Google is a company that believes deeply in entrepreneurship. And this is a company that believes deeply in the power of information. We don’t think there’s another organization that combines these two things in a more compelling way than Ashoka.
US Team
Barbara Kazdan, Senior Venture Entrepreneur, Director
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.
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.