Headline Speakers

Abi Daré

Abi Daré

New York Times Bestselling Author

Abi is the author of The Girl with the Louding Voice, which was a New York Times bestseller, a #ReadWithJenna Today Show book club pick, a BBC Radio 4 Bookclub Pick,and an Indie Next Pick.

Translated into 16 languages( till date) and studied on curriculums across the world, the Girl With The Louding Voice tells the story of Adunni, a 14 year old girl who is desperate for an education.

The novel has received critical acclaim and has been shortlisted for several awards including The British Book Awards Best Book of The Year , The Nigeria Prize for Literature ( Africa’s largest literary Prize), and in 2020 was named as The legendary Dolly Parton’s favourite of 2020 as well as selected as an Amazon Best Book of The Year for July 2020.

Abi grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and went on to study law at the University of Wolverhampton, graduating as Best Performing Student on her MSc in International Project Management from Glasgow Caledonian University, as well as an MA ( with distinction) in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London.

Abi has had over 15 years experience in corporate project management, working with several multinationals to deliver multimillion pound programmes and investments and is passionate about education, particularly for the girl child.

A well- sought after speaker, Abi has supported and attended various events advocating for, and highlighting areas of need including NGOs and Charities across the world such as The Malala Foundation, BookAid International, Women’s Global Education Project, FAWCO, The International Rescue Committee and many more. In 2022, Abi was appointed as External Board Member, the BIC Corporate Foundation, and the first ever goodwill ambassador for Women’s Global Education Project.

Kate Robertson

Kate Robertson

Co-Founder of One Young World

Founded in 2010 by Kate and David Jones, the founder and CEO of the Brand Tech Group, One Young World today has 15,000+ ambassadors in 196 countries forming a unique and demonstrably valuable network. The idea that this most informed, most connected generation in human history could be brought together and supported into positions of increased influence and better leadership in all sectors has proved to be not only sustainable but genuinely effective – its ambassadors have thus far impacted the lives of 35 million people

Kate served as Chairman of the Havas group from 2006 to 2015 and as Global President from 2013. Working mainly in global roles, Kate became convinced of the importance of the roles of global institutions and global businesses in the certainty that what unites people is greater than geographical distance and national distinctions. Having grown up in apartheid South Africa, Kate’s world view is defined by having witnessed the creation of its new way of life. Awed by the leadership of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Kate believes in the limitless possibilities a sense of shared humanity can create. Inspired by her love for the Olympic movement and its values, One Young World should, in Kate’s vision, give young leaders a chance to meet their counterparts from every country in the world and resolve to make the world a better place.

Efosa Ojomo

Efosa Ojomo

Director, Global Prosperity at the Clayton Christensen Institute

Efosa Ojomo leads the Global Prosperity research group at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, a think tank based in Boston and Silicon Valley. In January, 2019, Ojomo and late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen published The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty. In a Wall Street Journal review of The Prosperity Paradox, Rupert Darwall writes: “The authors return the entrepreneur and innovation to the center stage of economic development and prosperity.”

Ojomo’s work has been published and covered by the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, the Guardian, Quartz, Forbes, Fortune, The World Bank, NPR and several other media outlets. He speaks regularly on innovation and has presented his work at TED, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the World Bank, Harvard, Yale, Oxford and at several other conferences and institutions.

Ojomo graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in computer engineering and got his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Sean Davis

Sean Davis

Founder and Managing Partner at Merton Capital Partners

Mr. Davis is the Founder and Managing Partner of Merton Capital Partners. Merton advises on investing philanthropy alongside Fortune 500 companies to solve significant social and environmental issues. He started his career with J.P. Morgan in New York and then joined Advent International, a leader in international private equity, helping to develop its office in Brazil. Mr. Davis then joined Saratoga Partners in New York and was dedicated to leverage buyout opportunities and restructurings. Mr. Davis was recently the Development Director for The Salvation Army of Palm Beach County, where he was focused on creating a bold growth plan to solve the problem that almost half the children in the County fail to read a third-grade level.

Mr. Davis was raised in Colombia and Argentina and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and from The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He also has an MBA from the London Business School. Mr. Davis is an advisor to various nonprofits and the author of Solving the Giving Pledge Bottleneck, a Top 12 Forbes Must Have Books And Podcasts For Leaders In 2023. Mr. Davis is also an Adjunct Professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University in their Masters in International Development.

Gerald Chertavian

Gerald Chertavian

Founder and CEO of Year Up

Gerald Chertavian is dedicated to closing the Opportunity Divide that exists in our nation. Determined to make this vision a reality, Gerald combined his entrepreneurial skills and his passion for working with young adults to found Year Up in 2000. With its annual operating budget in excess of $170M, Year Up is one of the fastest growing non-profits in the nation. It has been recognized by Fast Company and The Monitor Group as one of the top 25 organizations using business excellence to engineer social change. Year Up has also been recognized consistently as one of the nation’s top 50 non-profits to work for by the Non-Profit Times.

Gerald has been committed to working with under-served young adults for more than three decades. He has actively participated in the Big Brother mentoring program since 1985 and was recognized as one of New York’s outstanding Big Brothers in 1989. In 2006, Gerald was elected as a Fellow with the Ashoka Global Fellowship of social entrepreneurs, and in 2008, he was appointed by then-Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick to serve on the Massachusetts State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. In 2013, he was appointed by Governor Patrick to serve as Chairman of the Roxbury Community College Board of Trustees and reappointed to that role by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker in 2016.

Gerald began his career on Wall Street as an officer of the Chemical Banking Corporation. Following graduate school, he co-founded Conduit Communications and fostered its growth to more than $20M in annual revenues. From 1993 to 1998, Conduit ranked as one of the United Kingdom’s fastest growing companies. Following the sale of Conduit to i-Cube in 1999, Gerald turned his full attention to creating opportunities for others.

Gerald earned a B.A. in Economics, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, from Bowdoin College and in 2017 he was awarded the Bowdoin Common Good Award. He received his M.B.A., with honors, from Harvard Business School and in 2014 received the Distinguished Alumni Award. He has received honorary doctorates from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology and Mount Ida College. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Harvard Business School’s Social Enterprise Initiative and is a former member of the World Economic Forum’s Youth Unemployment Council. Gerald is also an Emeritus Trustee of Bowdoin College and the Boston Foundation. His 2012 book, A Year Up, is a New York Times best seller.

Gerald is an avid writer and often shares his personal reflections on current events on his website. Read his latest pieces and get in contact at GeraldChertavian.com.

Social entrepreneurs in war-torn areas and conflict zones

The panel is focused on Ukraine, Syria, and Lebanon. How are non-profit leaders addressing humanitarian crises? How do creativity and innovation help in their work?

Oleksii Prokopenko

Oleksii Prokopenko

Head of Help Ukraine Center USA Fund

Oleksii Prokopenko is a 34-year-old Ukrainian. He has lived in the USA for five years and is an active volunteer for campaigns and projects supporting Ukraine. He is a public figure and is currently head of the Help Ukraine Center USA fund. He worked as a member of the Board of Directors of the RAZOM in the USA for several years. Oleksii was the instigator of the renaming part of Brighton Beach to Ukrainian Way in NYC in 2022. In Ukraine, he worked in education and public establishments. He was the Head of the Department for General Secondary Education of the Odesa Regional State Administration and taught management and transport economics at local universities. Oleksii has worked actively in the public sector for the last twenty years.

Yasmin Kayali

Yasmin Kayali

Co-founder of Basmeh & Zeitooneh

Yasmin Kayali is a Mid Career MPA student at Harvard Kennedy School and a fellow at the Center for Public Leadership under the Emirates Leadership Initiative. She is the President of the Harvard Arab Students Association. She holds an MBA and a BA in PSPA from the American University of Beirut. Previously a marketeer with P&G and then an entrepreneur, she pivoted careers in response to the Syrian refugee crisis in 2012 co-founding Basmeh & Zeitooneh; a grassroots organization servicing Syrian Refugees and their host communities in the Levant region. Awarded 2020 Honoree by the Women Refugee Commission and the Leaders for Peace Award in 2022. She is a Vital Voices fellow and was rapporteur representing Lebanese Civil Society in Brussels in 2020 and 2021.

