Executive Director
WiRED International
Purpose Prize Fellow 2011
While a Fulbright communications professor at the University of Zagreb in 1997, Gary W. Selnow was asked by the U.S. Department of State to visit war-ravaged Vukovar in eastern Croatia to tell schoolteachers about the Internet. But he found no Internet facilities there.
Founder and Executive Director
Bridges To Life
Purpose Prize Fellow 2011
When John Sage’s sister was murdered 18 years ago during a robbery gone wrong, he learned well the devastating fallout of violent crime on both victims and their families, and the desire for vengeance. But Sage chose a different path with Bridges To Life, the faith-based nonprofit the former real estate developer founded in Houston in 1998. The organization aims to reduce crime and the recidivism rate of released inmates.
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| Henry Reese , City of Asylum/Pittsburgh |
| Visit City of Asylum/Pittsburgh 's website |
| Contact Henry Reese |
City of Asylum/Pittsburgh
Purpose Prize Fellow 2011
Henry Reese has always been an avid reader. But more than 30 years ago, instead of pursuing a literary career he and his brother turned a $700 investment into what eventually became the largest private U.S. telemarketing and call center business. Yet Reese's love of books persisted. In 1997, when he learned at a talk by author Salman Rushdie about a European network that provides sanctuary to exiled writers, Reese vowed to one day focus on literary arts causes.
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| Caitlin Ryan , Family Acceptance Project |
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| Contact Caitlin Ryan |
Family Acceptance Project
Purpose Prize Fellow 2011
At age 50, Caitlin Ryan decided it was time to pursue a doctorate in public policy. A social worker who pioneered community AIDS programs in the 1980s, she was acutely aware that many in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community had complicated relationships – or none at all – with their relatives.
With a doctorate in hand, Ryan quickly found inspiration for what to do next. Moved by a remorseful mother who had thrown her lesbian daughter out of the house never to see her again, Ryan started the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University in 2002.
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| Ed Moscovitch and Barbara Gardner , Bay State Reading Institute |
| Visit Bay State Reading Institute's website |
| Contact Ed Moscovitch |
| Contact Barbara Gardner |
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Bay State Reading Institute
Purpose Prize Fellow 2011
On a trip to Alabama in 2004, former Massachusetts state budget director Ed Moscovitch observed a revolutionary approach to help children from poor homes learn to read by providing their teachers with data, coaching and sustained support.
Soon after, Moscovitch sat down with Barbara Gardner, former associate commissioner of school readiness in the state’s Department of Education. They etched out a plan to do the same in Massachusetts. They launched the Bay State Reading Institute (BSRI) in eight schools in fall 2006.
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| Donald Lombardi , Institute for Pediatric Innovation |
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| Contact Donald Lombardi |
Institute for Pediatric Innovation
Purpose Prize Fellow 2011
Imagine a 2-pound baby in a hospital neonatal intensive care unit with a breathing tube secured to her body with adhesive tape. Later, when the nurse removes the tape, the infant's fragile skin tears. Or picture a child with hypertension who gags on the foul-tasting concoction he must take every day for the rest of his life. He refuses to take the drugs, and his treatment stops.
Founder
Literacy Inc.
Purpose Prize Fellow 2011
In 1997 Mimi Lieber, founder of Lieber Attitude Research Inc., a consumer and public opinion research organization serving numerous Fortune 500 companies, tapped into her long-standing interest to promote childhood literacy in disadvantaged New York City neighborhoods.
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| Jan Lepore-Jentleson , East End Community Services |
| Visit East End Community Services' website |
| Contact Jan Lepore-Jentleson |
East End Community Services
Purpose Prize Fellow 2011
One afternoon in 1997, Jan Lepore-Jentleson, then the building inspection superintendent for Dayton, Ohio, found herself utterly discouraged.
“I remember deciding that I was fed up wasting my time being a bureaucrat, pushing paper and accomplishing little of value for the people living in Dayton’s poorest neighborhoods,” she says.
It was at that moment that she decided to quit her job and launch a nonprofit community development organization spur change.
Chief Financial Officer and Director of Programs in Spanish
YES Institute
Purpose Prize Fellow 2011
Twenty-one years ago, Eva Leivas-Andino, a political refugee from Cuba, was devastated when her son Paolo came out as gay. Terrified of what her family and friends would say she kept her son’s sexual orientation secret.
On a visit to New York eight years later, Paolo took her to see a play about playwright Oscar Wilde, who was tried and convicted for being gay in 19th century England. Paolo, after the play, opened up to Leivas-Andino about how painful it had been to grow up without his parents’ support or understanding.
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| Ke Chung Kim , The DMZ Forum / Pennsylvania State University |
| Visit The DMZ Forum / Pennsylvania State University's website |
| Contact Ke Chung Kim |
The DMZ Forum / Pennsylvania State University
Purpose Prize Fellow 2011
For more than 50 years, a heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) 155 miles long and 2.4 miles wide has separated North Korea and South Korea. For nearly as long, insect taxonomist and forensic entomologist Ke Chung Kim has dreamed of a united Korea.
