Philip Landrigan, M. D. | Environmental Crusader
We already owe a large debt of gratitude to Landrigan, the chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. In the 1970s he pioneered the research at the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that led to the removal of lead from gasoline and paint--and an 80 percent decline in the incidence of childhood lead poisoning since the mid-1970s. Landrigan, as director of Mount Sinai's Children's Environmental Health Center, has begun another important mission: following 100,000 American kids from before birth to age 21 in order to learn more about the effects of environmental influences on the development of diseases such as ADHD, asthma, autism, cancer, and birth defects. Lately, Landrigan has been raising awareness about the possible toxic effects of artificial-turf surfaces that use increasingly popular tire "crumbs" for cushioning on playgrounds and playing fields.

Geoffrey Canada | Education-Reform Pioneer
Lifelong education-reform advocate Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone, a social-service and community-building program, has become nationally--even globally--recognized for his pioneering work. In 2007, Prince Charles paid him a royal visit, and last May Prince Harry came to bestow the next generation's blessings upon Canada's work. President Obama also recently cited HCZ as a role model for his proposed Promise Neighborhoods program. HCZ targets a specific geographic area in central Harlem with an array of long-term services, starting with parenting classes and supporting students

Taylor Swift | Voice of a Generation
By any measure, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is a once-in-a-generation performer. At age 18, she was the best-selling musical artist of 2008, but the numbers don't begin to fully describe her influence. In her intimate songwriting, appealing vocal delivery, and MySpace sensibility, she has retooled country from a drinkin'-and-cheatin' genre to a musical haven for young girls. An obsessive social networker, she uses all the tricks of this new world to build and maintain her loyal fan base. What truly makes Swift stand out from a bevy of teen talent is that she writes her own songs, which gives her enormous potential influence. Wherever she chooses to go with her emerging voice, millions of young people will follow. All the way through college--a cradle-to-grad approach targeted to reach 15,000 children by 2011. "Our country is losing kids by the hundreds of thousands," says Canada, who grew up poor in a single-parent family in the South Bronx but eventually made his way to Harvard. "They're dropping out of school and ending up unemployed, in prison, or dying at an early age. This crisis has been going on for decades. We're acting like there's nothing we can do about it, but there is a way to change the odds for these kids: education."

Malia and Sasha Obama | First Daughters
The Obama girls have become role models and (against the wishes of their parents) a marketer's dream team. Madison Avenue picked up on this trend even before the inauguration, when Tropicana began using Obama family-inspired models in its ad campaigns. Over the next four years, expect to see Sasha and Malia's tastes in clothes, dogs, and music copied by the tweens of America. Need proof? After the first daughters donned J. Crew custom-designed coats for their father's inauguration, the company saw its stock jump almost 11 percent the next day.

David L. Katz, M. D. | Fitness Fanatic
Katz, an associate professor of Public Health Practice and director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, has made hearts pump faster at thousands of schools across the country with his ABC for Fitness program. The ABC (Activity Bursts in the Classroom) program shows teachers how to get kids moving at the beginning of each class without stealing time from necessary classroom instruction. Katz is also the creator of the Nutrition Detectives education program, which helps kids learn to read food labels, detect deceptive marketing, and identify the healthiest foods. His latest endeavor is the NuVal food rating system, which lets shoppers see the nutritional value of every item in the supermarket, enabling them to make smarter choices.

Howard Ganz | Web Wizard
Ganz is the inventor of Webkinz, a popular virtual world for children. With Webkinz, kids buy an actual stuffed toy, then use the secret code attached to enter the Webkinz site, where they can use virtual "Kinzcash" to buy stuff for their pet. One report estimates that 37 percent of kids online ages 3 to 11 use virtual worlds at least once a month; the number is expected to rise to 54 percent by 2013. While some parents fret about all this time spent outside the "real world," according to a 2008 University of California at Irvine report, online social interaction may help kids experiment with self-expression and forge independence. Good thing, because Ganz's target demographic is getting younger: In April 2009, he introduced Webkinz Jr., a Webkinz world for the 3-to-6-year-old set.

David Levy | Defender of Dads
David Levy's 25-year advocacy campaign for kids of divorce started with a single child--his own, who was trapped in the middle of Levy's yearlong custody dispute in 1980. "It was resolved satisfactorily, but the experience showed me what goes on in the court system," says Levy, who cofounded the Children's Rights Council, a nonprofit that educates legislators, courts, and families on the benefits of joint custody--which means keeping Dad in the picture. CRC now has 60 chapters and runs 25 Access Centers, neutral drop-off and pickup points for supervised visitation. Levy, however, feels his work is far from done. "The federal government spends $4 billion a year to collect child support. Do you know how much they spend [facilitating] emotional support? $10 million. Does America think money is that much more important [than] parents? I don't think so," he says. "The trend is slowly moving in our direction--President Obama talks a lot about absentee fathers who need to take responsibility. [But] he may not realize there are millions of parents who want to be involved, but the road is blocked."