Founder and CEO, EveryoneOn
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Allison Great Hall, 7 p.m.
(Reception to follow)
Launch for New Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) Certificate
Business as Unusual: Shared Strategies for Accelerating Change
Leverenz will apply a practitioner’s lens to examine how social entrepreneurs can design shared-value strategies and build cross-sector partnerships that accelerate social impact with immediate scale and sustained success.
The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) Certificate Program, and the Office of Provost and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund. This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.
Biography (provided by the speaker)
Zach Leverenz serves as founder and CEO of EveryoneOn, and has led the growth of the organization into a national force for social impact and inclusion.
With a singular focus on providing access to opportunity for all, the organization has adopted a broad, integrative agenda that harnesses the collective expertise and scale of more than 250 cross-sector partners to accelerate meaningful technology adoption for all segments of the unconnected population, including students, families, adults, and seniors.
Through the work of EveryoneOn, Leverenz has become a recognized voice for delivering immediate and practical solutions to the digital divide with unprecedented scale. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal, among other national media outlets, and he has been a speaker at technology leadership forums, including SXSW EDU, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), The Washington Post Live, and Discovery Education. The organization’s has also been selected as the national non-profit lead on ConnectED and ConnectHome, two White House initiatives focused on closing the digital divide for low-income Americans and students.
Previously, Leverenz served as the CEO of Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow (MEET), a MIT-based technology and social justice organization, and led the PeacePlayers International organization in Northern Ireland,South Africa, Cyprus, and New Orleans, LA.
He received a B.A. in English from Dickinson College and an Ed.M from Harvard University, where he was selected as a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship by Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership. He has also been selected as a delegate to the Academy of Achievement and the 2015 United Nations Media for Social Impact Summit. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for MIT-MEET.
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachleverenz
Related Links
Forbes article on Zach & EO shared-value model: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2013/12/23/4-innovators-using-civic-consumption-to-change-the-world/
OpEd by Zach in Huffington re: collaborative impact & EveryoneOn-Google Fiber model: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zach-leverenz/collaborating-to-connect_b_7018166.html
Dickinson’s New Social Innovation and Enterpreneurship (SINE) Certificate
Dickinson’s new certificate in social innovation and entrepreneurship (SINE) is about change and creating pathways for student-led change in our world. The college was founded on the premise of educating leaders for our new democracy when the country was in its infancy, and the college continues this important mission of educating leaders for the future. The SINE certificate was developed to focus this effort by highlighting the critical thinking skills, creative mindset, and organizational development capabilities associated with positive change in our society and on behalf of our natural environment. The certificate builds on the college’s educational pillars of interdisciplinarity, global studies and sustainability. And, it captures the enthusiasm and energy our students are already exhibiting in multiple co-curricular activities and student organizations.