Demetri Fadel

Demetri Fadel

Chief Strategy Officer of Karam Foundation

Before joining Karam as Chief Strategic Officer, Demetri Fadel was the Founder and Executive Director of the MIT Refugee Action (ReACT) Hub, and the administrative Officer for the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering among others. At Karam, Demetri works closely with the Executive Team in planning Karam’s work, development, and growth with an eye to creating effective alignment between strategy, programs, and measurable outcomes. Son to immigrant parents, Demetri grew up in Athens, Greece but currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts. To him, home will always be wherever family, friends, and colleagues are.

Katya Malakhova

Katya Malakhova

Founder of the Sunflower of Peace Foundation

Katya Malakhova is the founder of the Sunflower of Peace Foundation. A Ukrainian native, Katya established Sunflower of Peace in 2015 to support a variety of causes in her country of origin, such as medical needs of Ukrainians affected by the military action in the East, medical care and education for Ukrainian orphans, built playgrounds, and facilitated Ukraine-U.S. genetic research exchange on countering effects of radioactive exposure. When the Russian aggression turned into a full-scale war on Ukraine in late February 2022, Ms. Malakhova directed the foundations’ resources to sending tactical backpacks full of urgent medical supplies to the frontlines of this war. Supported by the outpouring of donations and many dedicated volunteers, Ms. Malakhova has led the foundation’s rapid growth and is currently beginning new initiatives which will respond to the dire needs of women and children affected by the war. Besides leading Sunflower of Peace, Katya Malakhova is an award-winning real estate agent within Greater Boston’s 128-belt. A professional tennis player, she brings perseverance and tenacity to everything she does. Katya believes that real success comes from the collective prosperity and well-being of one’s community and country. In all she does, Katya Malakhova never works just for herself, but for her organization and all those whom she is leading and serving.

Julia Lemesh

Julia Lemesh

Moderator

Having a legal background, Julia worked as a corporate lawyer and regulatory affairs manager in Ukraine and the UK for 10+ years. In 2015 after the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine, she pivoted to the nonprofit sphere. Since then, she has been running Ukraine Global Scholars, a 501(c)(3) public charity that helps bright Ukrainian high school students get accepted at the world’s best boarding schools and colleges on full scholarships for their commitment to return and rebuild Ukraine. Her team of 100 volunteers has helped 200+ Ukrainian students get accepted at the top schools worldwide (Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Choate, Andover, etc.), getting more than $50 MLN in scholarships.

The Future of the Humanitarian Funding Ecosystem

Future of Humanitarian Funding

Alice Armanni Sequi

Alice Armanni Sequi

Chief of the Pooled Fund Management Branch, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Alice Armanni Sequi brings significant leadership experience in humanitarian financing given her role in overseeing OCHA-managed pooled funds, including the Central Emergency Response Fund and the Country-Based Pooled Funds. As Chief of OCHA’s Pooled Fund Management Branch, she oversees and ensures the effectiveness of the funds, which channel some $2 billion in humanitarian resources annually. In support of the Emergency Relief Coordinator, she sets the strategic positioning of the Funds and their overall policy direction.

Prior to her current appointment, Alice served as OCHA’s Head of Office in Ukraine and Chad, as Chief of OCHA’s Advocacy and Operations in Central and West Africa and as the Coordinator of the IASC Emergency Directors Group. Alice has a background in the private sector – in both investment banking and working with a corporate foundation – and spent five years at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, supporting humanitarian diplomacy, advocacy and resource mobilization.

Phyllis Kurlander Costanza

Phyllis Kurlander Costanza

Co-Founder and President of OutcomesX

Phyllis has been delivering positive commercial impact and driving measurable change in society and the environment throughout her career.

She is the Co-Founder and President of OutcomesX which is creating a marketplace for social outcomes. This new company builds on her work at UBS, where she worked for 11 years as the CEO of UBS Optimus Foundation and more recently as Global Head of Social Impact. In her role as CEO of the UBS Optimus Foundation, she overhauled the strategy, resulting in a 20x growth (from $10m to >$200m), and in the creation of the first Development Impact Bond in education.

Prior to UBS, she was an Executive Director and Board Member of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). For more than a decade, she also worked as a management consultant, focused primarily on health care, and served in the public sector advising New York State Governor Mario Cuomo on policy and politics in New York City.

She also serves as a Board Chair of Educate Girls USA, and Board Member of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), Blue Earth Foundation (Switzerland) and the UBS Optimus Foundation UK. She is a Member of the Council of Foreign Relations, a Senior Advisor to the Education Outcomes Fund for Africa and the Middle East, and a Sorenson Global Impact Leader.

Martin Bratt

Martin Bratt

Senior Vice President, Awards Management Unit, International Rescue Committee

Martin Bratt is the Senior Vice President for Awards Management at the International Rescue Committee. In this role he oversees IRC’s work with government and institutional donors, who represent around 70% of IRC’s funding. Prior to taking up this role he served as the organization’s Chief Strategy Officer, leading the development of IRC’s Strategy 100. In his current role he oversees the organization’s engagement with public and institutional donors and is a member of the Leadership Board. He is based in New York City.

Prior to joining IRC Martin was a partner at McKinsey & Company in London, UK, where he specialized in economic development and public sector work. He is a graduate of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Paris, France, and holds a Master in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. A Norwegian citizen, he is fluent in English, French and Norwegian.

Andrew Wolff

Andrew Wolff

Moderator

Andrew Wolff is a first year MBA student at Harvard Business School. Prior to attending HBS, Andrew worked on the Strategy Unit at the International Rescue Committee, an NGO that provides more than $1 Bn of aid to people affected by crisis and disaster around the world. Before working at the IRC, Andrew was a Strategy Consultant at McKinsey in their Dubai and New York offices. After the MBA program, Andrew hopes to continue to work in nonprofit leadership. Andrew attended Dartmouth College where he studied Political Science and Statistics and is an avid adventure traveler and hiker.

Fireside Chat: Building Entrepreneurship Ecosystems that foster Social Impact.

This conversation will focus on the key conditions that ecosystem builders need to look after for their entrepreneurship communities to generate valuable social impact.

Daniel Isenberg

Daniel Isenberg

CEO of Entrepreneurship Policy Advisors

Dan Isenberg (@danisen) is the CEO of Entrepreneurship Policy Advisors. From 1981-7 and 2005-9 Dan was a professor at the Harvard Business School, and in the interim (1987-2005) was an entrepreneur and venture capitalist in Israel. Dan authored Worthless Impossible and Stupid: How Contrarian Entrepreneurs Create and Capture Extraordinary Value (Harvard Business Review Press 2013), published over 30 online and print articles on entrepreneurship in the Harvard Business Review, and has been featured in the Economist, Forbes, NPR, Bloomberg, Quartz, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, etc. Dan has been a pioneer in the concept and development of entrepreneurship ecosystems, and he launched and directs Manizales-Mas and Scale Up Milwaukee. Between 2009-2013 Dan was active in the World Economic Forum and conducted Forum events in Davos, Africa, Europe, and China. In 2012 Mikhail Gorbachev awarded Dan the Pio Manzu Award for “Innovations in Economic Development.” At Babson Executive Education, Dan created and directs the 3-day program, Driving Economic Growth Through Entrepreneurship Ecosystems. He holds the Ph.D. degree in social psychology from Harvard University, received under the mentorship of Robert Freed Bales.

Dina Sherif

Dina Sherif

Executive Director at Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT

Dina Sherif is Executive Director at the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT. Beyond this role, Dina founded the social enterprise, Ahead of the Curve.

Prior to the Legatum Center, Dina formerly held the endowed Willard Brown Chair for International Business at the American University in Cairo (AUC), where she was also Founding Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. Before this, Dina helped establish the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at AUC. Dina is also a Senior Advisor to Ashoka, providing support to their Global Venture and Fellowship Support arm.

Dina holds a Masters of Public Administration and Management from the Harvard Kennedy School, an MA in Economic Development Studies from the American University in Cairo, and a BA in Political Science and International Relations from the American University in Cairo.

Financing and Investing for Scalable Climate Impact

Join us to explore the current state of the global climate finance landscape and the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

Joanna Messing

Joanna Messing

Executive Director, Growald Climate Fund

Joanna Messing joined Growald Climate Fund in 2007 as the founding Executive Director. Growald Climate Fund is a high-impact venture philanthropy fund focused on driving a rapid transition to a clean energy future. Guided by a mission to catalyze climate innovation and leadership, we identify bold leaders, invest in promising solutions, and support radical collaboration to address the climate crisis. Joanna brings over 20 years of experience in venture philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, and business planning to the field of strategic climate philanthropy.

