Mahvish Ahmad
Mavish joins Ashoka as a Program Manager for the Entrepreneur-to-Entrepreneur program, managing the expansion of the Ashoka Support Network and the creation of its Chapters in the United States. Before coming to Ashoka, Mahvish worked in international development and strategy innovation. After graduating from college Mahvish moved to Islamabad, Pakistan to evaluate education programs with the Asian Development Bank and the UK Department for International Development. Upon returning to Copenhagen she worked for ReD Associates, a management consultancy firm specializing in innovation. Mahvish left ReD to pursue an MPA at the London School of Economics and Harvard University. Outside of school she established a student consultancy, and also worked with Dalberg Global Development Associates, the Danish Ministry of Integration, the London School of Economics, and a Danish political party. Mahvish was born and raised in Denmark by Pakistani parents and speaks three languages. She has a BA in International Development and Social Sciences from Roskilde University in Denmark.

Beata Alvarez
Beata joined the Ashoka Finance Team in October 2007. She earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in 2001 majoring in Accounting. Last March, she graduated with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science. This education coupled with her past work experience in both financial and technical positions provides the right mix of skills for the needs of Ashoka. Working for the Media Distribution Company Beata found solutions and achieved a high degree to economic benefits, from analyzing accounts in the general ledger to reviewing budget variances for specific projects in Excel, to formulating creative plans for solutions to complex fiscal problems. Her greatest strength is her ability to see a project from its inception to its completion. She is particularly honored to serve Ashoka in such an important field of social services helping to improve developing countries in an extensive array of social areas.

Robert Benedict
Robert arrived at Ashoka June 2007 and is currently Ashoka’s Changemakers Change Manager working on measurement of Changemakers success, competition analysis, and technology integration.
Robert’s work seeks to understand the impacts of the collaborative competitions and translate them into actionable information for social entrepreneurs, affiliates, and partners. His work at Changemakers has included Facebook application development, competition trend analysis, and data administration. Before coming to Ashoka Robert worked in corporate design, data management, and the citizen sector. His work has included a range of activities from advanced computer aided design to working directly with at-risk youth. Drawing on a renaissance background enables him to see unique approaches to challenging questions and provide innovative solutions. He believes that the great jumps in social innovation come from surprising places. Robert is currently completing his Masters Degree in Organizational Management at the School for International Training. Born in Florida, he now lives in Falls Church Virginia where he enjoys cycling, refinishing furniture, and spending time with his wife Catherine.

Tom Boone
Tom ‘co-anchors’ the transcription team. The team provides first-line support to Ashoka’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bill Drayton. Tom’s energies are focused on building dynamic ‘core’ teamwork within Ashoka’s Executive Office. Tom joined Ashoka in 2004 after relocating south from New York City, which had been his home for more than 30 years. Tom has a strong computer technical background (he has earned an MCSE and CNE), but has returned to the administrative work arena (which he prefers). Tom has more than 25 years experience supporting leading American attorneys in multiple capacities including supervisory, paralegal, administration, word processing, computer systems, and network systems services. Additionally, he has more than 7 years experience in marketing design, writing promotional materials for various prominent international publishing companies. Tom is an ardent dog lover and a lifelong “quiet activist” for human rights.

Bruno Borges
Bruno Borges came to Ashoka as a volunteer in June 2007, in the context of his Master of Science in Organization Development and Strategic Human Resources degree from Johns Hopkins University. He has now joined the Law for All team full time as a Change Manager, with a special focus on Ashoka’s Advocates for Social Entrepreneurs program. Bruno will help build relationships with law firms, law schools, and legal networks; design forums through which to introduce Ashoka Fellows to pro bono legal support and legal professionals to social entrepreneurship; and revive ASE’s web presence through online case management tools and information platforms. Bruno will manage Ashoka’s relationship with Latham & Watkins LLP, and will field all legal requests from Ashoka staff. Prior to his position at Ashoka, he worked for 7 years as an attorney in Brazil. As a senior attorney with Advocacia J.R. Nogueira e Associados in Sao Paulo, Bruno developed and coordinated the firm’s pro bono program and served as the legal department manager of the Federation of Nonprofit Hospitals of Sao Paulo. Bruno holds certificates in nonprofit law and nonprofit management from the Getulio Vargas foundation in Sao Paulo and Johns Hopkins University. When not working, Bruno enjoys cooking and reading. He is also a big fan of soccer.

Sarah Brooks
Sarah joined Ashoka in September 2007 and is currently a Program Manager for the Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur program, helping to facilitate the connection of business entrepreneurs with Ashoka Fellows. She previously worked with Women in Progress, a Citizen Sector Organization in Ghana which helps small women-led enterprises. While there, she devised the organization’s fair trade program which evaluated and educated individual members of Women in Progress’s cooperative. Sarah has also worked with the Steel Yard, an arts community in Providence, RI and was an academic advisor. A graduate from Brown University with a BA in Development Studies, she culminated her four years with a senior thesis titled “Artisan Trade Intermediaries as a Development Tool.” In addition to her schoolwork, Sarah won a division one national championship (NCAA) in 2004 and 2007 on Brown women’s rowing team. She grew up outside of Boston with three older brothers and enjoys drawing, photography, skiing and travel.

