Cheryl Dorsey

Social Impact First: Responsible Leadership for the 21st Century

The urgent work of upending inequities and injustices will not happen by letting “business as usual” run its course. For a growing set of leaders, social impact is a non-negotiable metric of success. To achieve lasting positive impact for all, responsible, ethical leadership must quickly become the new normal. Cheryl Dorsey, president of global social entrepreneurship organization Echoing Green, draws from more than three decades of learnings for a timely talk about the ingredients required to accelerate transformative, lasting positive impact in the world.

 

Cheryl L. Dorsey is a pioneer in the social entrepreneurship movement, and the President of Echoing Green, a global organization seeding and unleashing next-generation talent to solve the world’s biggest problems.

Prior to leading this social impact organization, Cheryl was a social entrepreneur herself and received an Echoing Green Fellowship in 1992 to help launch The Family Van, a community-based mobile health unit in Boston. She became the first Echoing Green Fellow to head the social venture fund in 2002.

An accomplished leader and entrepreneur, she has served in two presidential administrations as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Labor (1997-98); Special Assistant to the Director of the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Labor Department (1998-99); and Vice Chair for the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships (2009-2017). Cheryl serves on several boards including the SEED Foundation, The Bridgespan Group, and, previously, the Harvard Board of Overseers. She has a medical degree from Harvard Medical School and her Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School and received her Bachelor’s degree in History and Science magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges.

Cheryl has received numerous awards for her commitment to public service, including the Pfizer Roerig History of Medicine Award, the Robert Kennedy Distinguished Public Service Award, and the Manuel C. Carballo Memorial Prize. She was also featured as one of “America’s Best Leaders” by US News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School in 2009, and as one of The Nonprofit Times’ “Power and Influence Top 50” in 2010 and 2011. Cheryl was most recently elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.