Alan Khazei is a social entrepreneur who has pioneered ways to empower citizens to make a difference. Alan is the Founder and CEO of Be The Change, Inc., which creates bipartisan national issue campaigns to affect public policy and culture by organizing coalitions of nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, policymakers, private sector leaders, academics,. and citizens. Be The Change has three campaigns: Opportunity Nation, to promote social mobility and expand opportunity; Got Your 6 to empower post 9/11 veterans to lead a resurgence of community and Service Year Alliance, to promote a year of national service as a civic rite of passage. Service Nation (the precursor to Service Year Alliance) played a leadership role in the enactment of the strongly bi-partisan Kennedy Serve America Act in April of 2009. General Stan McChrystal Chairs the Service Year Alliance and Alan serves with John Bridgeland, as Vice-Chair.. 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. City Year served as the model for President Clinton’s AmeriCorps program and now operates in 27 cities in America, London, Birmingham and Greater Manchester in the UK and Johannesburg, South Africa, with more than 3000 Corps Members serving more than 175,000 school children.. Alan has served on the boards of leading national nonprofits and has received numerous awards, including the Reebok Human Rights Award, the Jefferson Award for Public Service, and the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur Award. 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. Alan is an honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and the recipient of several honorary degrees. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts with his wife, Vanessa Kirsch, and their two children.