Prior, Joanna ran her own company Positive Ventures, a philanthropic and social enterprise strategy consulting firm. Previously she was associate director of REDF (previously Roberts Enterprise Development Fund), a leading venture philanthropy fund, and she was also the director of NESsT Consulting and Enterprise Development, where she helped launch and implement the NESsT Venture Fund, investing in social enterprises throughout Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Joanna received her MBA from the University of Massachusetts. Having grown up well off the grid, she brings a deeply rooted ethic of sustainability to both her role at the Growald Climate Fund and her own household. Joanna is an avid salsa dancer.

Prof. John Tobin

Prof. John Tobin

Professor of Practice of Corporate Sustainability, Cornell University

Prof. John Tobin is an ecologist and attorney with over two decades of private sector experience, having worked in the international finance industry for much of his career. Following a decade of corporate legal practice in the area of emerging markets finance, while actively providing counsel on environmental conservation matters on a pro bono basis, he turned his full attention towards the growing area of corporate sustainability, becoming Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainability at Credit Suisse. In this position, he pioneered a variety of initiatives and policies aimed at setting the finance industry on a more sustainable course.

In 2016 he transitioned into a faculty position at Cornell University, where he teaches corporate sustainability, environmental and social risk management, impact investing, environmental finance, and related topics to undergraduates and graduate students in business and public affairs. His research focuses on the use of financial tools to generate positive outcomes in the areas of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. In addition, he actively engages with industry and civil society to develop financial solutions to sustainability problems, including as co-founder of the Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation (CPIC). Dr. Tobin has extensive leadership and governance experience in not-for-profit entities at the board level, particularly in the areas of environment, science, and education.

Prof. John Tobin obtained a B.S. in Biology from UCLA, a Ph.D. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University, and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Dr. Stephen Hammer

Dr. Stephen Hammer

Advisor for International Climate Policy and Strategy, Climate Change Group, World Bank Group

Dr. Stephen Hammer currently serves as an Advisor, focused on International Climate Policy and Strategy, with the World Bank’s Climate Change Group in Washington DC. In this role he serves as a key policy advisor to WBG senior management and leads the Bank’s climate finance-related engagement with the G7, G20, and UNFCCC. He represents the World Bank on numerous global commissions and working groups focused on climate finance, and was one of the key movers behind the creation of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, a group which he continues to advise on strategic matters. In 2021 he chaired the global working group focused on the “Paris Alignment” of MDB lending portfolios.

Prior to his current role he served as Manager, Climate Policy for the World Bank Group, where he led an interdisciplinary team of 60+ scientists, economists, technical experts, and consultants focused on the mainstreaming of climate change in World Bank operations, frontier research on climate change and development topics, and the provision of climate-related advisory services to clients. Before Dr. Hammer joined the World Bank, he was a professor at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), where he taught courses on a variety of urban energy and climate policy topics. Prior to that, he taught at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he founded and directed the Urban Energy Program; at the Milano Graduate School of Urban Affairs; and at the Pratt Institute.

Dr. Hammer holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, an MPP from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a B.S. in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning from the University of California at Davis.

Kevin Li

Kevin Li

Moderator

Kevin is a first year MPP candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to HKS, Kevin worked as a consultant with Deloitte’s Climate & Sustainability practice and a coordination consultant at the United Nations in China. He co-founded the US China Climate Forum, a global community for thoughtful engagement on US-China relations and climate collaboration, and GreenClub, a 501(c) non-profit that delivered 1,000+ tons of emission offsets through energy efficiency and reforestation projects. Kevin has also served brief stints as secretariat manager to Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation, climate financing consultant to the Government of Tonga, and research assistant to Cornell Institute for China Economic Research. Kevin graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Environmental and Sustainability Sciences. He was born and raised in Shanghai, China.

Media's Role in Shaping Climate Change Narratives

Exploring how journalists and media outlets play a role in shaping how climate change information is communicated to the broader public.

Philip McKenna

Philip McKenna

Reporter, Inside Climate News

Phil McKenna is a Boston-based reporter for Inside Climate News. Before joining ICN in 2016, he was a freelance writer covering energy and the environment for publications including The New York Times, Smithsonian, Audubon and WIRED. Uprising, a story he wrote about gas leaks under U.S. cities, won the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award and the 2014 NASW Science in Society Award. Phil has a master’s degree in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was an Environmental Journalism Fellow at Middlebury College.

Rachel Taylor

Rachel Taylor

Community Weaver, Crowdsourcing Sustainability

Rachel McKenzie Taylor (she/her) is a social and environmental activist, thinker, and organizer with an emphasis on developing the individual and collective emotional, psychological, and relational skills and literacy needed to respond regeneratively to the intersecting crises of our time. She was a Co-Founder and Co-Director of The Joyality Project, an ecopsychology and activism education organization, and is currently the Community Weaver at Crowdsourcing Sustainability. Rachel is passionate about developing community around addressing the climate crisis from a justice-led perspective, and centering imagination, joy, and relationship in co-creating a just, vibrant, and resilient future for all.

Aashish Beergi

Aashish Beergi

Co-Founder and CEO of MASH Project Foundation

Aashish is a social entrepreneur and Co-founder of the MASH Project Foundation, a youth-led social enterprise based in India, that is building a global eco-system for young social changemakers.

Aashish has been a British Council Global Changemaker (London), Official Indian Delegate to BRICS Youth Summit (Guwahati), UNESCO Youth Forum Participant (Paris), and International Youth Forum Participant (Seliger, Russia). He was invited to speak at the International Conference on Climate Change organized by The World Youth Foundation in Malaysia. He is ‘Changemaker’ by Ashoka Foundation and participated at Asia Changemakers Exchange Summit held in Singapore and the Network Summit in Indonesia. He is an UNLEASH Talent from the Innovation Lab in Singapore on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs). Recently, He was conferred as a Goalkeeper Global Goals Award by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

During his Undergrad, he conceptualized and built a solid waste management model, which went on to become one of the finest models of decentralized urban waste management in India and got extensively covered in the media and research study for various stakeholders. The model is being operational in New Delhi, India and has become a case-study for many similar models across the world.

Ryan Hagen

Ryan Hagen

Founder, Crowdsourcing Sustainability & LinkedIn's Top Voices on the Green Economy

Ryan is the founder of Crowdsourcing Sustainability, a community that combines the collective energy, intelligence, and actions of people everywhere to crowdsource more sustainability into the world and build a safer and healthier planet. His goal is to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere as quickly as possible for a safer, healthier, and more just world. He started Crowdsourcing Sustainability to educate, connect, and ultimately unleash the power of people around the world to help reverse global heating as quickly and equitably as possible.

Genevieve Guenther

Genevieve Guenther

Founding Director, End Climate Silence

Dr. Genevieve Guenther is an author, climate activist, and native New Yorker. An expert in climate communication and fossil-fuel disinformation, she is the founding director of End Climate Silence, a volunteer organization dedicated to helping the news media cover the climate crisis with the accuracy and urgency it deserves, and affiliate faculty at The New School, where she sits on the board of the Tishman Environment and Design Center. Dr. Guenther advises activist groups, corporations, and policymakers, and she serves as an Expert Reviewer for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Her next book, The Language of Climate Politics, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

Priyanka Saha

Priyanka Saha

Moderator

Priyanka is passionate about creating innovative business solutions that drive social impact. After graduating from Northwestern University, she worked as a strategy consultant at EY-Parthenon, focusing on educational and non-profit consulting engagements, and most recently worked as an impact investor at Social Finance, leading investments that created economic opportunity for at-risk populations in the US. As a joint MBA & MPP student, Priyanka hopes to focus on the applications of impact investing and social entrepreneurship to solving social challenges in emerging markets.

How society should respond to climate migration

A conversation about grassroots efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate migrations in departing and receiving countries

Sonali Madia Patel

Sonali Madia Patel

Partner, Bridgespan

Sonali Madia Patel is a partner in Bridgespan’s New York office. She has been at Bridgespan since 2014 and has worked primarily in the philanthropy practice on a wide range of projects varying from initiative strategy to organizational design. She worked with the Tata Trusts developing their malnutrition strategy in India as well as supporting process redesign for grantmaking. She has spent the last two years working with the Rockefeller Foundation on the design of major initiatives in youth employment, global food systems, and science as well as a global scan to help them to develop a short-list of ideas for their next “big bet”. Most recently she worked with a large global family foundation first on supporting their foundation in developing its vision, mission, and principles and then in a separate effort to foster more collaboration and innovation amongst the family members. Sonali has also worked with large NGOs as well, most notably National Geographic Society on defining its mission and vision and critical pivots for the organization to achieve its goals and more recently on executive team effectiveness.