Charlie Brown
Charlie is the Executive Director of Ashoka’s Changemakers, an online community that “open sources” innovative solutions to entrenched problems worldwide and builds communities of action to support them.
Before Changemakers, Charlie spent three years building the architecture for Ashoka’s global community of over 1,700 Ashoka Fellows and directed three policy focused Ashoka initiatives – the India Sustainable Water Project, which is focused on analyzing existing links between innovations and policy in the field of water management; Advocates for Social Entrepreneurs (ASE), which is spreading the pro bono legal movement around the globe to support social entrepreneurs in navigating and influencing the regulatory environment; and a policy partnership with the World Bank Institute to connect Changemakers online competition finalists to global and in-country policy makers. In addition to Ashoka Charlie has worked at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory on the development of climate change mitigation strategies and spearheaded innovations for land management in the National Park Service and abroad where he overhauled the management structure for Jamaica’s protected area system.
When not working, Charlie is an avid outdoorsman and fan of Appalachian literature. Charlie received business degrees from Virginia Tech and the University of Denver.

Amy Clark
Amy Clark came to Ashoka in 1999, having learned about Ashoka from David Bornstein's wonderful article in The Atlantic Monthly. Since joining, she has worked with Ashoka teams in Arlington, Virginia, and in Bangkok. Throughout her Ashoka career, she has focused on bringing greater operational efficiency and joy to Ashoka's annual selection of leading social entrepreneurs. With a global team, Amy now leads the recruiting effort at Ashoka, which draws significant design elements from the Venture Program (finding Fellows) and seeks to attract highly creative talent to Ashoka and to the citizen sector, enabling it through perhaps the most important resource: entrepreneurial people who have good ideas and the drive, passion, and personal integrity to make them work. Amy grew up in Tennessee and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in English.

Leslie Crutchfield
Leslie is leading the effort to increase the impact of Ashoka's U.S.A. & Canadian Fellows through a new initiative, the Accelerator for Social Entrepreneurship. The Accelerator leverages the expertise of strategic partners such as McKinsey & Co., Hill & Knowlton, Inc., and corporate law firms through the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP), to advance Ashoka Fellows' efforts to grow to scale. From 1993 - 1997, Leslie served as co-founder of a national magazine for social entrepreneurs, Who Cares: The Tool Kit for Social Change. Leslie then consulted on business strategy issues with organizations such as The Morino Institute, Pew Charitable Trusts, and City Year. Leslie is a SEED Foundation board member, and she serves as an advisor to Duke University's Center for Advancing Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) and to Rediscovery House in Boston. In 1988 Leslie volunteered with Crossroads Africa in The Gambia. She earned a B.A. in Government and an M.B.A. from Harvard University; she and her husband currently reside with their dog in Washington, D.C.

Dessa Dal Porto
Dessa joined Ashoka in April 2005 and is currently the Sr. Program Associate Competitions and Policy for Ashoka’s Changemakers, an online community that “open sources” innovative solutions to entrenched problems worldwide and builds communities of action to support them. Dessa works to bridge the gap between competition entries’ innovative ideas and the DC and global policy world, in hopes to influence domestic and international policies. Prior to Changemakers, Dessa worked with The Global Fellowship Program researching and mapping themes within Ashoka Fellows, and creating the framework for developing collaborations with an outside client as well as between current Ashoka Fellows. Dessa’s passion for cross-disciplinary studies and her belief that all fields could benefit by including those outside their subject matter led her to study international policy at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute, where she combined her hard science undergraduate education with economics and public finance to receive her Mater in Public Policy in 2007. Prior to Ashoka, Dessa worked for the Democratic National Committee, specifically Democrats Abroad, increasing overseas voting rights and voter registration. Dessa is a Washington State native and attended Washington State University for her undergraduate education. When not working, Dessa loves to travel, fly fish and watch movies.

Darlene Damm
Darlene has served as the Ashoka-US Integrator since August of 2007 and is now a member of the Global Development Team. Prior to joining Ashoka, Darlene worked in both the United States and Asia developing international education programs aimed at empowering young people. She launched Asia Society Young Professionals for the Asia Society in Washington, DC, helped open an experimental high school in Rangoon, Burma, by developing a service-learning program for the students, and managed cross-cultural leadership programs as Program Director for Volunteers in Asia at Stanford University. She also developed an overseas education program for American teenagers in Vietnam and, in 1999, served as a Fellow with Japan-US Community Education and Exchange, where she studied public-private partnerships in Japan’s newly emerging nonprofit sector. As an undergraduate at Stanford University, she interned in the Economics Sector of The World Bank in Jakarta, Indonesia, and volunteered in Hanoi, Vietnam just after the United States re-established relations with the country. She completed her master’s degree in International Economics and Southeast Asian Studies at Johns Hopkins School for the School of Advanced International Studies.

Norma Dancis
Norma Dancis is the Lead Transcriptionist in the Executive Office. The transcriptionists turn hand-written letters and dictation into correspondence, type articles, board minutes, and prepare presentations. Norma coordinates the work of the transcription staff. She previously worked for 25 years as a legal secretary. She received a master’s degree in linguistics from Indiana University. Outside of work, Norma tutors adults in English, teaches new volunteers how to do so, and writes a regular column and book reviews for a mystery review magazine.

Christopher Dumm
Chris grew up in Asia, graduating from high school at the American School in New Delhi. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1998, and spent five and a half years on Capitol Hill with Congressman Jim McDermott (Senior Legislative Asst: 4.5 years) and Congressman Joe Hoeffel (Legislative Director: 1 year). He was the staff director of the House India Caucus, organized many Congressional delegations to India, and was named one of the most highly traveled Congressional staffers in 2000. Most recently, he was the Executive Director of the Indian American Center for Political Awareness, a nonprofit organization that seeks to educate Indian Americans about the U.S. political process.

