In 2009, social activist Nila Tanzil set up Taman Bacaan Pelangi (Rainbow Reading Gardens), the non-profit organisation that promotes literacy in young children by building libraries in remote communities across Eastern Indonesia. “[M]y heart feels very happy because I know that far away there are thousands of children whose eyes are shining seeing thousands of storybooks that they can read in the new library of their school,” said Nila in an Instagram post about the inauguration of new libraries in Nagekeo, Flores. Apart from establishing more than 200 libraries in the country, the organisation also holds workshops for teachers and local volunteers, covering library management and basic literacy courses, as well as reading activities and storytelling competitions to instil the love of books in children.

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Chan Soon Seng quit his 9-to-5 job to become a fellow at Teach for Malaysia (TFM), before becoming joining the organisation full-time as its programme director, and now its CEO. The education advocate believes in the organisation’s mission to empower Malaysian children through quality education. Part of the global Teach for All network, TFM enjoins graduates and young professionals to combat education inequity by teaching in the country’s most high-need schools for two years. By 2030, TFM aspires to develop 30,000 leaders—including 2,200 fellows, 9,500 leaders in the Ministry of Education and Civil Service and 18,300 alumni, volunteers and student and community leaders, all working toward its goal of providing education for everyone.

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Yuan Li is the principal of Taipei Media School, an academic institution that breaks away from traditional educational curriculums to cultivate creativity and thinking. Described as a “specialist media training facility”, the Taipei Media School is an incubator for young creatives, particularly those in the film and television industry. Most intriguing in the audio-visual school is its focus on freedom, with students allowed to choose their courses and set their goals—a direction that ultimately instils the valuable skills of independent learning, responsibility and decision making. Admission is unconventional, too, favouring “interest and potential”, along with a relevant portfolio and experience, over academic performance. The school's experimental methods are geared toward producing graduates with unique points of view.

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“I represent teachers who are trying to teach in a challenging way, trying to make their lessons in the classroom meaningful,” said Samuel Isaiah, who was honoured with the TRT World Citizen Educator Award in November 2022. To support education leadership and transform Malaysian schools, the programme director works with teachers and school leaders through Pemimpin GSL’s workshops, coaching sessions and development plans. The organisation also launched the Malaysia Teacher Prize, which highlights the outstanding teachers in the country and also provides a platform to scale their best practices.

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“To meet the pressing challenges of our times, universities will need to develop new competencies and capabilities, and be bold enough to drive transformational change,” said Tan Eng Chye, president of the National University of Singapore (NUS), at the Temasek Foundation – NUS Programme for Leadership in University Management summit in 2022. At the summit, the educator emphasised the importance of collaboration among universities in the region, an endeavour that the NUS programme has been championing for a decade. Indeed, his influence extends throughout the region: in 2023, Tan was conferred the Honorary Doctor of Management by the Universiti Malaya in recognition of his role in helping the Malaysian institution achieve academic and intellectual excellence.

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The art advocate and collector founded the London-based Asymmetry Art Foundation to nurture future curators, as well as widen the knowledge about Asian contemporary art. Asymmetry not only provides fellowships for curators and scholarships for art students across Europe, but it also organises discussions on, for example, online curating or transnational identities. In 2022, the foundation announced an international open call for a curatorial research fellowship at the Chisenhale Gallery in London. The 18-month post was granted “to an early career curator who identifies to any extent with Greater Chinese and Sinophone cultures and identities”.

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To promote education equality in Taiwan, Sky Yen founded LIS (Learning Is Science) Education, a non-profit organisation that has developed teaching videos combining curriculum with animation to sustain the interest of children. Yen’s LIS emphasises science, training its students to think like scientists who apply both curiosity and logic to solve problems. For the institution, its methods underline the true purpose of education, which is to cultivate thinking and not just to test students. 

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Through Edvolution Enterprise, Melissa Gomes is creating transformative education leaders in Malaysia. Its Teacher Empowerment for School Transformation (TEST) programme is designed to raise the quality of leadership and teaching skills, all of which lead to an improvement in student learning and competency. In a feature written for the non-profit organisation, Gomes, who has over a decade of experience in management consulting and education, also identifies how teachers should emphasise social and emotional learning, as well as adopt technology in their practice to succeed in the future.

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In order to “address the great need for our country to build a critical mass of STEM professionals to usher social and economic development, we must mentor and retain Filipino talent in the country,” said Pia D Bagamasbad, director of the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of the Philippines Diliman (NIMBB), about the challenges of life science research. The pandemic highlighted the importance of science and scientists, as Dr Bagamasbad led a team from NIMBB in training medical technologists on Covid-19 testing processes, helping the country ramp up its pandemic response. Later on, she also led the team behind the Covid-19 Online Learning Laboratory Course, which again helped reach more medical personnel throughout the country. Dr Bagamasbad was named one of The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service (TOWNS) in 2022.

In early 2023, she and her student Weand Ybañez discovered the Kruppel-like factor 9 (KLF9), a gene that stifles tumour growth and connects the development of breast cancer to stress and sleep health—especially significant in the Philippines, which has one of the highest breast cancer mortality rates in Asia. 

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Tatler Asia’s Most Influential is the definitive list of people shaping our world today. Asia’s Most Influential brings together the region's most innovative changemakers, industry titans and thought leaders who are driving positive impact in Asia and beyond. View the full list here.

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