Prior to joining The Bridgespan Group, Sonali was at Bain & Company working primarily in the healthcare practice. While at Bain her work was focused on a wide range of issues including growth strategy, organizational and process redesign, and performance improvement.

Sonali graduated from Duke University with BS in Psychology and received her MBA from The Wharton School. She currently lives in Rye, NY with her husband and three children.

Monique Tú Nguyen

Monique Tú Nguyen

Executive Director of the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement, City of Boston

Monique Tú Nguyen is the Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement and leads the department to advance stability, economic empowerment, civic ownership, and social integration for immigrants in Boston. She is committed to advocating for immigrants in Boston and building community to further equity and belonging.

Director Nguyen has extensive experience in community-driven leadership and economic and racial justice. Prior to this appointment, she served as Executive Director of Matahari Women Workers’ Center for 10 years, advancing the rights and protections for domestic workers, women, immigrants, and their families. She’s also been recognized for her leadership of the MassUndocuFund, a million dollar COVID-19 cash relief fund for immigrant workers, and for spearheading the successful passage of the Massachusetts Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2014.

Director Nguyen is from Vancouver, Canada, and a proud daughter of Vietnam War refugees. She speaks English, Vietnamese, and is learning Spanish. She loves to cook, dance, hike, and dream and scheme about community building.

Annick Hiensch

Annick Hiensch

Partnerships Team Leader/Climate Security Focal Point Division for Policy, Evaluation and Training Department of Peace Operations United Nations Secretariat

Annick has 15 years of experience in the United Nations and is currently serving as the Team Leader for Partnerships as well as Climate, Peace and Security in the Department of Peace Operations, which provides political and executive direction to UN peacekeeping operations around the world and maintains contact with the Security Council, troop and financial contributors, and parties to the conflict in the implementation of Security Council mandates.

Before taking up this position, Annick was the counter-terrorism focal point in the United Nations Liaison Office for Peace and Security (UNLOPS) in Brussels.  She has also worked for the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, the European Commission and the World Food Programme.

Annick holds a Master in Public Administration from Cornell University and speaks English, Dutch, French and Spanish

Satchit Balsari

Satchit Balsari

Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Co-Director, CrisisReady

Dr. Satchit Balsari is an emergency physician and public health practitioner. Over the past 20 years, his research has sought to advance the health and human rights of populations displaced by disasters and war, across the Middle East, South Asia and the Americas. He is assistant professor at Harvard’s medical and public health schools, and teaches courses across the University on disasters, war, and leveraging entrepreneurship to solve intractable socioeconomic problems.
Dr. Balsari is the co-director of CrisisReady, a research-response platform committed to advancing evidence-based decision making in disasters (crisisready.io). Dr. Balsari’s innovations in digital health implementation science include cloud-based disease surveillance systems deployed at some of the world’s largest gatherings, including the 2013 and 2015 Kumbh Melas in India. He directs the Harvard India Digital Health Network at the Mittal South Asia Institute (idhnet.org). IDHN’s policy outputs have helped shape the technological and policy landscape of digital health in India. He is founding director of the Climate and Human Health Fellowship at Harvard (climateandhumanhealth.org)
He is a graduate of Grant Medical College, Mumbai; and completed his training at Harvard, Cornell and Columbia. Dr. Balsari is an Asia Society Fellow, an Aspen Ideas Scholar, and the youngest recipient of the BC Roy Award awarded by the President of India, the nation’s highest honor in medicine.

Valeria Tiberi

Valeria Tiberi

Moderator

Valeria Tiberi is a first-year student at Harvard Business School. Born and raised in Italy, she had the chance to study and travel in several countries, including Australia and Brazil. These experiences allowed her to develop a passion for nature and better understand the risks related to climate change. Valeria is also the co-founder of Officine Italia, a nonprofit aimed at increasing young people exposure to jobs in the public sector and training trisector entrepreneurs in Italy. Before HBS, she spent 3 years working at Bain & Company mainly on Energy projects, where she witnessed firsthand the challenges companies face to advance the Energy Transition and integrate ESG strategy in their daily operations. After school, she is looking forward to fostering public-private partnerships to catalyze change and financing inclusive solutions against climate change.

Youth's Role in Addressing Society's Most Urgent Problems

How are Young Leaders uniquely equipped to address the key challenges of our time? This panel explores Youth Entrepreneurship as a tool for positive change.

Yashveer Singh

Yashveer Singh

Co-founder & Global Director, Ashoka Young Changemakers

Yashveer leads the Ashoka Young Changemakers program at Ashoka Innovators for the Public, world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs & innovators. Ashoka Young Changemakers identifies, selects and builds a global community of Teen Changemakers. Prior to this, he founded a youth non-profit to address talent inequity in the development sector and influence youth culture in India by inspiring, and educating university students to pursue social innovation and entrepreneurship. Yashveer has co-authored a book #ChangeStartsYoung featuring inspiring stories of young changemakers from across India.

For his work, Yashveer has been recognized in “Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia” list in the year 2016 as was awarded Youth Action Net 2012 Fellowship by International Youth Foundation. Yashveer earned his MBA at University of Oxford, where he was the only MBA student to receive Vice-Chancellor Social Impact Award 2014 for his initiatives as Co-Chair Social Impact, Oxford Business Network (OBN). As the President of Student’s Union BITS Pilani 2006-07, Yashveer co-founded the University VISION 2020 Plan.

LaShyra Nolen

LaShyra Nolen

Founder of We Got Us

Born and raised in Southern California, LaShyra “Lash” is a writer, activist, and dual-degree MD/MPP student at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she is serving as student council president of her medical school class—the first documented Black woman to hold this leadership position. A fervent advocate for marginalized populations, her voice has been featured in the New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, and NPR, among others. She is also a co-host of the Clinical Problem Solvers Anti-Racism in Medicine Podcast and a served as a member of the White House Health Equity Roundtable. During the COVID-19 pandemic she founded We Got Us, a grassroots community empowerment project with the mission to increase access to education and healing for marginalized communities.

Her work has earned her the honor of being named a Forbes “30 Under 30” Leader in Healthcare, the 2020 National Minority Quality Forum’s youngest “40 under 40 Leader in Minority Health”, a Boston Celtics “Hero Among Us”, and a Rock Health “Top 50 Leader in Digital Health”.  In her future she hopes to use policy, writing, and medical education reform as tools to impact the health of her future patients and community as a physician activist and public leader.

Sashko Horokh

Sashko Horokh

Director at Mriya Inc.

Sashko is an MIT sophomore in Math and Economics from Kyiv, Ukraine. They’re a director at Mriya Inc., the president of Ukraine@MIT student group, a co-organizer of rallies and fundraises for Ukraine in Boston area, and a finalist and mentor at Ukraine Global Scholars. Sashko spent summer 2022 and January 2023 volunteering in Ukraine.

Jennifer Pfister

Jennifer Pfister

Moderator

Jennifer is a McCloy Fellow and MPP Candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School where she explores social entrepreneurship, storytelling and public policy as tools for change. She is the founder of the program “From Good Girl to Badass” which has reached young leaders in 15+ countries across five continents. Determined to address socioeconomic and gender inequalities, she has served as the German youth advisor to the G7 and G20. Her adventurous soul and curious mind inspired her to embark on a digital nomad journey during which she travelled the world for almost one and a half years while working in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion remotely.

Recover, Refocus, Rekindle: Understanding the Burnout Epidemic

Despite the many efforts to tackle burnout in the workplace, it still persists. Why? Join us for a deep dive into understanding the root of burnout and what you can do about it.

Maria Perez

Maria Perez

Co-Founder of Embers

Maria, co-founder of Embers. With 8 years of experience in Leadership and Career coaching, Maria has worked with organizations and individuals to empower them to become driven in their leadership practice. During the pandemic, witnessing how burnout was taking a toll on people’s health inspired Maria to get certified as a Health and Wellbeing Coach from Duke Integrative Health. She is passionate about stopping the burnout crisis by helping clients repurpose their vision and focus on what’s important. She helps clients build in habits that support their health and will help them manage work-life stress more effectively. Maria trained in Food Science from Cornell University and obtained an MBA from IE. A runner and a foodie at heart.