Alexis Early
Alexis joined Ashoka in March 2006 as part of the North America team and currently works with the Global Marketing team. After studying American labor theory and early labor leaders and working with the Service Employees International Union, Alexis was inspired to start the Wellesley Association of Labor Rights Activists (WALRA). Her organization goes beyond a traditional rank-and-file membership to include students, academics and staff in successful campaigns for fair trade coffee, a “sweat-free” bookstore, and other social justice issues. Since 2002, WALRA has spread to other colleges in the region and intends to expand nationally. At Wellesley College, Alexis also worked on campaigns for gay and lesbian equality in the northeastern state of Massachusetts and mentored younger students. She has often traveled to El Salvador, where she has studied women social entrepreneurs and their creative contributions to post-civil war society. When not wishing she were in the tropics, Alexis can be found playing hockey, cheering loudly for her beloved Boston Red Sox baseball team, and volunteering as a Big Sister. Alexis has a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy.

Lennon Flowers
Lennon joined the Global Venture team in January, after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill in May 2007, with a degree in International Studies and Political Science. After a summer spent backpacking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, she and a group of friends started Students Working in the Environment for Active Transformation (SWEAT), built on the idea that mountain-climbing could serve as both a source of empowerment and a tool for engaging students in environmental issues. In the group’s first year, they traveled to East Africa, where they climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and partnered with the Nobel-prize winning Green Belt Movement on a tree-planting project in the Kenyan highlands. She later helped found the UNC-Duke-Bennett Millennium Village Project, the first student-led campaign to raise $1.5 million to sponsor a Millennium Village in Kenya. She engaged in a range of corporate and public outreach efforts, and helped create a student-led course on development ethics: part of her long-running interest in the change-making potential of students and universities.

Erin Fornoff
Erin came to Ashoka as an intern in February 2005 after graduating with a B.A. in Anthropology and Rhetorical Studies from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. As an undergraduate, she founded and ran a community garden to teach principles of organic agriculture and build links between students and the broader community. She won a social entrepreneurship fellowship to start a civic education program, which she introduced in ten elementary schools in central North Carolina. (Seeking funds to sustain her project, she typed "social entrepreneur money" into Google and discovered Ashoka!) Motivated by a strong belief in action-oriented solutions for problems, she spent two years working for Academy Award winner Barbara Trent on an environmental justice campaign involving a low-income community, using film and community mobilization as means of empowerment. Looking to study other ways of tackling social justice issues, Erin worked at the United Nations Headquarters, writing regional reports on the Millennium Development Goals and creating the Plan of Action for the International Year of Microcredit 2005. During her tenure as an intern with Ashoka, Erin worked nights doing hypothermia outreach and serving as a homeless shelter supervisor in Washington, D.C. She grew up in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina.

Dana Frasz
Dana joined the Ashoka Changemakers team in August 2007. In 2006 Dana graduated from Sarah Lawrence College having focused on International Development and Social Justice. Dana's desire to create social change developed after volunteering and living with families in South East Asia in 2001 with a group called Youth International. It was clear to her that she needed to do something about the poverty and inequality in the world. While doing extensive research on the issue of Hunger in America during her first year at Sarah Lawrence Dana founded and directed "Empty Bellies" a student-based fair food distribution program that collects left over food from the campus dining hall and from local food establishments and then delivers it to nearby communities in need. Dana expanded the program to Purchase College in 2006 while working for the New York Public Interest Research Group as a Project Coordinator at the college. Dana and her Empty Bellies program received national recognition from the International Youth Foundation's YouthActionNet in 2006 when she was selected as one of 20 young leaders who were honored for their diligent social change efforts. Dana is currently working on an online manual to help teach others the process by which to establish similar food rescue and distribution programs in their communities. Dana grew up in a small town in Northern Maine and loves sports, nature, cooking, photography and live music.

Allison Frieze
Allison serves as Coordinator with the Ashoka-US team. As an undergraduate, Allison and her roommate started a talk radio show on WGTB. She also studied abroad at St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia, after which she volunteered in Ukraine teaching English as a Foreign Language. Allison holds a B.A. from Georgetown University with a major in Russian Language and a minor in History.

Ronnie Gold
Ronnie Gold is Manager of Special Projects at Ashoka. In her present role, Ronnie’s entrepreneurial and managerial instincts serve her well, just as they have throughout her colorful career. Ronnie has served as Executive Director for W.O.M.E.N. INC., a citizen sector organization that provides monthly forums for women to exchange ideas, and of Club Prive, a private social, travel, and sports organization whose membership tripled during her tenure. Ronnie was instrumental in returning a professional soccer franchise to Washington DC for the North American Soccer League (NASL), appearing on major radio and TV stations, and became the league’s first female PR director and radio commentator. Ronnie has honed her special-event expertise as Director of Special Projects at the Trust for Museum Exhibitions, Convention Coordinator for the American Red Cross’ annual conventions, and Coordinator of the largest Inaugural Ball (20,000+) held at Union Station. Ronnie holds a B.A. in Education and a minor in Spanish from Penn State and the University of Salamanca in Spain.

Barbara Harrid
Barbara joined Ashoka in 2003 as executive assistant to the President and Co-Presidents. Prior to Ashoka she had more than 18 years of extensive experience in administration and event management, particularly in the planning and execution of special projects. Barbara had a fourteen-year career at The Freedom Forum (parent company of the Newseum) in Arlington, Virginia as the executive assistant to the Vice Presidents of Broadcasting, Communication and Adult Literacy. Prior to her tenure at TFF she was the executive assistant to Vice President of Gannett News Service and President of New Media. She managed the Vice President's office and supervised department secretaries. Also while working at TFF she met and worked with Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, Gloria Steinem, feminist activist/author, and the most enjoyable experience was meeting and being part of the team that shepherded Nelson Mandela during his visit to the United States in 1993. Barbara also played a major role in assisting with the reopening of the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. Barbara enjoys sewing and blending essential oils. She has a daughter Katina (Tina) who is a dermatologist, son-in-law Sylvan who completed his Master in architecture, and a son Nathaniel (Tony) who completed his degree in Performing Arts and has been accepted by the Koresh Dance Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


