--- title: Elizabeth Alexander Is on the 2022 TIME 100 List description: Find out why Elizabeth Alexander is one of the 100 most influential people of 2022. canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177774/elizabeth-alexander-2/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-05-23T10:13:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-21T07:22:09.610Z og:title: Elizabeth Alexander: The 100 Most Influential People of 2022 og:description: Find out why Elizabeth Alexander is on this year’s list og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177774/elizabeth-alexander-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ec35bd0627703e8/698a320747ca38d6983b99a6/Elizabeth-Alexander-time100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Elizabeth Alexander: The 100 Most Influential People of 2022 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Elizabeth Alexander: The 100 Most Influential People of 2022 twitter:description: Find out why Elizabeth Alexander is on this year’s list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ec35bd0627703e8/698a320747ca38d6983b99a6/Elizabeth-Alexander-time100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- May 23, 2022 # Elizabeth Alexander by Lynn Nottage  Djeneba Aduayom for TIME [Elizabeth Alexander](https://time.com/6164656/elizabeth-alexander-the-trayvon-generation-interview/) is many things. She’s a [poet](https://time.com/longform/artists-through-the-ages/), a [philanthropist](https://time.com/6072837/mellon-foundation-artists-covid-19/), an educator, and an intellectual, but most of all, she’s a visionary. In her six books of poetry, Alexander is an explorer who’s constantly finding new ways to tell the stories of Black America. And through her work as the president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation—the largest funder of arts and education in the U.S.—she has put real investment into creating spaces that reflect the country’s rich diversity, and rethinking how we can embrace our cultural narratives, whether through physical monuments or the ways in which we tell our stories. It’s remarkable that Alexander had this extraordinary career as a poet, even reading at President Barack Obama’s Inauguration—and then decided that she wanted to uplift and amplify the voices of others. Of course, she’s still as creative as she ever was. It’s just that the canvas that she’s painting on is larger. _Nottage is a two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177774/elizabeth-alexander-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177774/elizabeth-alexander-2/"},"headline":"Elizabeth Alexander","datePublished":"2022-05-23T10:13:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:09.610Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177774/elizabeth-alexander-2/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","TIME100 2022"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ec35bd0627703e8/698a320747ca38d6983b99a6/Elizabeth-Alexander-time100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ec35bd0627703e8/698a320747ca38d6983b99a6/Elizabeth-Alexander-time100-2022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177774/elizabeth-alexander-2/","name":"Elizabeth Alexander"}}]}] ```