Hiba Khaled

Hiba Khaled

Moderator

Hiba Khaled is the co-founder of Embers, a business dedicated to helping clients recover from burnout by building capacity for transformational and sustainable change. Hiba trained as a physician in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, before obtaining a Master’s degree in Medical Education from Harvard Medical School. She worked with Professors Tim O’Brien and Ron Heifetz to coach students from all around the world on leadership. Having experienced and recovered from burnout herself, she is passionate about helping clients in demanding careers recover from burnout, while empowering them to build capacity to thrive in their work and lives. A surfer, tea enthusiast and avid reader.

Workshop: The art of storytelling by Abi Dare

Abi Daré

Abi Daré

New York Times Bestselling Author

Abi is the author of The Girl with the Louding Voice, which was a New York Times bestseller, a #ReadWithJenna Today Show book club pick, a BBC Radio 4 Bookclub Pick,and an Indie Next Pick.

Translated into 16 languages( till date) and studied on curriculums across the world, the Girl With The Louding Voice tells the story of Adunni, a 14 year old girl who is desperate for an education.

The novel has received critical acclaim and has been shortlisted for several awards including The British Book Awards Best Book of The Year , The Nigeria Prize for Literature ( Africa’s largest literary Prize), and in 2020 was named as The legendary Dolly Parton’s favourite of 2020 as well as selected as an Amazon Best Book of The Year for July 2020.

Abi grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and went on to study law at the University of Wolverhampton, graduating as Best Performing Student on her MSc in International Project Management from Glasgow Caledonian University, as well as an MA ( with distinction) in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London.

Abi has had over 15 years experience in corporate project management, working with several multinationals to deliver multimillion pound programmes and investments and is passionate about education, particularly for the girl child.

A well- sought after speaker, Abi has supported and attended various events advocating for, and highlighting areas of need including NGOs and Charities across the world such as The Malala Foundation, BookAid International, Women’s Global Education Project, FAWCO, The International Rescue Committee and many more. In 2022, Abi was appointed as External Board Member, the BIC Corporate Foundation, and the first ever goodwill ambassador for Women’s Global Education Project.

Alternative Models to Equitable Housing

This panel will discuss housing - a paradigmatic element of capitalism - and the current crisis in the U.S.; its socioeconomic ramifications; and localized interventions.

Kara Murray Badal

Kara Murray Badal

Director, Housing Lab at Terner Labs

Kara Murray-Badal is the Director of the Housing Lab. She brings a wealth of managerial and project management experience from both the private and non-profit sectors. Before joining the Terner team, she was a Crisis Project Manager at Bayer Healthcare as well as Deputy Director at The Mosaic Project, a non-profit focused on communication across cultures and backgrounds. She’s also an Oakland native with a history in community activism and politics, having consulted on policy for several cities and done communications and field leadership for electoral campaigns. Kara holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Psychology from Stanford University.

Jesse Kanson-Benanav

Jesse Kanson-Benanav

Executive Director at Abundant Housing MA

Jesse has over 15 years of experience in real estate development, public policy, and community engagement. Jesse is a noted community organizer and founded ABC Cambridge, a community-based organization advocating for increased housing production and smart-growth development in Cambridge and Greater Boston. As a result of his successful leadership of ABC, Jesse was recognized by the Boston Globe Magazine in 2016 as a “game changer” for his and ABC’s positive contributions to improving the Massachusetts economy. Prior to joining B’nai B’rith Housing, Jesse worked as a Senior Project Manager for Somerville Community Corporation, a Regional Project Associate for Community Builders, and a public housing management consultant for Edgemere Consulting. He is also a board member at Just-A-Start Corporation and Chairman of their Real Estate Committee.

Jesse has a Master in City Planning degree from MIT.

Nadine Ngouabe Dlodlo

Nadine Ngouabe Dlodlo

Founder & CEO, Women's Home Preservation LLC

Nadine Ngouabe Dlodlo is an impact investment leader and a community development strategist. In 2019, she founded the Women’s Home Preservation LLC (WHP), a mission- driven real estate investment firm that adopts a community-led participatory model to bring back economic vibrancy in formerly redlined communities in Baltimore with an emphasis on creating edifying housing for women-led households. The WHP works to restore the social and cultural dimensions of communities rather than the built environment only. To this extent, it intentionally develops residential and commercial projects that fill the amenity gaps in structurally disinvested communities. The WHP currently has $20M+ projects under development and was recently selected for the Growing Diverse Housing Developers program, a nationwide multimillion-dollar initiative to increase the supply of affordable housing in the US.

A portion of the WHP’s profit supports the Women’s Home Preservation Fund, a 501c3 that Nadine founded to provide relief to single mothers homeowners who are facing foreclosure.

Nadine received her MBA from Harvard Business School. Previously she worked in banking, infrastructure financing and public-private partnerships worldwide. She is the recipient of the Maryland Secretary’s Citation in recognition of her accomplishments in improving Maryland’s communities.

Nadine attended Harvard Business School while raising her 2 year-old daughter Isonah without any form of domestic help. In 2022, Isonah won the national silver medal in poetry at the Scholastic Art & Writing Award

Chris Baker

Chris Baker

Executive Director, The Other Ones Foundation

Chris is on a mission to make the world better for people affected by homelessness and poverty. Since graduating from the State University of New York at Oneonta in 2007, Chris has worked many different jobs in the field of homeless services and activism, but also as a musician, writer, and even paralegal. He started The Other Ones Foundation in the summer of 2017 to bring his innovative ideas for addressing homelessness to life.

Professor David Wood

Professor David Wood

Moderator

David Wood is an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy and the Director of the Initiative for Responsible Investment (IRI) at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations. Current projects range from work with pension fund trustees on responsible investment policies, mission investment by foundation endowments, research on the changing nature of the supply for and capacity to receive capital for community investment in the US, and a global survey of the relationship between public policy and impact investment. Recent work has included the publication of the Handbook on Responsible Investment Across Asset Classes (Boston College, 2007); the development of a Responsible Property Investing Center; field definition in sustainable emerging market SME investment; and research into the investor use of corporate reporting on non-financial information. He was elected in 2008 to the Board of the Social Investment Forum. Before he came to the IRI, he taught the history of ethics, including the history of economic thought at Boston University. He received his Ph.D. in History from the Johns Hopkins University.

Leveraging Ed-tech to Move the Needle

Join us to hear from entrepreneurs who are leveraging innovative technologies and business models to improve education outcomes!

Adam Zalisk

Adam Zalisk

Senior Vice President at Amplify

Adam’s career has focused on US education at the intersection of the public and private sectors. Currently, he leads corporate strategy at Amplify Education, one of the fastest growing companies in education technology which today serves millions students with high quality, digital-forward curriculum and assessment products. He began his career as a founding member for the education practice at Booz & Company, serving major philanthropies, state government, publishers and technology companies. Adam served on the management team at Harlem Children’s Zone, where he led innovation across the social agency’s pathbreaking pipeline of education and community development programs. Adam studied poetry at Harvard College, has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is a Presidential Leadership Scholar.

Rahul Kalita

Rahul Kalita

Co-Founder at Tutored by Teachers

Rahul Kalita is a co-founder of Tutored by Teachers (TbT), a Series A funded EdTech startup with investment from GSV, A Street, and TMV. He has worked at the College Board in its corporate strategy team, was on the founding team at Amplify under former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, and was a general manager at Imagine Easy Solutions, an education technology startup acquired by Chegg. He also interned at the US Department of Education under Secretary Arne Duncan. Rahul has earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Eli Luberoff

Eli Luberoff

CEO of Desmos Studio PBC

Eli began his programming life on his TI-83 graphing calculator in elementary school, culminating with a working version of Monopoly which was destroyed when he removed the backup battery by accident. Some say this frustration was the inspiration for founding Desmos. He’s the CEO of Desmos Studio, a Public Benefit Corporation with the goal of helping everyone learn math, love math, and grow with math.