Kris Herbst
Kris Herbst is Director of Web Development and also the Webmaster for the Changemakers.net Web site, supervising the technical aspects of the site, editing graphics and audio files, and contributing to content, page design, Internet strategies, and marketing efforts. Kris has worked as a freelance Web developer since 1993, managing the launch of Web sites for clients including the National Press Club and the Biotechnology Industry Organization. He has been Assistant Editor of the Saturday Review magazine and contributing editor of BioCentury newsletter. He has worked throughout the world as a Washington-based freelance journalist and television news producer for clients including the Nippon TV Network and NHK Television of Japan, and a wide range of print publications including Emerging Markets, The World & I, Japan Times Weekly, New Scientist, and Datamation. After receiving a Masters in City and Regional Planning from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Kris worked for the Ft. Collins, Colorado, City Manager's Office and the Boston Housing Authority's Economic Development Office.

Shannon Howard
Shannon joined the Executive Office in September 2006 as the Research Officer, undertaking various research initiatives and managing press, writing and speaking activities for Bill Drayton. She also manages the Visionaris project for the Social Financial Services group. Shannon graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Public Policy, focusing on equality issues and Latin America. While living in Chicago, she put her Spanish skills to good use as the volunteer coordinator for Hermandad Mexicana Nacional and also taught ESL and citizenship courses. After working more than six years in private sector law firms, mostly in the government affairs arena in Washington, D.C., Shannon and her husband moved to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for three years. While in Tanzania, she worked at the Legal and Human Rights Centre of Tanzania, a local citizen sector organization, as their Fundraising and Research Officer. She led extensive field research projects on the subjects of globalization and human rights and the political parties situation of Tanzania in 2005; edited many LHRC publications, including the organization’s 2003 Human Rights Report; and established a documentation system for the organization’s information center. Her field work in Tanzania incorporated Shannon’s love of traveling with her desire to thoroughly investigate the organic underpinnings to some of the most perplexing development issues, such as globalization and democratic governance.

Xing Hu
Xing Hu joined Ashoka in June 2006. Her major focus is Operations and knowledge management for Youth Venture, Ashoka’s organization on youth program. She has brought with her two years of experience from starting up, leading and managing Dream Corps, a 501 (C) (3) organization that she created during her graduate studies in Duke University. On top of that, her participation in Duke’s Enterprising Leadership Incubator, a program by her faculty adviser in Duke, Professor Tony Brown, her internship with World Bank Information Solutions Group and working experience with the Chinese national government in Beijing have helped build up her perspectives and her professional skills. Xing learned about Ashoka from reading How to Change the World. Since being introduced to social entrepreneurship, Xing has been writing about social entrepreneurship for Chinese readers. Xing also has a Master of Laws in Political Science and International Relations from Peking University in China.

Luzette Jaimes
Born and raised in Bogota, Colombia, Luzette finished her studies in Finance and International Relations at the Universidad Externado de Colombia. After completing her program, she moved to Washington, D.C. to advance her studies in International Business and Trade and Economic and Foreign Policies at American University. Luzette's interest in economic development has led her to work at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America, the Organization of American States, at the Trade Unit Department, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC. In her quest to find more effective tools to empower communities and generate behavior change, Luzette found Ashoka which she immediately joined in 2002. During her first three years at Ashoka, Luzette worked at the Global Development Department helping Ashoka increase fundraising capability for its staff across the globe, enlarge the number of investors and partners, and mobilize and engage an active citizen base in Unite States and globally. Currently, Luzette works with the Full Economic Citizenship Initiative on enabling business partnerships between Social Entrepreneurs and large businesses to better serve low-income communities around the world while creating value for their organizations. Luzette has traveled around the world to observe and study different cultures, and volunteered in several citizen sector organizations whose purpose is to empower women.

Tia Johnston
Tia's international experience began with the opportunity to attend high school in Kuwait where she developed interdisciplinary English classes for Kuwaiti children, and expanded to working with slum and disadvantaged youth in Bangalore, India and San Ya Juu, Tanzania. She was able to explore other areas of the world through travel and study in Vietnam, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East which was often spent seeking out innovative development projects. Her work experience includes various projects working to develop a strategic plan to reduce turnover rates and increase standard of living of migrant labor in Colorado ski resorts, marketing and sales in Kuwait for Sheik Resorts, and consulting for Western Union on culturally sensitive marketing techniques. Before attending the University of Denver where she earned her International MBA and specialized in International Developmental Education, Tia attended Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota where she gained a degree in International Studies. In January 2004 Tia joined Ashoka to assist in the global launch and sale of David Bornstein's book, "How to Change the World". Tia went on to help develop Ashoka's Arab Regional program and currently is the Global Integrator for the 10 countries Ashoka's Youth Initiative is launching its youth entrepreneurship program.

