Wes Moore's Headshot

Wes Moore

Social justice advocate, acclaimed author of The Other Wes Moore - Panelist Blurb

Wes Moore is a veteran, Rhodes Scholar and author of The Other Wes Moore, a story of mentorship and support networks that refused to let him fall into crime and drugs. He is also the founder of BridgeEDU, an innovative college platform that addresses the college completion and job placement crisis. His most recent book, The Work, debuted at No. 15 on the New York Times Best Seller List and was received as a model for how we can weave valuable lessons together from supremely different people in order to forge individual paths to triumph.

Moore's first book, The Other Wes Moore, tells the tale of two kids with the same name living in the same decaying city. One grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar and White House Fellow after serving in the prestigious 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army. The other is currently serving a life sentence for the killing of a police officer during an armed robbery. Burning with curiosity as to why he and the other Wes were so radically different, Moore investigated the man with the same name. The result was an instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller which captured the nation's attention on what draws the line between success and failure in our communities.

Moore has been featured by USA Today, Time Magazine, People Magazine, Meet the Press, The Colbert Report, MSNBC and NPR, among many other media outlets. He is also the host of Beyond Belief on the Oprah Winfrey Network, and the executive producer and host of PBS's Coming Back with Wes Moore, which focuses on the re-integration of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their return home.

While still a student at Johns Hopkins University, Moore founded STAND!, an organization which works with Baltimore youth in the criminal justice system. More recently, he is the founder and CEO of BridgeEdU, a program that reinvents the freshman year in a way that engages students in real-world internships and service-learning opportunities in addition to core academic classes.

As a writer and speaker, Moore shares the illuminating lessons he learned on his journeys. In The Work, he writes about an Afghan translator who taught him to find spirit in the midst of war, the resilient students of post-Katrina-ravaged Mississippi who showed courage in the face of adversity, and his late grandfather, who taught that service can save.

Filled with stories of everyday people, Moore's very human perspective coupled with his transformative programs bring concrete benefits.