Anurupa Ganguly

Anurupa Ganguly

Founder & CEO of Prisms

Anurupa Ganguly is the Founder & CEO of Prisms. She founded Prisms to scale a new world teaching model where students learn core secondary math and science concepts spatially, physically and steeped in important real world contexts, before building up to symbolic notation. Prisms targets bottleneck topics that are often memorized in lieu of deeply understood — leading to huge gaps and drops offs over time in STEM. Anurupa and her team are transforming math education in the US by rapidly deploying the next generation of spatial computing devices across US K-12 districts, training teachers to integrate problem-driven learning with VR into core curriculum, and working with district leadership to rapidly improve joy, confidence and proficiencies in the modern math classroom. She began her career as a math & physics teacher and later served in leadership roles across the Boston Public Schools, NYC DOE, and Success Academies. She holds degrees in EECS from MIT, and an EdM from BU. Her life’s mission is to empower an equitable workforce in STEM.

Nikita Ramanujam

Nikita Ramanujam

Moderator
Nikita is a second-year MBA student at Harvard Business School. She has spent time at McKinsey & Company, Teach for America, Education Pioneers, and Accenture but her favorite role was being Ms. Ramanujam at Think College Now Elementary School in Oakland, CA, where she taught 4th grade for four years. In addition to her MBA, Nikita holds degrees from Northwestern University and Loyola Marymount University. Nikita is a firm believer that everyone is entitled to a high-quality education that empowers them to live lives that are centered in purpose and agency. She is excited to continue building equitable systems that actualizes this vision.

Reimagining Skills & Access in the Workforce

Reimagining Skills & Access in the Workforce

Dave Wilkin

Dave Wilkin

Founder of 10KC.com

Dave Wilkin understands that over 80% of learning and career opportunities happen through relationships and mentors, and that’s why he co-founded 10KC – the only all-in-one talent experience platform for inclusive mentoring, employee connectivity, and skills development.

As hybrid work becomes the norm, Dave is reimagining how top organizations like Nike, GE, RBC, and PwC build, scale, and measure their employees’ mentoring, connectivity, and skills development programs.

As an award-winning serial LGBT+ entrepreneur who grew up in a small, rural town, Dave experienced firsthand that mentors and meaningful connections were critical to accessing career-progressing and skills development opportunities. As a result, he has spent his career empowering organizations to build more inclusive workplaces using 10KC’s technology. Dave wants to share his vision with organizations and business leaders on how they can unlock opportunity by creating meaningful connections in today’s new world of decentralized, remote, and hybrid work environments.

Tammy Thieman

Tammy Thieman

Director of Amazon Career Choice

Tammy leads Amazon’s Career Choice Program globally. Career Choice is Amazon’s education program focused on upskilling hourly employees who are interested in pursuing in demand roles outside of Amazon. The program is currently offered in 14 countries.

Prior to leading the Career Choice team, Tammy launched Amazon’s Technical Apprenticeship program for Amazon Web Services.

Tammy began her career as an active duty Army officer and retired this year as a Lieutenant Colonel from the US Army Reserve where she was the Pacific Northwest leader for Command and General Staff College.

Taylor Stockton

Taylor Stockton

FutureFit AI Chief Operating Officer

Taylor Stockton is the Chief Operating Officer of FutureFit AI, which provides a GPS to help workers navigate career transitions. Taylor has spent his entire career driving innovation in education and workforce development, including at Google where he helped build out the company’s global education strategy, at Deloitte Consulting where he supported companies and governments globally in thinking through education to employment pathways, and as the Chief of Staff of Nova Pioneer, a South African startup equipping youth with the skills to succeed in the 21st century workforce. Taylor received his MBA from Harvard Business School, and is also the Co-Founder of Pathway Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that invests in startups that enable new models of economic mobility.

Dr. Angela Jackson

Dr. Angela Jackson

Moderator

Dr. Angela Jackson is an impact investing and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) expert. She serves as an advisor to Freedom Learning Group and Education Design Lab. As a leader in the future of work space, Dr. Jackson has deep knowledge of technological trends that are transforming organizations and human capital infrastructure necessary to increase profitability.

Building Wealth In Communities: Tactics and Financial Challenges

Conversation on how private, public, and social players collaborate to invest in community wealth building via housing, banking, impact investing, and major financial challenges.

Anmol Mehra

Anmol Mehra

Social impact housing developer, co-founder of Plugin House

Anmol is currently a social impact oriented housing investor and developer in Austin, Texas with a focus on higher density, mixed-income housing. ·He is also the co-founder and CEO of the Plug-in-House: a modular, low-cost, quick-build home for urban infill and affordable housing. Previously he worked for 15 years as an equity research analyst and portfolio manager for Fidelity Investments in Boston. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Actuarial Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from McCombs School of Business, also from the University of Texas. Anmol is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government with a focus on urban planning and housing policy. Anmol is the Board Chair of Urbanity Dance, a Boston-based contemporary dance nonprofit; a Board member of The Food Project, a Boston-based urban farming and youth education nonprofit; and a Board member with Music For All, a national music education and advocacy nonprofit. Anmol also is an advisor, consultant, and investor to numerous nonprofits, social enterprises, and investment funds. Anmol was named a 2022 Axios Austin Power Player.

Jesse Van Tol

Jesse Van Tol

President & CEO at National Community Reinvestment Coalition

Jesse Van Tol is NCRC’s President and CEO. He has been with NCRC since 2006 and has held a variety of leadership positions, most recently as Chief Operating Officer, as well as senior positions in the organizing and membership, communications, policy and research teams. His work championing fair and responsible banking has resulted in $548 billion in new investments in low- and moderate-income communities through Community Benefits Agreements with 20 banking institutions. He is a popular speaker and lecturer, and has appeared on NPR, in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and many other outlets.

Jesse serves on the board of the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, and the executive committee of Americans for Financial Reform. He was a Senior Fellow with Humanity in Action, an international human rights group, and a communications institute Fellow with Opportunity Agenda. He also sits on a variety of advisory boards, including the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s Affordable Housing Advisory Councils. He is a member of the consumer advisory councils of Bank of America, Fifth Third, Huntington National Bank, IBERIABANK, JP Morgan Chase, KeyBank, Quicken Loans and Santander.

Jesse received his bachelor’s degree in History and International Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is part of the current NeighborWorks Achieving Excellence cohort at Harvard’s Kennedy school.

Granvel Tate

Granvel Tate

Founder of 1025 Advisors, Inc.

Mr. Tate has more than 15 years experience in real estate and finance. He began his career at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in the Financial Institutions Group. He moved on to work at such distinguished organizations as Bank of America, Forest City Ratner Companies, Mercy Housing and General Growth Properties. Prior to forming 1025 Advisors, Inc., Mr. Tate worked with Invest Atlanta where he oversaw five financing programs for multifamily construction and redevelopment. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Florida A&M University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Lourdes Germán

Lourdes Germán

Moderator

Lourdes German began her career specializing in public finance as an attorney advising state and local governments in their public finance transactions at the international law firm Palmer & Dodge (now Locke Lord, LLP). Following that work, Lourdes joined the public finance department at Fidelity Investments, where she served as a Vice President who launched and led the company’s municipal finance efforts in the Northeast and opened Fidelity’s New York office for public finance investment banking. Following Fidelity, Lourdes’ professional experiences include serving as General Counsel and Vice President of Municipal Investment research at Breckinridge Capital Advisors and serving as a Director of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. At Lincoln, Lourdes helped grow a global campaign on municipal fiscal health via activities that included serving as a speaker in the first bi-partisan congressional briefing focused on municipal finance and serving as an expert advisor to the United Nations in support of the launch of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In her capacity supporting the UN, Lourdes served as one of the co-authors of the book, Finance for City Leaders, published by the United Nations Press in 2016.

Outcome-based Financing in the Skilling & Employment Space: Opportunities & Challenges

The panel will explore the opportunities and challenges of scaling outcome-based financing models in the skilling & employment space.

Nat Ware

Nat Ware

Social Impact Economist, Founder & CEO of Forte Global

Dr Nat Ware is a global leader in both research and practice in the fields of impact investing and social entrepreneurship. He is the Founder/CEO of two successful global social ventures. In 2007 he founded 180 Degrees Consulting (www.180dc.org) and grew it into the world’s largest consultancy for non-profits and social enterprises, with 175 branches across 48 countries and over 6 million hours of services provided. 180 Degrees also aims to develop the next generation of social entrepreneurs. Over 100,000 university students have been a part of 180 Degrees to date. Nat is also the Founder/CEO of Forte (www.forteofficial.com), which is a new way to finance education and healthcare at no cost to either individuals or governments, and without needing philanthropy. The FORTE model (which stands for Financing Of Return To Employment) was developed as part of Dr Ware’s pioneering PhD at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, which was awarded with “no corrections”. The FORTE model aims to perfectly align social impact and financial returns at the systems level, and solve the challenges with Income Share Agreements (ISAs), Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), and other approaches to impact investing. The FORTE model has already been successfully implemented in Australia, Colombia and Costa Rica.