Barbara Kazdan
Barbara is the founder and director of programs to promote the educational and economic advancement of disadvantaged children, youth and adults. In the volunteer arena, Barbara served as regional president and national board member of Women's American ORT (Organization for Educational Resources and Technology Training). She organized an award-winning literacy awareness project that was adopted by ORT as a national campaign and won her appointments to the Governor's and Mayor's Literacy Task Forces, where she chaired committees that developed coordinating plans for Texas and Houston. Barbara went on to organize the Houston READ Commission, leading this mayoral literacy agency from its inception to a position of prominence among urban literacy coalitions. As founding executive director, Barbara forged public-private sector partnerships to raise $3 million in three years to pioneer new instructional strategies in demonstration projects and neighborhood learning centers. In 1990 she was inducted into Leadership Houston. A University of Michigan graduate, Barbara completed the Management Program, Jones Graduate School of Administration, Rice University. In 1991 she established Trisector Enterprises, a consulting practice to help emerging entrepreneurs and non-profit leaders, and to facilitate public, private and non-profit partnerships. In 1995, Barbara helped organize InFOCUS, an international non-profit primary eye care development organization, where she served as executive director until joining Ashoka. Barbara is the architect of the InFOCUS Vision Station project, a community-based program creating access to affordable eye care for medically underserved populations. Since 2000, the program model has been replicated in 23 rural and inner city communities in Texas and on the US/Mexico border, and has been adapted for use in developing countries.

Natasha Khan
Natasha joins the Global Academy team DVD Marketing Associate. Three years out of college, Natasha was ready to make a career change from corporate America to the citizen sector. Born in Bangladesh and having moved to US at age 5, Natasha’s parents had great hopes for her to become a doctor (or marry one), but she loved entrepreneurship. Her first venture was in the 7th grade when she started a multicultural education group to celebrate Black History Month, Ramadan, and other culturally related holidays. While in college, she founded a chapter of Theta Nu Xi, a multicultural service sorority that highlighted issues of diversity, tolerance and women empowerment. She also founded Sapna Media LLC, a platform for second generation South Asian women to relate to unique issues of the subculture. The major instrument of Sapna Media is Sapna Magazine. After college Natasha worked at CDW-G and later moved on to be the Director of Marketing in Virginia for The Princeton Review. She has B.S. in Management Information Systems and Marketing from the University of Pittsburgh. Natasha loves karaoke, socializing with friends, eating Pho, learning from new people, and writing.

Marina Kim
Marina has been with Ashoka for over two years and leads Ashoka's Global Academy University Programs. Ashoka’s University Programs include university partnerships around the world, knowledge resources to increase the quantity and quality of social entrepreneurship courses and research, and community-building for faculty, practitioners and students through the University Network for Social Entrepreneurship (www.universitynetwork.org). Her current role at Ashoka focuses on developing strategic partnerships and relationships with professors/universities globally as well as designing and marketing programs for universities that leverage Ashoka's institutional knowledge of social change and entrepreneurship.

Marina was very active in growing Stanford's Social Entrepreneurship program, focusing on increasing collaboration across student groups and institutional support structures, at various points leading FUSION (the Future Social Innovators' Network), the Social Entrepreneurs' Challenge and also bringing Youth Venture to Stanford. As a student, Marina interned at Ashoka and was involved in Ashoka’s first institutional efforts to formalize outreach to universities. Previously, Marina has done work with the Nonprofit Enterprise Self-Sustainability Team (NESsT) and the Flora Family Foundation. She graduated with a BA in International Relations from Stanford University.

Romina Laouri
Romina joined Ashoka in September 2005 after graduating with an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago. She completed her undergraduate work at Macalester College (Minnesota, USA) where she studied Political Science, International Studies, and Spanish. While at Macalester, Romina worked with student government and faculty committees to increase student participation in the tenure process and renew the curriculum. She also volunteered for the Center of Victims of Torture, where she investigated effective strategies used by human rights-focused citizen organizations in Africa and the Middle East. Throughout her education, she has done various research and projects on youth movements, human rights, conflict resolution and post-conflict development. Romina grew up in Germany and Cyprus. Growing up in Cyprus, an ethnically divided country, she was motivated by a strong belief that young people can make a difference. Having recognized the importance of bringing together young Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots, she founded a youth group, in which participants could express their views and concerns regarding the Cyprus conflict and design strategies for re-unification. This was the first youth-led group of its kind, for which Romina and her team attracted support and funding from the United Nations.

Samara Lemke
Executive Assistant and office magician, Samara Lemke joined the Exective Office of CEO and Founder, Bill Drayton, in January of 2007. Born and raised in Rhode Island and a graduate of Carleton University in Ottowa, Canada, Samara is kin to the ocean and the North American frontier. With her educational background in Political Science and professional experience in management, Samara works well in the Executive Office and among the diverse and dynamic Ashoka team. To anyone who knows her, Samara is genuine and playful. To her family and friends, she is passionate, open-minded and introspective. Her hobbies include reading, painting, and running. She appreciates fine wine, good food and quality conversation. Samara's compassion and concern with the bigger picture makes her fit among Ashoka a natural one.

Alicia Levine
Alicia Levine joined Ashoka’s Citizen Base Initiative team in 2006, building on both time spent internationally and working in the private sector. Alicia attended the University of California, Berkeley where she majored in Political Science with an emphasis on International Relations. While living and studying in Barcelona, Spain, Alicia collaborated on an anti-xenophobia marketing campaign, one of the first of its kind in Barcelona. Following graduation from Berkeley, Alicia lived in Lima, Peru where she worked at the Centro Internacional de la Papa (International Potato Center), interviewing rural potato farmers in the Andean highlands. Alicia is excited to be back immersed the international sector at Ashoka after spending time working in the corporate world. Still true to her California upbringing, Ali enjoys almost all activities found “under the sun,” most notably swimming, scuba diving, exploring DC’s many neighborhoods and scenic sights, and shopping at the local outdoor produce market.

