Reimagining Leadership and Societal Futures:Forging a Vision of Justice and Hope in the AI Age

The ethical business building the future (ebbf) NYC chapter invites you to an engaging discussion on these topics.
“Reimagining Leadership and Societal Futures:
Forging a Vision of Justice and Hope in the AI Age”
Program: Tuesday May 12, 2026

6:00pm                       Doors open
6:15-7:00pm               Panel Discussion
7:00-7:45pm              Small Group Breakouts and Q&A
7:45- 8:00pm Wrap up
Location: New York City Baha'i Center auditorium
53 East 11th Street

www.communityweek.nyc

Event Description:
Will AI take your job? Is regulation or deregulation better in the brave new world of AI, or is that a false binary? How do we reimagine leadership — and proactively build a vision of justice and hope — as AI radically transforms so many aspects of our work and world?

This dialogue will take us from big-picture systems thinking to real-world application, exploring how ethical frameworks, moral imagination, and values-based leadership can help guide decision-making across disciplines.
Speakers:
Nishat Ruiter: General Counsel, TED Conferences; Founder, TEDLaw
Jamee K. Moudud: Professor of Economics, Sarah Lawrence College, Board of Directors Law and Political Economy Collective (LPEC), and Steering Committee, Association for the Promotion of Political Economy and the Law (APPEAL).
Josh Downer: Moderator, General Counsel to fast-growing start-ups in crypto and fintech.
We will explore how values-based leadership and social consciousness — centered on ethical principles such as the process of consultation, the oneness of humanity, and the elimination of prejudice — will help us lead with courage and integrity in the AI era.

Our speakers will share case studies of their work, from transforming the future of legal education to interrogating the role of ethics and social justice in economics. These concerns will help us think about the skills, new theoretical insights, guiding principles, and moral imagination required for leaders across different professions to thrive — and to lead — with humanity.

Through case studies and lived experience, we will examine:
The role of ethics and social justice in economic systems shaped by AI, and how this helps us understand the ecological and income inequality concerns of our age
How leaders can respond to structural change without losing human-centered values
What it means to build institutions, professions, and cultures that lead with both rigor and compassion and moral imagination
The session will include small-group breakouts, where participants will be invited to think through their own vision of leadership, justice, and hope in our age of AI.
Nishat Ruiter

Nishat Ruiter is the General Counsel and Secretary of TED Conferences, where she leads TED’s legal strategy across intellectual property, licensing, AI risk, and global governance. She works at the intersection of law, ethics, and emerging technology, ensuring TED’s content, partnerships, and platforms are protected and aligned with its mission to spread ideas that matter.
With nearly three decades of experience in private practice and in-house roles across tech, media, and global organizations, Nishat brings a creative and human-centered approach to complex legal and strategic challenges.
She is the founder of TEDLaw, a community-driven initiative developed in collaboration with lawyers around the world to identify the human skills most essential to practicing law with clarity, courage, and alignment in the age of AI. Through this work, she is helping reimagine legal education to center ethical judgment, professional identity, and collective responsibility. Nishat also serves on nonprofit boards, mentors emerging lawyers, and builds community projects grounded in consultation and equity. She holds a JD from Delaware Law School at Widener University and a BA from Rutgers University.
Jamee Moudud

Professor of Economics and in the Health Advocacy Master’s and Certificate Programs
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY, USA
Faculty Webpage: http://www.slc.edu/faculty/moudud-jamee-k..html
Board Member, Association for the Promotion of Political Economy and the Law (APPEAL) webpage: http://politicaleconomylaw.org
Editorial Board (and co-founder), Journal of Law and Political Economy
Editorial Board, Money on the Left
Jamee Moudud obtained his PhD (with honors) in economics from the New School for Social Research. His undergraduate and graduate degrees are in engineering from Cornell University.  He is on the Board of Directors and a co-founder of the Law and Political Economy Collective and is on the Editorial Board and a co-founder of the Journal of Law and Political Economy. Over the past decade, his work has focused on studying the intersectional relationship between law, economics, history, and politics.  His latest book is entitled Legal and Political Foundations of Capitalism: the End of Laissez Faire? Focusing on property, credit and public finance, constitutional law and social rights, monetary sovereignty and colonialism, corporations, and authoritarianism this book argues that laissez faire is the foundational myth of capitalism given the ubiquitous role of politics and law in structuring the market economy.

Josh Downer

Josh, our moderator for this evening, serves as general counsel to a number of leading and fast-growing startups in crypto and fintech. As the trusted advisor to young founders operating in legally ambiguous spaces, Josh emphasizes principles and approaches that place human values at the center. In his practice, he has built his own AI companion called "Wolvia," which operates as a fully integrated part of his legal workflow.
Josh obtained his undergraduate degree in Government at Harvard, a master's in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics, and his J.D. at Vanderbilt University.