Jen Ford Reedy grew up in Lawrence, KS, a college town. She knew from a young age that she wanted to do something meaningful with her life. As an adult, she spent 9 years as a consultant with McKinsey & Company where she honed her strategic business skills. In 2008 she moved into philanthropic work…
057, Krista Tippett, OnBeing | A Social Enterprise with a Radio Show at its Heart
This week when I sat down with Krista Tippett of OnBeing to interview her for Social Entrepreneur, she told me some stories that she has told before through her books, award-winning radio program and through her many public appearances. However, she also talked about the back stories, the inner workings of her social enterprise. “We…
056, Mike Lwin, Koe Koe Tech | Using Health Technology to Jumpstart a Broken Health System
Health technology social enterprise Koe Koe Tech is jump starting Myanmar’s broken healthcare system. Myanmar is a product of its complex history. The country has over 100 ethnic groups and long-running internal tensions. Myanmar was a British colony from the 19th century through 1948. After independence, religious and ethnic tensions flared and by 1962, Myanmar fell…
Wendy Lipton-Dibner, Author, Focus on Impact
Impact, or the desire to make a sustainable difference, is a megatrend that social researcher Wendy Lipton-Dibner has been tracking for years. Wendy is a best-selling author. Her latest book is Focus On Impact, The 10-Step Map to Reach Millions, Make Millions and Love Your Life Along the Way. Keep in mind, when Wendy says…
054, Scott Anderson, NextBillion | Social Entrepreneurship through a Journalist’s Lens
Scott Anderson sees social entrepreneurship through the eyes of a journalist. He has been the Managing Editor of NextBillion since 2010. In 2004, C. K. Prahalad published his groundbreaking book Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits. At the time, Scott Anderson was a business journalist in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He…
053, Katy Ashe and Edith Elliott, Noora Health | Design Thinking to Improve Health Outcomes
The founders of Noora Health utilized design thinking to iterate their way to dramatically improved patient outcomes. It started at Stanford University’s d.School. When Katy Ashe was an engineering student at Stanford University, she was anxious to find ways to apply her skills. She signed up the d.School’s “Design for Extreme Affordability” class. There she…
052, Kavita Shukla, The FRESHGLOW Co FreshPaper | Food Waste Has A Natural Solution
Food Waste is a massive issue. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, or UNEP, about one-third of all food produced worldwide gets lost or wasted in food production and consumption systems. When converted to calories, about 25% of all calories produced for consumption is never actually eaten. In the US alone, we waste more…
051, Kago Kagichiri, Eneza Education | Spreading Education through EdTech
Kago Kagichiri is obviously exceptionally bright. He built his first mobile app in 2001 when he was 12 years old. But he was a restless student. He told me, “I had a lot of problems with the school system. I didn’t see any relevance in what we were learning.” These two worlds, technology…
050, Tom Osborn, GreenChar | Social Entrepreneurship Comes Early
Social entrepreneurship came early to Tom Osborn. When Tom was 17 years old, his mother became ill with a severe lung infection. This is not an uncommon experience for those who cook indoor with firewood and charcoal. 18,000 people in Kenya die annually due to the effects of cook stove smoke. According to the World…
049, Duncan Ward, Classroom of Hope | Social Impact through Collaboration
We all want to have a social impact, whether we want to start a neighborhood garden or provide clean water in sub-Saharan Africa. And yet, for many of us, we hesitate. We might be afraid or feel ill equipped. Or we might feel like we do not have the time. Sometimes it takes a significant…