Leading Off Script
It’s Just Us: Stories of Conviction and Courage
Finding Courage Off Script
Leadership today often feels like navigating without a map. The old scripts, the tried-and-true strategies, don’t always hold up against the uncertainty leaders now face. And when the path forward is unclear, it’s tempting to reach for what’s familiar, what’s worked before.
Dar Vanderbeck, Vice President, AGLN, offered a different charge: the script got us here, but it won’t build what tomorrow needs. During the opening plenary, she urged leaders to step away from familiar paths and reconnect with what makes them feel alive — the unplanned moments, the swerves, the instincts that surprise us.
“The Action Forum reminded me that being human is about being present, resilient, and connected. Attending gave me hope and joy. It reminded me that our humanity endures, even as technology increasingly occupies spaces that once felt uniquely human. Every Forum makes me feel even prouder to be an Aspen Fellow.”
Maria del Pilar Gomez Quiñones (Aspen Colombia)
Education as Resistance: Ukraine’s Underground Schools
Building an Economy That Works for Everyone
A New Blueprint for a Resilient Food System
AI and the Future We Choose
Special Conversation Hosted in Partnership with Aspen Community Programs
As artificial intelligence reshapes how we work, create, discover, and connect, it also raises fundamental questions about what it means to be human. In this conversation, Henry Crown Fellows Brett Hurt, Jamie Metzl, and Chadia El Meouchi explore AI’s risks and possibilities, from misinformation and security to scientific discovery and human creativity. Together, they ask a consequential question: Will AI define our future, or can we shape its future together?
“The Action Forum reminded me that hope is not optimism — it’s a decision to act. I return home energized by the people I met, the conversations we shared, and the responsibility we all have to turn ideas into impact.”
Jose Camilo Cordoba (Aspen Colombia)
“It’s a great chance to connect with other Fellows, discuss important issues formally and informally, and think about opportunities for collaboration and collective action. But it’s also, as importantly, a high-trust place where people can share authentically about where they are in their lives and leadership.”
Andy Rotherham (Pahara Fellowship)
Books for a Deeper Inquiry: The Action Forum Reading List
The 2026 Action Forum centered on a question as timeless as it is urgent: What is human? To extend that inquiry beyond the Forum, Fellows were invited to explore a curated reading list developed in partnership with Aspen Words.
Spanning fiction, memoir, history, and science, the selected books offer new perspectives on the Forum’s themes and invite readers to approach the question from unexpected angles. We invite you to explore the list, pick up a book, and sit with the question a little longer.
Explore the reading list and discover your next read.
Refusing to Choose Between Animals and People
Healing from Trauma: Unlocking Somalia’s Potential
Working for People Over Power
On Resilience
Leading with Bold Imagination
Conviction & Consequence
Striving Toward a World Without Violence
Leadership Lessons from Making Bold Impact
From Dialogue to Action: The Making of Nothing to See Here: Watts
The Commitment to Act
Courage, Vision, Impact: The 2024 John P. McNulty Prize
Closing Conversations: Crossing Fault Lines for Transformational Change
The Darkness, the Light, and the Other
Opening Session: Finding Light
Courage in Action | Plenary with 2023 McNulty Prize Winners
Plenary: Repair as a Leadership Imperative
Finding Our Courage | Opening Plenary
Healing the Planet and Ourselves
Our Journey to Wholeness | Closing Plenary
Remembering and Forgetting | Opening Remarks by Dar Vanderbeck
Past Action Forums
Stay Connected
The Resnick Aspen Action Forum reminds us of the power that emerges when values-driven leaders come together to tackle our world’s most pressing challenges.
The conversations that begin in Aspen continue. Stay engaged and connected.