Nat Ware was also the Top Oxford MBA Student, the Best Performer in Development Economics at Oxford, and a Visiting Fellow at Princeton. In addition to the FORTE model, Nat has invented a new way to measure social impact (DEMI – Discounted Expected Marginal Impact) and a better way to measure poverty. Nat is also a Forbes 30 Under 30 List Maker, Goldman Sachs Global Leader, Asia 21 Fellow, Two-Time World Public Speaking Grand Finalist, a Rybakov Laureate, Australian State Young Achiever of the Year, received the Highest Scoring Speech at the World Debating Championships, and is the only-ever Two-Time Global Winner of the prestigious St Gallen Wings of Excellence Award. He has swum the English Channel with friends to raise money for charitable initiatives, completed a full Ironman triathlon, and given three TEDx talks with over two million views.

Mike Silvestri

Mike Silvestri

Director, Impact Investing, Social Finance

Mike Silvestri is a Director at Social Finance, where he leads the firm’s impact investing partnerships with donor-advised funds, family offices, and foundations. Mike also helps oversee Social Finance’s career impact bond portfolio, including developing regional workforce funds to finance upskilling/reskilling for low-income individuals. Prior to joining Social Finance, Mike served on the Strategic Operations team within the Office of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, spearheading numerous efforts to improve service delivery across the Commonwealth. Before that, Mike worked as a social impact consultant at FSG, where he helped corporations, foundations, and nonprofits develop strategies to solve systemic social challenges spanning health, education, and economic mobility. He brings extensive experience in the design, implementation, and scaling of education and workforce programs. Prior to FSG, Mike began his career as a management consultant at Oliver Wyman, where he advised Fortune 500 clients in addressing a range of strategic and operational issues across the energy, retail, and healthcare industries. Mike has founded and currently helps lead an NGO that provides education, leadership development, and college preparation to thousands of South African township youth. Mike has a joint MPP/MBA from the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School. He has received numerous awards for his leadership at the intersection of business and public service, including the Zuckerman Fellowship, Dukakis Fellowship, Harvey Fellowship, Rock Summer Fellowship, George Fellowship, and HBS Leadership Fellowship. He received his BA in Economics with Honors from Harvard College.

Amy E. Nishman

Amy E. Nishman

Senior Vice President of Strategy, JVS

Amy is responsible for leading strategic agency initiatives that bring resources to the agency and help JVS become more coordinated, and client centered. She leads JVS’s innovative $15 million Pay for Success project, Pathways to Economic Advancement, the first focused exclusively on workforce development. Amy also works on JVS’s Public Policy initiatives, as well as agency-wide data quality and continuous improvement. She develops service delivery models that respond to the changing economy, allowing JVS students to move into and up career ladders. She advances the agency’s Public Policy platform through local and state-level workforce policy solutions and works to improve JVS’s overall data collection and analysis to best measure our impact. Amy has worked in social services for over 20 years. Before coming to JVS, she worked at a reproductive health center leading two state-wide initiatives. She has also done public health advocacy as well as worked in various direct service positions assisting people living with HIV, pregnant and parenting adolescents, substance users, and poor and homeless women. Amy holds a B.A. in Sociology and Women’s Studies from the University of Michigan and Master’s degrees in both Public Health and Social Work from Boston University.

Brian Trelstad

Brian Trelstad

Moderator

Brian Trelstad is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School in the General Management Unit, teaching an elective course on Social Entrepreneurship and Systems Change and the first-year required course on Leadership and Corporate Accountability (LCA). His teaching and research focuses on social entrepreneurship, systems change, impact investing, and the role of business in society.

Brian is also a Partner and Board Member at Bridges Fund Management, an impact investing fund that invests in health, education and environmental services business. Prior to Bridges, Brian was the Chief Investment Officer of Acumen, where he oversaw investments in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Brian is a co-chair of Impact Capital Managers, a national membership association of impact investors in the United States and a founding board member of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE). Prior to Acumen, Brian worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, was a lead environmental staff person at the Corporation for National Service, and has been involved in a range of non-profit and for-profit start ups. Brian serves on the board of VisionSpring, Candid, and New Jersey Future and is both a Kauffman Fellow of the Center for Venture Education and a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.

Building Back Health: A multi-sectoral approach to creating effective health systems

A multi-sectoral approach to creating effective health systems

Andrew Trister

Andrew Trister

Deputy Director, Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Andrew Trister leads digital health and artificial intelligence at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His team invests in innovations that weave together artificial intelligence, mobile applications, objective sensor-based measurements, clinical care models and interoperable data infrastructure to improve care delivery at all levels of the health system.

Andrew is a physician scientist passionate about leveraging technology to improve health care for all. He joined the foundation from Apple, where he led clinical research and machine learning for health features on the Apple watch and iPhone. Prior to Apple, he was the senior physician at Sage Bionetworks, where he designed and shipped ResearchKit, an open-source tool for large-scale clinical trials and developed infrastructure to share and collaborate on medical imaging.

Andrew completed clinical residency in radiation oncology at the University of Washington, with additional focus areas in medical- and bio- informatics, earned an M.D., Ph.D. in bioengineering, MSE and BSE in computer science, and a B.A. in biological basis of behavior (neuroscience) all from the University of Pennsylvania.

Katie Bollbach

Katie Bollbach

Executive Director, United States of Partners in Health

Katie Bollbach is the Executive Director of PIH-US, the U.S. arm of Partners In Health, a nonprofit global health and social justice organization. PIH-US works to advance health equity in the U.S. by accompanying visionary public health and community leaders to build more just systems and healthier communities. Katie previously worked with PIH in Sierra Leone as Chief Policy and Program Officer during the Ebola response and recovery and in Rwanda on HIV support services. She began her career co-founding and co-leading two organizations, Global Health Corps and FACE AIDS, dedicated to engaging young people in the fight for global health equity and HIV treatment access. She’s also worked in South Africa on gender-based violence policy, in Zambia on refugee services, and as a consultant at The Bridgespan Group. She holds an MPH from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.

Emmanuel Akpakwu

Emmanuel Akpakwu

Chief Commercial Officer, Sub-Saharan Africa of Novartis

Emmanuel currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer for Novartis’s SSA Region. His passion sits at the intersection of technology, finance, and healthcare, with a focus on accelerating access to medicines inn Low- and Middle-Income Countries. He holds a degree from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and is currently completing his Masters in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to Novartis, Emmanuel led the Value Based Healthcare Practice at the World Economic Forum, and served as Associate Director of Group Strategy at Merck KGaA. He started his career at JP Morgan.

Megha Kumar

Megha Kumar

Head of Global Partnerships & Business Development of Medtronic LABS

Megha Kumar is Head of Global Partnerships & Business Development at Medtronic LABS – the non-profit global health arm of Medtronic. Medtronic LABS works directly with health systems and Ministries of Health in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia to deliver digitally-enabled, community-based primary care to underserved populations. Megha leads the efforts to build relationships with governments, multilateral agencies, and donors to structure innovative partnerships that leverage public-private funding to strengthen health systems.

Megha holds a BA in Health Care Markets & Finance from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA in Strategy, Healthcare, and Social Impact from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and an MPH in Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Grant Heskamp

Grant Heskamp

Moderator

Grant Heskamp is currently Chief of Staff at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. Prior to CHAI, Grant was a project leader at Boston Consulting Group, where he worked with the Public Sector and Social Impact practice areas, including on projects in pandemic response and economic recovery. He is a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar, and Harvard Business School (MBA 2019).

Driving Innovation in Women's Health Globally

A conversation about how stakeholders from across the value chain from finance to R&D to service delivery can work together to improve women’s health outcomes.

Maia Gokhale

Maia Gokhale

Program Manager for Payer Partnerships, Mae

Maia Gokhale (she/her) is Program Manager for Payer Partnerships at Mae, a culturally responsive digital-first solution aimed at connecting Black women and birthing people with critical pregnancy support resources in effort to drive positive birth experiences and outcomes. As an early team member and first program manager at Mae, Maia focuses on building and maintaining Mae’s partnerships with healthcare payers nationwide, growing Mae’s network of community-based and virtual doulas, and supporting multiple stakeholders to navigate new state maternal health legislation and innovation. Maia received her MPH from Harvard Chan in 2020, and has extensive experience standing up health equity initiatives in a variety of care settings, with special focus on Medicaid managed care ecosystems.

