Hina Mushtaq

INNOVATOR

• Organization: Public Health Institute
• Department: Center for Innovation & Technology in Public Health
• Title: Atlas Corps Fellow

Hina is an Atlas Corps Fellow from Pakistan serving at Public Health Institute in California. She is researching the current state of practice in the design, implementation, and evaluation of Information and Communication Technologies addressing healthcare delivery in Pakistan. She designed the first comprehensive web portal for Pakistan in order to support a nation’s presence and influence in the global community. Previously, she worked as a consultant at the ITU-UN Headquarters in Geneva and for USAID-funded projects. She believes that innovative use of technology will reshape foreign policy by bringing about differences in people’s lives beyond their economic and social barriers.

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Jake Porway

INNOVATOR

• Organization: DataKind
• Title: Founder and Executive Director

Jake Porway is a machine-learning and technology enthusiast who loves nothing more than seeing good values in data. He is the founder and executive director of DataKind, an organization that brings together leading data scientists with high impact social organizations to better collect, analyze, and visualize data in the service of humanity.

Jake was most recently the data scientist in the New York Times R&D lab and remains an active member of the data science community, bringing his technical experience from his past work with groups like NASA, DARPA, Google, and Bell Labs to bear on the social sector. Jake's work has been featured in leading academic journals and conferences (PAMI, ICCV), The Guardian, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and he has been honored as a 2011 PopTech Social Innovation Fellow and a 2012 National Geographic Emerging Explorer. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Statistics from UCLA.

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Bright Simons

INNOVATOR

• Organization: mPedigree Network
• Department: Executive
• Title: President

Bright Simons is president of the mPedigree Network, where he pioneered a system that allows consumers to instantly check whether their medicines are counterfeits by sending a free text message. He is director of development research at IMANI, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils, Young Global Leaders, and Technology Pioneers Communities, a TED and Ashoka fellow, and a Brain Trust member of the Evian Group at IMD. He is a recipient of numerous awards, ranging from an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Award, Marie Curie and Commonwealth Vision Grants to a PPARC Scholarship in Gamma Ray Astronomy. Bright regularly serves as a consultant and resource person on innovation strategy to international organisations such as the World Bank, UNECA, USAID, and the Commonwealth. Bright is a regular contributor to BBC Business and Harvard Business Review, and is regularly cited in many of the world's leading news media.

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Ryan Allis

RISK-TAKER

• Organization: iContact/The Humanity Fund
• Department: Technology
• Title: Founder/CEO

Ryan Allis is a technology entrepreneur based in San Francisco. After serving as co-founder and CEO of iContact from 2003 until its sale to Vocus (NASDAQ:VOCS) in 2012 for $169M, Ryan recently founded Connect, a company focused on using mobile technology and relationship mapping to connect humanity globally. He is also the Managing Director of Humanity Fund, which invests in Kenyan, Ugandan, and Silicon Valley companies. Ryan is a member of the United Nations Foundation Global Entrepreneur Council, the Board Chairman of Nourish.org, and the author of the book Zero to One Million (McGraw-Hill, 2008). Ryan attended the University of North Carolina where he was a Blanchard Scholar, and is a 2011 graduate of the EO/Massachusetts Institute of Technology Entrepreneurial Masters Program.

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Shanda Cooper

RISK-TAKER

• Organization: Ministry of National Defense, Republic of Liberia
• Department: Office of the Minister of the National Defense
• Title: Senior Policy Analyst

As Senior Policy Analyst to the Liberian Minister of National Defense, Shanda A. Cooper contributes to defense and security sector reform in post-conflict Liberia. Cooper drafts Defense Ministry policies and speeches. She is a focal person for the United Nations Mission to Liberia’s handover of responsibilities to Liberia’s security agencies. Holder of the Master of Science in Violence, Conflict, and Development from the University of London and the Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the College of William and Mary, Shanda Cooper is one of twenty-five persons internationally selected as a United Nations Fellow on Disarmament (2012).

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Daniel Epstein

RISK-TAKER

• Organization: Unreasonable Institute
• Department: Senior Leadership
• Title: Founder

A fundamental belief that entrepreneurship is the answer to nearly all the issues we face today has shaped Daniel Epstein’s life. By the time he received his degree in philosophy from CU Boulder, he had already started three companies. Today he is recognized by Forbes as one of the top 30 most impactful entrepreneurs in his role as the Founder and CEO of Unreasonable Adventures, focused on leveraging eco-tourism markets as an international tool for development; and as Founder of the Unreasonable Institute and of Unreasonable at Sea, an international accelerator for technology entrepreneurs that is hosted on a ship as it circumnavigates the southern hemisphere.

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Conor French

RISK-TAKER

• Organization: Indego Africa
• Department: Executive
• Title: CEO

A corporate attorney turned social entrepreneur, Conor French is CEO of Indego Africa and committed business partner to more than 400 women entrepreneurs in Rwanda. Indego Africa is a non-profit social enterprise that connects African women artisans with global markets and education. Conor is a Truman National Security Fellow and serves on the governing bodies of Red Hen Press, NYU Law’s Alumni Association, and the NYSBA’s Committee on Attorney Professionalism. Conor formerly practiced law at the global firm of Latham & Watkins and holds degrees from Georgetown and NYU Law, where he was an editor of the Journal of International Law and Politics. He is admitted to practice in CA, DC, MA, and NY.

Conor received a Bachelor of Arts in History and English from Georgetown University in 2003 and a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law in 2006. He spent his junior year abroad at Trinity School Dublin in Dublin, Ireland in 2001-2002 and completed the National Outdoor Leadership School's Semester in East Africa in 2001.

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Christine Horansky

RISK-TAKER

• Organization: Ivy and Airwaves
• Department: Development Communications Consulting
• Title: Founder

Christine Horansky is an award-winning advocate for global education and champion for women and girls, who has been named to the World Economic Forum’s inaugural Global Shapers class. She is a featured blogger for the Huffington Post, where she writes from a Millennial perspective on global social good. Previously, she served as communications specialist for the World Bank’s Education Director, working to advance the UN Millennium Development Goals campaign for universal education and gender equality. She holds a Masters in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College.

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