Karen and her husband Jim began making small grants to end poverty in 1999 and now recommend grants via a staffed donor advised fund at the Boston Foundation with a focus on Haiti, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, Nepal and Afghanistan. 

In addition, Karen co-founded New England International Donors, a peer-learning network, with John Harvey of Grantmakers Without Borders and other funders in 2008.

Most recently, Karen issued a challenge grant two days after the earthquake and established the Haiti Fund at the Boston Foundation. With over 1,400 donors including many community groups, the fund is focused on long-term reconstruction and human rights with Haitian citizens and Haitian Americans at the helm. Now guided by a Grantmaking Committee and a 35-member Advisory Council, primarily Haitian, the Haiti Fund is making grants over five years.

Emily Arnold-Fernández, the founder and executive director of Asylum Access, is a social entrepreneur and human rights pioneer. A lawyer who has advocated nationally and internationally for the human rights of women, children, and other vulnerable individuals, Emily first became involved in refugee rights in 2002, when she represented refugees in United Nations proceedings in Cairo, Egypt.

For her innovative approach to the global refugee crisis, Emily was honored by the Dalai Lama as one of 50 “Unsung Heroes of Compassion” from around the world (2009). She has also been recognized as Pomona College’s Inspirational Young Alumna (2006), awarded the prestigious Echoing Green fellowship (2007), and recognized as the New Leaders Council’s 40 Under 40 (2010).

Martin is co-founder and Executive Director of Teach a Man to Fish, a global network based in London with 2000 members in 119 countries that promotes “education that pays for itself” with the world’s first financially self-sufficient agricultural schools for the rural poor.

He participates in the Education Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum. He also teaches undergraduate and graduate level online courses in Social Entrepreneurship.

For over 25 years, Martin Burt has been a pioneer in applying microfinance, microfranchise, youth entrepreneurship, and financial literacy to address chronic poverty in Paraguay. Mr. Burt is married to Dorothy Wolf and has 3 children.  

Ron D. Cordes has enjoyed a 30-plus year career in the investment industry, having co-founded and then sold AssetMark Investment Services to Genworth Financial in 2006. He is currently co-chairman of Genworth Financial Wealth Management, which is responsible for over $25 billion in assets under management for individual and institutional clients.

He is co-author of "The Art of Investing & Portfolio Management," published in 2004 by McGraw Hill, and was recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005. He holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of California, Berkeley.

He is a co-founder with his wife, Marty, of the Cordes Foundation and a regent for the University of the Pacific, as well as chairman of the advisory board for the University's Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship. In addition, he serves on the boards of FairTrade USA, the Sarona Frontier Markets Fund, and the East Bay Community Foundation.

As the Executive Director of UOP's Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Jerry develops and oversees University social entrepreneurship programs, including international mentorship and internship programs, and the first community-based microfinance fund in California’s Central Valley. Previously, Jerry was the CEO of the Katalysis Partnership, a microfinance organization providing training, technical assistance, and credit to MFIs in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. He also directed a socio-economic development program for ten newly independent island-nations in the Eastern Caribbean, and worked in grassroots economic development in chronically depressed Appalachia, West Virginia.

Tracie Hudgins has been working in the field of microfinance and poverty alleviation for the past four years as the Operations Manager for MicroCredit Enterprises. She has been a member of the Opportunity Collaboration team since its inaugural year. Previously, she was the Executive Assistant for iNation, VistaCare and the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

Tracie and her husband, Chris, reside in Northern California.

Working at the intersection of academia and social entrepreneurship, Wanjiru is passionate about the synergy between rigorous academic analysis and committed social activism. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Akili Dada, a leadership incubator investing in high-achieving young African women from underprivileged backgrounds with a demonstrated passion for social change. Wanjiru is also an Assistant Professor in the Politics department at the University of San Francisco, where her work centers on the politics of philanthropy, gender, Africa, ethnicity, and democratization, and on the role of technology in social activism. Originally from Kenya, she holds a Ph.D. in Political Science. In her dual roles, Wanjiru divides her time between the U.S. and Kenya, where Akili Dada is based.

Most recently, she was named a "Champion of Change" by the Obama administration and was honored at the White House.

Randall has nearly twenty years of experience in the field of national and international business/economic development. Currently, he is the Executive Director of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), a global network of organizations that propel entrepreneurship in emerging markets. The network's members provide critical financing and business support services to small and growing businesses (SGBs) that create significant economic, environmental and social impacts in developing countries. 

Most recently, Randall served as Vice President for Regional Innovation at the U.S. Council on Competitiveness.  Prior to joining the Council, Randall was co-founder of OTF Group, an international consulting firm that advises regions and nations on how to create competitive advantage.  He is frequent speaker on entrepreneurship-based economic development strategies.

