Joshua Gorman is a writer, speaker, changemaker, and community builder who serves as a leading voice championing the paradigm-shifting role of today’s younger generations through his work as founder of Generation Waking Up. This organization ignites young people to bring forth a thriving, just, and sustainable world. Through speaking engagements, workshops, and leadership trainings, Gorman connects with thousands of people annually while supporting youth-led projects and movements internationally, drawing on his self-designed major in “Global Youth and Social Change” at George Mason University. As a founding member of Youth Passageways, a network of individuals and organizations working in youth and community development, contemporary rites of passage, intergenerational collaboration, and cultural renewal, Gorman specializes in understanding the experiences, knowledge, and skills that people need to thrive in the twenty-first century. A student of human development and transformational education, he currently works on projects relating to the future of religion, spirituality, and secular culture with focus on Millennials, Gen Z, and the religiously unaffiliated known as “the Nones,” while co-founding Thrive East Bay, a purpose-driven community bringing people together at intersections of meaning, belonging, arts, and social change. Gorman’s work demonstrates how younger generations are not just inheriting global challenges but actively creating solutions and new cultural forms that integrate social justice, environmental sustainability, spiritual seeking, and community building in ways that transcend traditional institutional boundaries.
Why their voice matters: Gorman demonstrates how younger generations are pioneering new approaches to spirituality, community, and social change that transcend traditional religious and political categories, showing that youth development requires not just skill-building but creating containers for meaning-making, belonging, and purpose that honor young people’s wisdom while supporting their agency in creating the futures they want to inhabit.