Ashoka
Bill
Bill Drayton is a social entrepreneur with a long record of founding organizations, bringing big change, and service. As a student, he founded organizations ranging from Yale Legislative Services to Harvard’s Ashoka Table, an inter-disciplinary weekly forum on how society truly works. After graduation from Harvard, he received an M.A. from Balliol College in Oxford University and his J.D. from Yale Law School. Over ten years at McKinsey & Company, he brought significant structural changes to policy and organizations. He also taught at Stanford Law School and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He served in the Carter Administration White House and as Assistant Administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, where he launched emissions trading and many other lasting reforms. He launched Ashoka in 1981. He used the stipend he received when elected a MacArthur Fellow in 1984 to devote himself fully to Ashoka. Bill is Ashoka’s Chair and Chief Executive Officer. He is also chair of three other organizations; Youth Venture, Community Greens, and Get America Working!
Bill has won numerous awards and honors throughout his career. He has honorary doctorates from Yale, NYU, and others; and he is a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He was selected one of America’s Best Leaders by US News & World Report and Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership. Other awards include the Yale Law School’s highest alumni honor, the National Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Achievement Award International; and the National Academy of Public Administration National Public Service Award.
Bill is an avid backpacker. He especially loves long, off trail, above the tree line immersions.
As Ashoka’s CEO, Bill brings history-based vision and a deep grasp of how things work to help Ashoka keep learning and keep changing big time so that it and its community can make the truly big contributions it can and must. He has overall management responsibility and, as one of three members of the Leadership Team, has special responsibilities for Purpose Teams (e.g. Young People, Climate), “Jujitsu” Partners and Metro Areas, Frame Change/Communications, organizational evolution, and Search/Talent.
(photo: (c) Yusuke Abe)
Ashoka Fellow Sakena Yacoobi - Afghanistan
Ashoka Fellow Sakena Yacoobi - Afghanistan (elected 2006)
Born to a middle class family in Afghanistan, Sakena and her siblings were raised in an environment where they were expected to go to school. In her youth, Sakena was accepted to medical school but was unable to attend, as there was no dormitory for girls. Instead her father sent her to the U.S. for school to receive a degree in biological sciences and later a masters in public health. Upon completing her studies, she ached for her country and found her way to the Pakistani refugee camps to help. In the Taliban- controlled camps, girls were banned from going to school, but Sakena knew deeply from experience how vital education is to a better future. She recruited a respected mullah in the camp to start one class. Within a year, 25 schools had been set up and 15,000 children were in school learning.
These early efforts led to the establishment of the Afghanistan Institute for Learning. Its Women’s Learning Centers were the first to offer fast track literacy and skills training classes. It also integrated human rights, peace and democracy messages into the curriculum. Sakena’s schools and an extensive independent organization she created also bring much needed health care for women. The Institute also runs intensive health practitioner courses for 90,000 women annually.
Sakena requires that 30 to 50 percent of the resources needed for projects come from the communities that benefit. This requirement not only strengthens the local communities’ involvement, but it is key to the work’s sustainability. In addition, Sakena is able to combat traditional Afghan village social structures--gender roles and religious beliefs--that may discourage the education of women, through innovative pedagogies and a focus on community engagement. Her approach has enabled the program to continue in spite of cultural barriers.
"[Sakena’s] AIL quickly expanded its programs, establishing multiple women’s centers across the country. Its reach today is impressive:... AIL-trained teachers have taught 4.6 million people, and more than a million Afghan women and their children have received its health services... Over nine million [now 12 million] Afghans—a third of the population—have been touched by AIL programs. Sakena manages all of this on a shoe-string budget of less than $2 million a year, using local resources and local salaries.”
—Council on Foreign Relations
"Sakena’s goal was to empower poor women and children by providing them access to education and health services through an organization designed and run by Afghan women. Over the past 12 years, often at great risk, Sakena has pioneered innovative and creative ways to deliver these critical services. [She]... has played a major role in reconstructing Afghan society.”
-Forbes