The Program on Social Entrepreneurship’s Advisory Committee is composed of 11 members that include industry leaders in the field of social entrepreneurship, Stanford faculty members who are actually engaged in the emerging field, and practitioners who are leading organizations advancing social change. The Advisory Committee helps to identify and select promising social entrepreneurs to the program, while building support for the program’s growth and development. 

Advisory Board Co-Chairs:

Sarina Beges is the associate director of Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law where she was a founding member of the Program on Social Entrepreneurship team. She is a passionate advocate for social change, working to bring social entrepreneurs and democracy leaders inside academia to enrich Stanford’s research and teaching agenda. Sarina serves as the program’s manager, working to select and mentor SEERS Fellows and support the program’s design, delivery and development. Prior to her position at Stanford, Sarina worked for The Synergos Institute in New York where she launched a program to identify and fund social entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa.

Kathleen Kelly Janus focuses on social entrepreneurship, advancing human rights, and elevating the status of women around the world. Kathleen is a lecturer at the Stanford Program on Social Entrepreneurship, where she teaches our service-learning course on social entrepreneurship. An attorney, Kathleen has spearheaded numerous social justice initiatives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kathleen is a co-founder of Spark, a nonprofit focused on building a community of young, global citizens promoting gender equality.

Stanford Faculty and Staff

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Diamond also serves as the Peter E. Haas Faculty Co-Director of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford. At Stanford, Diamond teaches courses on comparative democratic development, democracy promotion, and US foreign policy, and advises many Stanford students. Diamond helped to launch the Program on Social Entrepreneurship at CDDRL and has continued to support the program and mentor our social entrepreneurs.

Kim Meredith is the inaugural executive director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS), where she has been responsible for its strong financial performance and organizational growth. Ms. Meredith joined PACS in July 2009 and one year later led the team to acquire the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR). In her role at PACS, Ms. Meredith engages scholars, students, practitioners and leaders in interdisciplinary research to explore ideas for social change. She serves a unique role by bridging research to practice, successfully informing philanthropy, nonprofit practice, policy and social innovation. She has been a founding member of the Program on Social Entrepreneurship’s advisory committee and provides mentorship support to our growing community of social entrepreneurs.

Deborah Rhode is the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law and director of the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession at the Stanford Law School. Rhode writes and teaches on issues of leadership, social justice, gender equity and legal ethics. An author of over 20 books, she is the nation’s most frequently cited scholar in legal ethics. Rhode's prominent voice as a researcher and academic successfully led the effort to create Stanford’s Center on Ethics. Rhode is also an affiliated faculty member at CDDRL and has been involved in the Program on Social Entrepreneurship from its inception as the faculty chair.

Luke Terra directs the Community Engaged Learning and Research (CELR) division at the Haas Center for Public Service. The CELR team supports faculty and students in connecting teaching and research to broader public concerns through service-learning courses, community-engaged internships, and community-based research. Terra has previous experience managing international global partnerships and working with student service organizations, community organizations, and faculty interested in community engagement. Terra has been involved with integrating the Program on Social Entrepreneurship at the Haas Center for Public Service.

Industry Leaders

Gemma Bulos is a multi award-winning social entrepreneur and director of the Global Women’s Water Initiative (GWWI). GWWI is building a cadre of women trainers in East Africa versed in a holistic set of water, sanitation, and hygiene strategies capable of building various appropriate technologies and launching social enterprises. Before GWWI, Bulos was founding director of A Single Drop for Safe Water – Philippines, where she developed training programs to support underserved communities to be able to identify, design, and manage their own water and sanitation solutions as a social enterprise. Gemma Bulos was a SEERS Fellow with the Program on Social Entrepreneurship during the 2013 and 2014 academic years, and is a very active member of our alumni community.

Taylor Conger is deputy director on the Echoing Green Fellowship Team where she supports the 700+ fellowship alumni creating social impact around the world. Prior to joining Echoing Green, Taylor designed and managed a domestic fellowship program at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and previously worked resettling refugees with the International Rescue Committee. Before moving across the country to NYC, Taylor worked closely with globally-minded, socially-driven MBAs as a manager at the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford University and while there, she blended her love of athletics and volunteering by moonlighting as the head coach of a high school girls lacrosse team. She holds a Master in Public Health in Forced Migration and a Master of Science in Social Work, both from Columbia University.

Pamela Hawley is the founder and CEO of UniversalGiving, a social entrepreneurship nonprofit organization whose vision is to "create a world where giving and volunteering is a natural part of everyday life." UniversalGiving is an award-winning, web-based nonprofit organization allowing people to give and volunteer with the top performing projects and volunteer opportunities across the world. Ms. Hawley's community service began at the age of 12, and has extended into the international realm.

Kavita N. Ramdas is an inspirational and mindful leader, an advocate for human rights, open and civil societies, and a respected advisor and commentator on issues of social entrepreneurship, global development, women’s leadership, education, health, and philanthropy. Kavita is currently the Ford Foundation representative in its New Delhi office, serving India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Kavita is the founding executive director of the Program on Social Entrepreneurship, which she helped to launch at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law in 2011 before assuming new role at the Ford Foundation.

Sakeena Yacoobi is the president and executive director of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL). Under Yacoobi’s leadership, AIL has established itself as a groundbreaking, visionary organization which works at the grassroots and empowers women and communities to find ways to bring education and health services to rural and poor urban girls, women and other poor and disenfranchised Afghans. Yacoobi is an award-winning social entrepreneur, recognized for her work with prestigious fellowships from Ashoka and the Skoll Foundation, among others.