Sara Kemppainen

Sara Kemppainen

Special Projects, Fifty Years

Sara Kemppainen is in charge of Special Projects at Fifty Years. She is particularly interested in supporting founders solving complex problems that are traditionally overlooked by investors. She led the development of Repro Grants, a “fast grants” program to accelerate high-risk, high-reward research in the chronically underfunded field of women’s reproductive health. Before joining Fifty Years, Sara was the Head of Program at Slush. She is also the founder of Women in Innovation and Leadership, a professional network that promotes personal growth, collaboration, and gender equality.

Ambreen Molitor

Ambreen Molitor

National Director of Innovation, Planned Parenthood

Ambreen Molitor (she/her) is the National Director of Innovation at Planned Parenthood, where she develops new strategies to advance the org’s health equity mission and future-proof the organization. Under her purview, the team has won several accolades, such as Fast Co’s Most Innovative Companies three years in a row, several Shorty Social Good Award and Webby recognitions, and an Anthem award for the Bans Off campaign she and her team launched in response to the Dobbs decision. She has also been featured in Women in Product, This is Product Management, and Vox’s Recode podcasts as well as on Cheddar TV.

Christine Jarjour

Christine Jarjour

Moderator

Christine is a joint degree MPP & MBA candidate from the Harvard Kennedy School and Business School. Before grad school, Christine worked as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. While at BCG, her focus was on supporting non-profits and foundations in expanding access to medicines in low and middle income countries. At Harvard, she hopes to build on her strategic consulting skills and further explore key challenges in global health, economic development, and gender equity.

Demystifying Impact Investing

Ryan Alam

SVP and Principal at Citi Impact Fund

Ryan is a Senior Vice President and Principal at Citi Impact Fund, a $500mm early stage impact investing group. Ryan joined Citi from Zipline International, a mission-oriented robotics company, where he led new market entry. Prior to that, he was an impact investor at Omidyar Network, received grant funding from the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing for his work in West Africa, and began his career in alternative investments. His work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, and a Harvard Business School case study on impact investing. Ryan is a first generation American who has also lived and worked in Ghana and Indonesia. He has a BA from the University of Southern California and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.

Designing Health Equity: Fireside Chat with Dan Miller

Fireside Chat with Dan Miller, Founder and CEO of Spora Health

Zeina Mohammed

Zeina Mohammed

Moderator

Zeina Mohammed is a Sudanese journalist based in Cambridge, MA. A health reporter at the Boston Globe, she focuses on health equity, reproductive care and maternal mortality. Before joining the Globe in 2022, she covered environmental justice, the polarization of climate education and the effects of the climate crisis on human health and rights at POLITICO’s E&E News.

Dan Miller

Dan Miller

Founder and CEO of Spora Health

Dan Miller is Chief Executive Officer and founder of Spora Health, a VC-backed telehealth platform offering primary care for People of Color. Dan is a three-time serial entrepreneur and among the 1% of Black Americans to successfully raise over $1 million in venture capital funds. Prior to starting Spora Health, Dan spent time building multiple telemedicine and education businesses.

Discussion on Effective Tri-Sector Collaboration

An exciting panel discussion with esteemed speakers from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, where we will explore what effective tri-sector collaboration looks like

Rashmi Khare

Rashmi Khare

Vice President of Impact Advisory at Social Finance

Rashmi Khare is Vice President of Impact Advisory at Social Finance, focused on advising and designing projects with government to drive social progress. In collaboration with elected officials, policymakers, civic leaders, community members, philanthropies, and service providers, she leads teams towards coordinated outcomes-focused decision making. Rashmi is working on projects to reduce recidivism to the criminal and juvenile justice system, and birth-through-five initiatives.

Prior to Social Finance, Rashmi’s work reflects both finance and social sector commitments. She spent eleven years as a Fixed-Income Bond Trader with Fidelity Investments, trading a wide range of products on behalf of mutual fund shareholders. She managed both internal and external investment relationships, as well as creating and executing trading strategies. During her time with the Ulupono Initiative, Rashmi conducted due diligence on potential portfolio investments. She also served as a Kiva Fellow, placed with Accion East, the largest US microfinance lender. She currently sits on the board of a local nonprofit focused on women’s education.

Rashmi holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where she was a Center for Business and Society Fellow, and a BS in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mariana Matus

Mariana Matus

CEO and Cofounder of Biobot Analytics

Mariana Matus is CEO and Cofounder of Biobot Analytics. Originally from Mexico City, Mariana received her PhD from the department of Biological Engineering at MIT in Computational Biology, where she specialized in the emerging field of wastewater epidemiology. In addition to her doctoral studies, Mariana cofounded the MIT Underworlds Smart Sewers Project, leading the vision and funding for a $4M interdisciplinary research project with collaborators from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. This work led to the creation of Biobot Analytics, and set the scientific foundation for Biobot’s wastewater platform—now serving the CDC and communities across all 50 US states. Mariana plans to expand Biobot’s venture backed platform, which has secured ~$30M in funding, into countries all over the globe.

Dr. Matus has been recognized for her leadership and entrepreneurial excellence through several awards. In 2020, she was named to the C&EN Trailblazing Women in Chemistry. She made Newsweek’s list of America’s 50 Greatest Disruptors in 2021, and their list of America’s 50 Enterprising Idealists in 2022. Boston Globe named Dr. Matus #8 on their inaugural 50 Tech Power Players list for 2022, and most recently she was honored to be featured on the 2022 TIME100 NEXT list as an industry innovator.

Tiffany Chu

Tiffany Chu

Chief of Staff to Mayor Michelle Wu.

Tiffany Chu is the Chief of Staff to Mayor Michelle Wu.

Tiffany comes from a background in design, urban planning, and entrepreneurship. Prior to joining the City of Boston, she was the CEO & Co-founder of Remix, a collaborative software platform for transportation planning used by 500+ cities around the world. Remix was named a Tech Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and Bloomberg for furthering sustainability and equity in the field, and was acquired by Via in one of the largest software acquisitions of 2021.

Tiffany was appointed as a Commissioner of the San Francisco Department of the Environment and served on San Francisco’s Congestion Pricing Policy Advisory Committee.

Previously, Tiffany was at Code for America, Y Combinator, Zipcar, and Continuum. She’s been named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30, LinkedIn’s Next Wave of Leaders Under 35, and featured at SXSW, Helsinki Design Week, the New York Times Cities for Tomorrow Conference, and more. Tiffany has a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) School of Architecture and Planning.

Tiffany is a first generation Taiwanese American. A few of her favorite things around Boston include the Charles River Esplanade, pasta at Giacomo’s, and the city’s walkability.

Matthew Klein

Matthew Klein

Chief Program and Impact Officer at Robin Hood

Matthew Klein is the Chief Program and Impact Officer at Robin Hood, where he leads the alignment of Robin Hood’s programmatic and public policy work to support pathways out of poverty for low-income New Yorkers.

Prior to Robin Hood, Klein served as the Executive Director of Blue Ridge Foundation New York, a philanthropic fund that operated as a full-service incubator, providing seed funding, office space, and hands-on operational support to start-ups focused on expanding upward mobility. Klein then went on to lead the New York City Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity), a 70-person, multi-disciplinary team that helps City leaders use evidence and innovation to more effectively reduce poverty. Under his leadership, NYC Opportunity launched new anti-poverty programs, broadened the City’s use of rigorous evaluations, design methods, and data capabilities, helped achieve citywide poverty reduction goals, and added equity metrics to the City’s performance accountability system, among other accomplishments. During Klein’s tenure, the office garnered multiple awards for policy innovation and digital expertise.

Klein has served on numerous civic and nonprofit boards, including those of Robin Hood’s community partners, and has been the recipient of several fellowships, including from Echoing Green, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Results for America. Klein has a B.A. in History and a J.D. from Yale University and Yale Law School, respectively. He lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn with his wife and twin daughters.

Kamya Jagadish

Kamya Jagadish

Moderator

Kamya is a joint degree student at HKS and HBS. She most recently served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow, working with the U.S. Department of Transportation on its smart city strategies. Prior to that, she worked at various technology including Facebook and Lime, in data science and product growth roles. She graduated from Yale with a Bachelor of Science in environmental engineering.

March 4-5, 2023

Harvard Business School &
Harvard Kennedy School