Kathryn Grimes, MPH, is a research public health analyst in the Global Public Health Impact Center at RTI International. Ms. Grimes has more than 10 years’ experience in public health research and program implementation, supporting projects in sexual and reproductive health, violence prevention, and infectious disease detection, prevention, and response. Ms. Grimes is the leader and cofounder of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) working group at RTI -- LGBT+ Rising – coordinating activities to identify and increase staff capacity and networking to support LGBT+ research and programming. In this role, she launched and managed efforts collaborating with multiple businesses to develop an open-source LGBT+ workplace equity training and accompanying program evaluation; she has co-facilitated this training at RTI and presented lessons learned to community members. In addition, Ms. Grimes developed an internal LGBT+ resource webpage for RTI employees and supported organization and development of the RTI-wide equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging (EDIB) resource webpage. Lastly, Ms. Grimes is a member of the Pride Employee Resource Group (ERG) as a member of the advocacy committee working to promote Institute-wide policy change to improve inclusion for LGBT+ employees.

Mark X. Cronin is the co-founder, along with his son John, of John’s Crazy Socks, a social enterprise with a mission to spread happiness. His leadership has demonstrated that pursuing social goals – demonstrating what people with differing abilities can achieve and giving back – makes for good business.

Mark advocates for the rights of differently abled people. His advocacy work has seen Mark testify before Congress twice, speak at the UN and make numerous trips to Capitol Hill. Mark is a sought-after speaker having spoken at events across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.  Mark is part of the U.S. State Department’s Speakers’ Bureau.  

Mark served as the Chief Operating officer of multiple health care management and technology firms, founded a software company, organized political campaigns and worked as a Congressional aide. Mark began his career as a schoolteacher and has taught in graduate schools as well.

Mark has an undergraduate degree from Holy Cross and a Masters of Public Policy from the Kennedy School at Harvard University. He has been named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year and is a Board member for the Long Island Chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organization.

John Cronin is a 24-year-old entrepreneur who happens to have Down syndrome. John is the co-founder and Chief Happiness Officer of John’s Crazy Socks which has a mission to spread happiness and show what people with differing abilities can achieve.

As a business leader, John has created a business where more than half the employees have a differing ability. John’s Crazy Socks has shipped over 270,000 orders to more than 80 different countries and earned over 27,000 5-star online reviews. John was the first person with Down syndrome to be named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year.

John is a fierce advocate for people of differing abilities and has testified twice before the U.S. Congress and spoken at the United Nations. He became “sock buddies” with former President George H.W. Bush and has been featured guest on national news programs. Speaking engagements that John performs with his father and co-founder Mark have taken them across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico and they are part of the U.S. State Department’s Speakers Bureau.

John is a member of the Board for the National Down Syndrome Society and the Athlete’s Congress for New York Special Olympics.