SERVICE YEAR ALLIANCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Stanley McChrystal Board Chair A four-star general, Stan is the former commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan and the former leader of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which oversees the military s most sensitive forces. Stan was the founder of the Aspen Institute s Franklin Project, a predecessor of the Service Year Alliance. He is also the author of the best-selling books, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World and My Share of the Task: A Memoir. The son and grandson of Army officers, Stan graduated from West Point in 1976, beginning a 34-year career in the military. He retired from the military in 2010 and now serves on the board of directors for JetBlue Airways, Navistar, and the Yellow Ribbon Fund. He is also the chairman of the board for Siemens Government Technologies. He is also a senior fellow at Yale University s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches a popular course on leadership. Stan co-founded the McChrystal Group in January 2011. Its mission is to deliver innovative leadership solutions to organizations which help them transform and succeed in challenging and dynamic environments. Alan Khazei Vice Chair Alan is a social entrepreneur who has pioneered ways to empower citizens to make a difference. He is the Founder and CEO of Be The Change, Inc., a movement building organization which creates bipartisan national campaigns to affect public policy and culture by organizing coalitions of nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, policymakers, private sector leaders, academics, and citizens, and which was the original parent organization for ServiceNation. Be The Change s campaigns include Opportunity Nation to expand economic mobility; Got Your 6 to empower veterans and close the civilian-military divide; and the Service Year Alliance. Prior to the formation of the Service Year Alliance, Alan was also Co-Chair of the Franklin Project. Alan is the Co-Founder and former CEO of City Year, an education-focused national service program that unites young adults, ages 17 to 24, from all backgrounds for an intensive year of full-time community service focused on mentoring, tutoring, and educating children. He has served on the boards of leading national nonprofits and has received numerous awards. In 2014, Alan and his wife, Vanessa Kirsch (CEO and Founder of New Profit), were named to CNN Money/Fortune s World s Greatest Leaders: 9 Dynamic Duos. In 2006, U.S. News and World Report named Alan as one of America s Best Leaders. Alan has been a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. He is also the author of Big Citizenship: How Pragmatic Idealism can Bring out the Best in America.
John Bridgeland Vice Chair Bridge is CEO of Civic Enterprises, a public policy firm in Washington, D.C., and was Co-Chair of the Franklin Project at The Aspen Institute. He is also author of the book, Heart of the Nation: Volunteering and America s Civic Spirit, which is being assigned in classes on college campuses. In 2010, President Obama appointed Bridge to the White House Council for Community Solutions and he previously served as Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council in the first term of President George W. Bush, and then as Assistant to the President of the United States and first Director of the USA Freedom Corps, where he coordinated policy on international, national, community, and faith-based service in the aftermath of 9/11. Bridge was also the first CEO and is now Vice Chairman of Malaria No More; his work on the high school dropout crisis helped bring national attention to the issue, and he recently co- authored Can Government Play Moneyball? for The Atlantic in addition to numerous other books and reports on several issues. He currently serves on many non-profit boards, including City Year; Earth Conservation Corps (Co-Chairman); EARTH University in Costa Rica (Chair, PAB); Malaria No More (Vice Chairman); the New Hampshire Institute of Politics; and the National Conference on Citizenship (National Advisory Chair). Deb Jospin Secretary Deb Jospin is partner and co-founder of sagawa/jospin, a consulting group based in Washington, D.C. Since 2001, sagawa/jospin has provided strategic advice and developed new initiatives for public and private sector clients. Along with her business partner Shirley Sagawa, Deb is the co-author of The Charismatic Organization: Eight Ways to Grow a Nonprofit that Builds Buzz, Delights Donors and Engages Employees. Before starting her consulting career, Deb worked as an attorney in private practice. In 1993 she joined the Corporation for National Service, the federal agency that oversees the AmeriCorps program. After working as Associate General Counsel and Chief of Staff of the Corporation, she was appointed Director of AmeriCorps by President Clinton in 1997. She continues to actively support AmeriCorps members by serving on the boards of the Center for Music National Service and Be the Change. She was also a founding member of the Washington, D.C. Local Advisory Council of Playworks and a founding board member of AmeriCorps Alums. From November 2008 until January 2009, she was a Deputy Team Leader for the Obama Agency Review Transition Team, reviewing the Corporation for National Service. From 2007-2015, Deb served as the Chair of the Board of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. Since 2002, she has also served as a Trustee of Tufts, chairing the Board s Committee on Trusteeship and its Council of Boards of Advisors, and serving on its Executive Committee. In 2009, she received the Light on the Hill Award, the highest honor that the undergraduate student body bestows on Tufts alumni.
