Ashoka
Michael D Zakaras
Michael Zakaras is the director of Ashoka US and cofounder of Ashoka’s “All America” initiative, which pushes the boundaries of social entrepreneurship beyond coastal cities. Michael previously worked for Ashoka in Ireland and Central Europe, and before that in the California wine industry. He writes regularly about social entrepreneurship for Forbes, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Chronicle of Philanthropy, and more.
Let’s Redraw the Map
Not many social entrepreneurs can say that their “aha” moment came during a truck show. But that was the case for Kendis Paris. It was at a big-rig truck event in Tulsa, Okla., that Paris began to see the full potential of her idea for an initiative to fight human trafficking: She would recruit truck drivers and leaders in the trucking industry—people who work in a sector where trafficking thrives—to become active participants in that fight. Today her organization, Truckers Against Trafficking, is working with every major US trucking association and with law enforcement agencies in 23 states to curb trafficking and to maintain a cross-state rapid alert system that helps officials spot potential victims. In 2013, Paris received an Ashoka Fellowship.
Ashoka insight
Through a new initiative, Ashoka hopes to make the field of US social entrepreneurship more diverse, geographically and otherwise.