Tito Modesto Llantada
Tito is a member of the Global Fellowship team, bringing over two years of experience working with Ashoka's marketing, technology, and development programs. He has also worked extensively with Ashoka's international teams, particularly in Mexico and recently in Asia. His primary roles with the Global Fellowship team include helping build and maintain the infrastructure behind a global network of more than 1600 Fellows. Prior to Ashoka, Tito's experiences vary from tutoring in Washington, D.C.'s "For the Love of the Children" (FLOC) program, to legal research for an international law firm. Somewhere in between, he became intrigued by the combination of "social" and "entrepreneurship, and stumbled upon Ashoka with the simple intent of exploring one of the sector's cutting edge approaches to social change. Born and (for the most part) raised in Mexico, Tito lived and studied in Mexico City and Merida, also traveling extensively throughout the region while playing in--and later coordinating--national and international baseball tournaments. He graduated from the George Washington University with a B.A. in International Affairs and a concentration in International Economics.

Jennifer Monroe
Jen joined Ashoka’s Global Development team in August 2007. The daughter of a Marine, Jen’s international experience began at a young age in Japan and South Korea, where she lived and traveled extensively. In college she led a student movement against child soldiering and was active in various projects in women’s rights, human rights and progressive journalism. She also worked with children with developmental disabilities as a respite care provider and interned at Camp Lejeune as an engineering aid. Jen spent several months in Mali and Uganda, where she completed independent research on social movements and community organizing. Upon return, she co-founded a non-profit organization and internship program that supports community development in Uganda and facilitates critical thinking and social action in students. As an undergraduate, Jen served as a research assistant in the field of entrepreneurship and was introduced to Ashoka. David Bornstein’s "How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas" convinced Jen that she had found an organization both rewarding and challenging. A graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she received a B.A. in International Studies with an emphasis on Global Economy, Development and Africa.

Kelli Moore
Before joining Ashoka, Kelli served as Executive Director of Pathways Awareness Foundation, a national non-profit organization advocating for children with disabilities. In the private sector, Kelli spent several years with Hill and Knowlton, managing marketing and communications campaigns for corporate clients including Tribune Company, Bank One, Navistar and Republic Industries. During her tenure, Kelli re-launched Hill and Knowlton's Strategic Philanthropy capability as well as the firm's pro bono program in Chicago. A former Small Business Development Volunteer with Peace Corps in Senegal, Kelli speaks French and Spanish as well as the West African languages of Wolof and Pulaar. Kelli has done pro bono consulting for a variety of non-profit organizations, including the Chicago Foundation for Education, Urban Enterprise Fund, National Peace Corps Association and the Batten Disease Support & Research Association. Kelli earned her Master's degree in Integrated Marketing from Northwestern University, and her Bachelor's degree from Kenyon College.

Salem Paulos
Salem joined the Ashoka US Program team as an intern a year ago, and has contributed her talents and imagination to all of the programs ever since. Salem is now focusing on building community among and being a resource to US Fellows, and integrating them into the North American and global Fellowship. She will also continue strengthening the search and selection process. Salem graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in Family Financial Management. At Virginia Tech, she established a chapter of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), a worldwide non-profit. As co-founder and co-president, Salem created award-winning programs serving low income high school students and abused women. She was also involved in IWIN, International Women in Need, which is a non-profit student run organization that strives to alert the Virginia Tech community about ethnic crises internationally.

Maria Clara Pinheiro
Maria Clara coordinates the search and selection of leading social entrepreneurs in Brazil, where she brings an emphasis on human rights and diversity issues to Ashoka’s work. She has spent the last two years building a strong representation of Fellows in a sequence of different thematic fields, with the idea of nurturing the selection process with a good nominator base and also disseminating the concept of social entrepreneurship among different social networks. Before joining Ashoka in 2003, Maria Clara spent a year volunteering for the Institute for International Cooperation and Development. There, she spent six months fundraising for an education project to be developed in Nicaragua, and then another half year working with rural communities in Nicaragua. In those communities, Maria Clara created and launched an environmental education project for children and young people and a microfinance project for women. Maria Clara graduated from Fundação Getulio Vargas, the School of Business Administration in São Paulo.

Sudeep Poudel
Sudeep Poudel joined Ashoka’s Finance team in April 2007 straight from the Maharishi University of Management, Iowa, where he completed his Masters in Business Administration. A native of Nepal, Sudeep also has an MBA in Finance from Kathmandu University and almost seven years of experience in the commercial banking sector. Sudeep was a Branch Manager with the Nepal Bangladesh Bank Ltd. and also worked with the bank’s Power Development Fund which handled a $36 million fund set up by the government with the World Bank to finance micro-hydropower projects in Nepal. He did a stint with the World Bank’s Private Sector Enterprise Study group interviewing entrepreneurs across the country. Sudeep also helped run a community fund in Kathmandu which loaned capital to community members without the need for collateral.

Abe Rafi
Abe joined Ashoka in January 2007 to work on web and knowledge management issues. He comes to Ashoka from the human rights and disability rights worlds, where he developed web-based initiatives to foster online communities and influence public policy. Prior to arriving in DC, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Novosibirsk, Russia, where he developed technology solutions to organize the operations of a language academy. There, he also contributed his small part toward shrinking the digital divide by helping to establish a school computer lab, which doubled as a student-run, sustainable Internet café. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Abe studied philosophy while running grassroots students' rights campaigns.

Fernande Raine
A native of New York with a multi-cultural identity, Fernande has been committed to social change since her high-school and college years, when she played an active role in educational policy debates and student government. Interested in understanding the forces of history and the importance of individual responsibility, she pursued a Ph.D. in History, which she received from Yale in 2000. While conducting research in Russia, she decided to focus on participating in changing the present, and joined McKinsey. She worked there for several years, participating in and leading change-projects in the private, public, and social sectors. Fernande came to Ashoka in 2002 to lay the foundation for Ashoka's launch in Germany and France, and for its Social Financial Services program. After a two-year absence in which she led the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard, she is now returning to lead Ashoka's effort to expand its leadership team.

