Phil Borges

Featured Keynote Programs

With his stunning photography Phil shares the stories of heroes—remote and mostly unknown women—who have broken through cycles of repression or cultural tradition to be the change agents that are currently leading the global shift toward gender equality. Their inspirational stories speak to the universal themes of courage, empowerment and human rights. He introduces the website Stirring the Fire that has provided the resources to help hundreds of university and college students to intern, volunteer or study abroad to help address the human rights issues women and girls face in the developing world.

With a newborn son and at the age of 45 Phil left the security of his Orthodontic practice to follow a love of photography. Not knowing a thing about the business of photography he took a frightening step into the unknown. Against the backdrop of his extraordinary career documenting the indigenous and tribal cultures of the world, Phil will describe his transformational process that led him from the suffocating confines of control to the exhilarating freedom of vulnerability.

For the past eight years Phil has led groups of photographers, writers and filmmakers to remote villages in Kenya, India, Guatemala, Peru and the Artic to teach the local young people digital storytelling. The stories the youth chose to tell covered topics from teen pregnancy to climate change and dowry. The stories were shared online with students in the U. S. to start cross-cultural conversations. Phil will discuss the successes and failures of the non-profit Bridges to Understanding he founded to give indigenous communities a voice in the information age.