Ramon has been an entrepreneur and business owner from a young age, in both Mexico and the United States, an active social justice leader in his community, and one of the early faith-based Latino organizers in the Twin Cities through “Interfaith action” and “Isaiah." He is also one of the pioneers of the economic development movement in Minneapolis and was the first president of the founding board of directors of “Cooperative Mercado Central”, an economic justice, community based cooperative project that-sparked the revitalization of Lake Street in Minneapolis.

He is co-founder of the Minnesota Collaborative of Latino Non-profits, and also serves as the chair of the economic development committee of the National Association for Latino Asset Builders (NALCAB). During his chairmanship, he has pushed for an asset based and wealth building economic development agenda that includes Latinos in both urban and rural areas.

Jonathan C. Lewis is the founder and president of the Opportunity Collaboration.He is also the founder and board chair of MicroCredit Enterprises – an innovative social venture which leverages private capital to make tiny business loans to deeply impoverished people, mostly women, in developing countries. Jonathan is a Lecturer at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, University of California, Berkeley. He blogs weekly at the Huffington Post and the Skoll Foundation's Social Edge and is a frequent public speaker on economic development issues, social entrepreneurship and social change. Jonathan is a recipient of the Social Venture Network Innovation Award.

Liberty & Justice is the first Fair Trade Certified apparel manufacturer in Africa. A Liberian native, Chid left Africa as an eighteen month old baby when his father became Liberia’s Ambassador to Germany. Chid lectures on social entrepreneurship and innovation, serves as Entrepreneur in Residence at the Monrovia Business Startup Center at the University of Liberia, and sits on Fair Trade USA’s Fair Trade Certified Apparel Multistakeholder Group, which guides certified fair trade apparel policy for the United States.

All roads in Robin’s life lead to co-founding Thinking Beyond Borders. Born and raised near San Francisco, he discovered at an early age that youth can affect the disparities and challenges of our world. Robin also learned the need to truly understand a problem before proactive changes can be made. He sees Thinking Beyond Borders as the actualization of those lessons.

He has spent ten years working and teaching in public schools where he challenges students to question their assumptions about themselves and the world. His goal is to empower future leaders who will create proactive change as a result of their travels with Thinking Beyond Borders.

Since Shine on Sierra Leone’s inception, Tiffany has overseen the six cornerstone programs that have contributed to the phenomenal growth and success of the region. With unabashed enthusiasm and the collective generous spirit of many, SOSL has unleashed groundbreaking education, healthcare, microloans, adult literacy, computer literacy, sustainable building, and agriculture programs.

Dedicated to using the most effective, long lasting, and green methods available for each initiative, the results are astounding. In just five years, about 3,500 women’s small business have been financed with a 97% successful return, more than 6,000 individuals have become computer literate, over 600 elementary students have received a stellar education, 150 adults have gained literacy, and 3 major community buildings have been built using the trailblazing Earth Bag technique with the renowned Cal Earth Institute.

With each of SOSL’s initiatives and upcoming campaigns, Tiffany’s essential philosophy that “We are all meant to shine, thrive, evolve” is ever present.

Prior to joining Stanford Social Innovation Review in 2006, Regina had a 22-year career in for-profit media. As a group president at CMP Media, she ran a $150 million division of tech magazines, websites, and conferences. Regina has a Master’s in International Management from the Thunderbird Graduate School of Global Management and a Bachelor’s in political science from the University of Connecticut.

Her passions outside of work include travel and involvement in her community, global and local. She currently serves as president and board chair for Friends of Timboni Feeder School, a nonprofit she helped found in 2006 to bring water to a small school in southern Kenya. She is proud to say that this summer she climbed Mount Kenya with her son and reached the summit, 16,355 feet.

Sujatha works with diverse populations of women, immigrant, refugee, and minority entrepreneurs from across New York City. When thinking about how to fight poverty, she asks, "How do we build wealth?"

Sujatha is interested in the catalytic role that microenterprises can play in the growth of personal, household, and community wealth and is inspired by the way that discussions about building business allow women to contemplate and define action plans related to increasing knowledge, building credit, growing savings, and creating personal opportunity.

After beginning her career as a strategy consultant with Bain & Company and earning her MBA from Stanford University, Jorian launched her first social venture, a civic club in Boulder, Colorado self-sustained by members hosting hundreds of cultural and educational community events.

While becoming a mother to three sons, Jorian lived in Mexico, managed the #1 All-Inclusive Luxury Resort in the U.S., and eventually settled in California where she founded a successful organic school lunch delivery business.

She is proud to now co-captain the Opportunity Collaboration as Chief Operating Officer.

Topher Wilkins has been hosting people in collaborative environments for the purposes of social change for nearly a decade. Starting with the City Club, which he co-founded, in Boulder, Colorado, to managing a luxury resort near Telluride, Colorado, and finally with the Opportunity Collaboration, Topher is passionate about creating high-end, high-impact gatherings.

He and his wife, Jorian, live in Santa Cruz, California, where they are raising their family of three young boys ~ Booker, Dunton and Justus.