Scott Rechler
Scott joined Ashoka full time in August 2004 as a member of the Global Fellowship team. Working to build and strengthen Ashoka’s global network of social entrepreneurs, Scott coordinates Ashoka’s Fellow Security Initiative as well Fellow visits, awards nominations, and volunteer program. Scott began his Ashoka career in 2000 first as a volunteer with Ashoka Fellow Rosamaria Ruiz in Bolivia, subsequently as an intern with Ashoka’s Innovative Learning Initiative (2001), and later as a volunteer with Ashoka Fellow Héctor Jorquera facilitating civic participation in southern Chile (2003-4). He graduated from Harvard University in June 2003 with a degree in social anthropology, having written his thesis (titled “Buscando Vacas Muertas,” or “Searching for Dead Cows”!) on social entrepreneurship and social capital in southern Chile. A native of Washington DC, Scott currently co-coordinates an inter-cultural social entrepreneurship program for DC high school students, part of the Center for International Education. In his spare time he enjoys running, biking, cooking, and, of course, social entrepreneurship.

Melissa Richer
After coming to Ashoka as a Youth Venture intern in September 2007, Melissa joined the Global Venture team as a liaison for the Latin America diamond. Melissa is also the Founder and Executive Director of The Ayllu Initiative, a CSO that empowers vulnerable young adults in northern Tanzania to gain employment and act as leaders of youth-led social change in their communities. Melissa grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from Duke University, where she designed an interdisciplinary major in Human Identity that focused on international relations, primate behavior, and comparative Latin American and Russian literature. For her senior thesis on cross-cultural exchange Melissa wrote a creative non-fiction piece that incorporated her photography. Melissa has worked in Ecuador and Peru on prenatal care for teen mothers and in The Netherlands on minority rights and immigration issues. She also comes to Ashoka from Seeds of Peace International Camp, where she facilitated empowerment and coexistence programs amongst adolescents from the Middle East and South Asia using physical activities such as ropes and obstacle courses.

Holly Roberson
Holly Roberson joined Ashoka in 2007 as the Director of Ashoka’s Entrepreneur-to-Entrepreneur program for the U.S. In this capacity she is focused on building and supporting a community network of businesses, business entrepreneurs, and philanthropists who have a passion for social entrepreneurship and a desire to engage with Ashoka and its Fellows in a way that provides positive, lasting impact. Holly has spent the last decade starting, managing, and supporting social enterprises. In her home state of Missouri, Holly established and grew three businesses: Terra Bella Farm, a 160-acre organic farm & apprenticeship program; Ragtag Cinema, an independent film house and bar/café; and Uprise Bakery, an organic bakery/café that sources ingredients locally. In 2004 Holly left Missouri and moved to New York City to co-convene two multi-year projects involving young leaders and social change: Leverage Alliance (LevAl), a community of young people with access to exceptional wealth whose lives include large-scale philanthropy, social investment & social impact, and P3 (Power and Privilege for the People) a growing network of privileged young leaders in communities of color. Holly currently lives in the Bay Area.

Stephanie Savell
Stephanie is a member of the Global Venture team. She focuses on the search and selection of journalist and social investment entrepreneurs. A few months before joining Ashoka in 2005, Stephanie returned from a year in Benin, West Africa, where she used her Fulbright fellowship to conduct anthropological field research on the implications of cultural tourism for a small ethnic group with unique traditional architecture. While there, she and a Beninese friend launched a tourism project to generate revenue for a local village. Previously, Stephanie taught outdoor education in New Mexico, Costa Rica, and Nova Scotia. Through work and study, she has pursued her passion for cultural immersion in communities around the world, from Ireland to India and Cameroon. Stephanie has a B.A. in Anthropology from Middlebury College.

Stephanie Schmidt
Stephanie joined Ashoka's Full Economic Citizenship Initiative in 2004, bringing experience from both business and social sectors to the initiative that is aiming to create productive collaboration between private companies and social entrepreneurs in order to reach underserved markets while creating social impact. Prior to joining Ashoka, Stephanie worked in Rwanda for two years where she launched a new Economic Development program to produce and market organic essential oils with small farmers, and oversaw World Relief's programs including HIV/AIDS, Child Survival, and local partnerships. Before moving to Africa, Stephanie worked for several years in management consulting with Deloitte Consulting in Paris and in Boston. As a student and a professional, she has been actively involved in social work such as organizing humanitarian support to Romanian orphanages and starting a local coaching program for long-term unemployed workers. Stephanie holds a Master of Business Administration from ESSEC Business School in France.

Greg Schnippel
Greg joined Ashoka in August 2006 as Associate Director in the Integrated Technology Initiative. He brings to Ashoka over ten years of experience designing and developing web sites, with an emphasis on using web technologies to build communities and enable social change. Prior to joining Ashoka, Greg worked with Peoplink.org to develop a sustainable e-commerce system for fair-trade cooperatives in the developing world. He led a team of open-source developers and held training workshops on e-commerce technology in Bangladesh and Nepal. He later worked as a Senior Web Developer and Project Manager at Forum One Communications before taking time off for graduate school. He graduated from Johns Hopkins SAIS with a Masters in International Affairs and wrote his thesis on the sources of military innovation. In his spare time, he volunteers as a technical advisor and trainer to several non-profit organizations and open source projects. Greg currently works on a couple of personal web projects to expand understanding and discussion of arms control and international security issues.