Namita Khasat Treasurer Namita Khasat is the Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration, the Chief Financial Officer, and the Corporate Treasurer for the Aspen Institute. In this role, she provides executive leadership to the national and global financial and administrative functions for the Institute including oversight of Finance, Information Technology, Human Resources, General Office administration, Legal, and Real Estate departments of the Institute. Namita has served at executive levels since 1985 as Chief Financial Officer/ Chief Information Officer/ Chief Administrative officer in various nonprofits in the philanthropic space - Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, in government and in healthcare. Prior to starting at The Aspen Institute she was the Chief Financial Officer for Delaware Hospice, a statewide organization with offices in Delaware and Pennsylvania, providing leadership to all its financial and administrative functions for all inpatient and home based healthcare services. Elliot Gerson Elliot Gerson is an executive vice president at the Aspen Institute, responsible for its Policy Programs, its Public Programs and its relations with international partners. The Institute s more than 30 Policy Programs focus on both domestic and international issues. They provide neutral venues, do nonpartisan analysis, foster candid dialogue among leaders, advocate new policy and promote best practices. The Institute s public programs - including the Aspen Ideas Festival and many smaller programs across the country - open the Institute s doors to a broader audience and further both its educational goals and its hopes that thought will lead to action. The Institute has international partners in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Romania, and Spain. Gerson also administers the US Rhodes Scholarships. In his role at the Aspen Institute, he was also a founding member of the Franklin Project s Leadership Council. Elliot was a Rhodes Scholar, a US Supreme Court clerk, practiced law in government and privately, held executive positions in state and federal government and on a presidential campaign, and was president of start-ups in health care and education, and of two leading national insurance and health-care companies. He has served on many non-profit boards, especially in the arts. Tae Yoo Tae Yoo is the Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs at Cisco. Ms. Yoo drives Cisco s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs through public-private partnerships that use technology to create positive, sustainable change in education and workforce development. As the steward of Cisco s CSR vision, she directs Cisco s business, technical, and financial assets to make a positive impact for people and communities around the world. Under her leadership, the Cisco Networking Academy program has become one of the largest ICT education programs in the world, helping 1.2 million people get jobs between 2005 and 2013. Ms. Yoo envisions a world where everyone will be able to participate and succeed in the global economy. She writes and speaks often about the need for better broadband access in developing countries, for education programs that lead to jobs, and for women to have easier access to education.
Previously at Cisco, Ms. Yoo co-founded the Business Development group responsible for creating new markets thru partnerships with other technology companies for joint product and market development. She is a Trustee of the Cisco Foundation, Service Year Alliance Board Member, and a Council Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on The Future of Jobs. Rob Gordon Robert L. Gordon, III is President of Be the Change, Inc. and a member of the organization s executive board. Be the Change, Inc. is a social impact organization that creates and manages national issue-based campaigns, such as the Service Year Alliance, Opportunity Nation, and Got Your 6, to drive broad cross-sector coalitions to scale positive social change in American society. Rob has extensive senior management and cross sector experience, including service in the military, government, high tech, and nonprofit sectors. Previously, he was a senior executive at APX Labs, a high tech smart glasses software company. In 2010 Rob was appointed in the Obama Administration as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy, where he was responsible for defense-wide policy, program execution, and oversight of more than $20 billion of the Defense Department s worldwide community and family programs and initiatives. For his Pentagon service he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Before joining the Obama administration, he was the Senior Vice President and Chief People and Program Officer at City Year. A graduate of West Point, Rob is a retired Army Colonel, having completed a 26 year career in the military. An airborne ranger, he served as an artillery officer, aide-de-camp to General Colin Powell, and head of American Politics at West Point, and prior to that was a White House Fellow. He serves on the advisory boards of Princeton University s Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs, the American Red Cross, Grab the Torch, and Blue Star Families. He also remains the Chairman of the Board of Advisors at APX Labs, Chairman of Stemboard Defense, and is an advisor to several tech startups. He is the recipient of the Bernard Gill Urban Service-Learning Leadership Award from the National Youth Leadership Council; and recipient of Princeton University s Edward P. Bullard Distinguished Alumnus Award. He was twice awarded the Honorable Order of Saint Barbara. Defense for Military Community and Family Policy, where he was responsible for defense-wide policy, program execution and oversight of more than $20 billion of the Defense Department s worldwide community and family programs and initiatives affecting over four million military active duty service and family members, and two million retirees. During his tenure at the Department of Defense (DoD), he spearheaded the creation of the Defense Department s Military Spouse Employment Partnership, an online and digital employment initiative currently boasting more than 200 Fortune 500+ employment partners who provided jobs to more than 60,000 military spouses since the program s inception in 2011. For his service he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Before joining the Obama administration, Rob was the Senior Vice President and Chief People and Program Officer at City Year. He was responsible for the organization s people programs including recruitment, human resources, program and service, research and evaluation, the development of City Year s corps of young leaders.
Rob is a Colonel US Army, retired, and completed a 26 year career in the U.S. Army, serving as an artillery officer, aide-de-camp to General Colin Powell, and head of American Politics at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. As a White House Fellow from 1992 1993, Rob served in the Bush Administration as the Special Assistant to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; and in the Clinton Administration as the Director of Special Operations, Office of National Service, The White House. Shirley Sagawa CEO and President Shirley Sagawa is best known for her founding role in the creation of AmeriCorps. As co-founder of the innovation consulting firm sagawa/jospin, she provided strategic advice and developed new initiatives for public and private sector clients. She is currently a fellow with the Center for American Progress, an Adjunct Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, and author of The American Way to Change, describing how volunteer and national service can be a breakthrough strategy for change. Shirley has served as a presidential appointee in both the first Bush and Clinton Administrations. As Deputy Chief of Staff to First Lady Hillary Clinton, she advised the First Lady on domestic policy and led the planning for White House Conferences on Philanthropy, Partnerships in Philanthropy, and Teenagers. After Senate-confirmation as the Corporation for National and Community Service s first chief operating and policy officer, she led the development of new service programs for adults and students and directed the Corporation s strategic planning. She has also managed successful collaborations in the private sector, including the Learning First Alliance, a partnership of national education associations. With advanced degrees in law and public policy, she began her career as the Chief Counsel for Youth Policy for the Senate Labor Committee, specializing in education, children s, and youth issues, and subsequently served as senior counsel to the National Women s Law Center, and on many nonprofit boards. Shirley is the author, with Deb Jospin, of The Charismatic Organization, and a previous book, Common Interest, Common Good: Creating Value through Business and Social Sector Partnerships. She has been named a Woman to Watch in the 21st Century, by Newsweek magazine, and one of the Most Influential Working Mothers in America by Working Mother magazine.