Vilma Shabani
Vilma Shabani joined Ashoka as a coordinator/assistant for Lucy Perkins, the acting CFO, and Valeria Merino, the Vice President for Venture. Vilma is originally from Kosovo, where she grew up to experience the war and later the life of a refugee. Given the situation in Kosovo, her former experience had much to do with diplomatic and governmental organizations, such as the US Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, UN Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, US Embassy. Later, she also did some work in international development with the Academy for Educational Development, where she coordinated projects for monitoring and evaluation. She has completed her studies in the school of international and public affairs at Columbia University, and later moved to Washington D.C. to join the Ashoka family.

Joseph Sinatra
Joseph eagerly joined the Global Development team in 2007 after an internship with Ashoka’s Global Academy. He’s thrilled to support Ashoka’s institution-building efforts and brings a diverse set of experiences to the team. During university, Joseph got his first taste of analysis working both as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analyst and with two projects for the Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM). To balance this research heavy work, he committed himself to being active in campus service learning projects and pushed for more effective collaboration among student groups. Since university, he has spent time resettling refugees with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and immersed in special projects with Hogar de Cristo in Santiago, Chile. Joseph graduated with a BA from the University of Maryland and a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics.

Nir Tsuk
Nir is the Director of the Global Fellowship program which connects and supports Ashoka’s Fellows – serving as a worldwide platform for individual success, mutual learning and group entrepreneurship. He holds a PhD from Cambridge University in social and political sciences – where he wrote his dissertation on social networks, social capital and intentional communities (such as the Israeli Kibbutz and the English Garden City). He continues to explore those areas as he builds Ashoka’s global community today. Previously, Nir led policy research initiatives at the Community Development Foundation in London and at the Committee for Social Affairs in the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem. He has been, among other things, a curriculum developer at the Rabin Centre and the Israeli national authority for Holocaust remembrance, the editor of Israel’s bestselling computer magazine, a restaurant manager, and a street cleaner. Nir advises and lectures citizen organizations, academia, government bodies, and companies. He is also a compulsive tea drinker and a fan of animated movies

Samjhana Upadhyay
Since she first joined Ashoka in 2000, Samjhana Upadhyay has worked closely with Ashoka’s Venture, Recruitment, and Global Fellowship teams. During her time with the Global Venture team, Samjhana led the re-launch of Ashoka’s programs in Nepal, as well as led staff transitions and search and selection process in Pakistan and Turkey. She took a brief leave from Ashoka in 2002 to join the World Bank’s Corporate Strategy Group where she worked with the Development Marketplace (DM) program, and helped decentralize Global DM program to the country-specific grant-making bodies – Country-level Development Marketplace. Forming partnerships with international aid agencies, private businesses, and citizen sector organizations, to encourage grassroots innovation at the local level, Samjhana successfully co-managed implementation of CDMs in Central Asia, the Philippines, and Burkina Faso. Samjhana re-joined Ashoka in 2006, as a Director of Ashoka’s Global Fellowship Program. She currently strengthens the Ashoka Fellowship through community building and group entrepreneurship initiatives. Born in Nepal, Samjhana has lived and worked throughout Asia. She has co-founded a grassroots organization that continues to provide support to Kareni Refugees in Thailand.

Lanna Walsh
Lanna Walsh is a Program Manager with Ashoka's Global Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur (E2E) program, assisting with the launch of the Ashoka Support Network (ASN) in the US, and managing the global partnership with the Asia Society. Lanna joined Ashoka in 2005 after discovering the field of social entrepreneurship while studying Human Services at George Washington University. Prior to the E2E program, Lanna worked with the Global Fellowship and Integrated Technology teams, where she facilitated support of Fellows and directed their visits in DC, marketing their work and connecting them to appropriate resources. She also played a role in the redesign and launch of the Ashoka website. Lanna previously worked with FieldWorks, a Democratic grassroots-organizing consulting firm, and as a field organizer for the John Kerry Campaign in 2004. Lanna was named "Woman of the Year" by the California State Assembly in 2000 for her contributions to the San Diego community. In high school she founded "Tutoring for Triumph", a tutoring program partnering with the San Diego public library system, as well as "Students for Social Action," which promotes service learning and issue advocacy. Lanna lived until the age of 6 in the Philippines, where her parents worked as educators in a refugee camp. She has traveled extensively, and spent a semester studying urban planning and politics in India, South Africa, and Brazil.

Michael Zakaras
Michael Zakaras joined Ashoka in 2004 after graduating from Stanford with a BA in History. During high school and college, Michael created several "institutions": a debate team, a student-run publication called The Stanford Progressive to draw out student voices and battle apathy about politics on and off campus, and a jazz band that toured up and down the California coast. At Ashoka, his main roles include communicating Ashoka's message and the work of its Fellows, supporting the Ashoka Europe team from Arlington - especially as Western Europe begins electing Fellows - managing partner relationships, and coordinating expansion into new countries. Michael had watched Ashoka at a distance for more than five years before joining the team; in 1999, he had a chance to meet Ashoka Fellows and staff in Budapest and to learn of our efforts in Central Europe. He was born in Belgium and lived in Europe in until he was nine. Michael has picked grapes in France and worked in Santa Barbara's wine industry, and he continues to work as a freelance wine consultant.

Alessandra Zielinski
Alessandra Zielinski is a Program Manager with the Global Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur Program (E2E). She first joined Ashoka in 2004, working with Bill Drayton and the Executive Office and later worked with the Global Development team. Alessandra graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in Political Science and French. While in college, she led a team of volunteers for Take Ten, a violence prevention program that works with children on listening, communication, anger management and conflict resolution skills. She also took part in various social justice projects on campus and helped to organize two student peace conferences. After graduation, Alessandra lived in St. Etienne, France teaching high school English through a fellowship with the French Ministry of Education. She has also spent time in Ecuador and Guatemala doing medical relief work. Outside of her work at Ashoka, Alessandra tutors high school students and works as a local disaster responder for the Red Cross.