Global Action Platform Announces 2018 Class for Young American Leaders at the Harvard Business School

Nashville Leaders Selected to Participate in National Project to Improve Shared Prosperity in American Communities

 Boston (June 14, 2018) This morning at Harvard Business School, the 2018 Young American Leaders Program concluded.

Jan Rivkin, one of the leaders of the program writes the following:

"Yesterday was an exciting day--three cases, two city sessions, a talk on advanced leadership, a discussion of the changing nature of work and its implications for collaboration in cities, and a fireside chat over dinner with Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson of Gary, Indiana. 

This morning, we’ll start with a dose of reality and a dose of inspiration.  The reality will come from a cautionary case on a failing cross-sector collaboration in Hartford.  The inspiration will come from the group’s analysis of Reverend King’s March on Washington speech--an opportunity to reflect on how to craft powerful public messages that matter.  Then, the city teams will present their project ideas to each other in an “idea fair.”  It always blows me away to see what ten young leaders--who come from such different backgrounds and who, in many cases, barely knew each other a few days ago--can envision together.

After the idea fair, we’ll share closing reflections and send the groups back to their hometowns.  I can’t wait to see what they accomplish next!  Thank you again for sending us such remarkable young leaders.  Your cities are fortunate to have them.  They are fortunate to have your support.  And we are fortunate to have had this time with them--just the beginning of an ongoing and vital “conversation” about the future of our communities, I trust."

Nashville; Boston (May 10, 2018) Ten government, business, and nonprofit leaders from Middle Tennessee have been chosen for a Harvard Business School program convening leaders from thirteen American cities who are working across sectors to make their communities prosper.

Dr. Scott T. Massey, Chairman and CEO, Global Action Platform, and Mitch Weiss, Co-Director of the Young American Leaders Program and Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurial Management, Harvard Business School announced the 2018 Class of Nashville Young American Leaders and hosted the kick-off event for the class at the Global Action Platform at oneC1TY.  Global Action Platform is the local partner and coordinator of the Young American Leaders Program for Nashville and the regional affiliate of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School.

The ten Nashville leaders selected to participate in the leadership program at Harvard this June are

Andres Martinez, Director of Communications, Conexion Americas

Laura Berlind, Executive Director, Sycamore Institute

Monica Clayton Fawknotson, Executive Director, Nashville Sports Authority

David R. Hanson, Managing Partner, Hillgreen

Henry Hicks, CEO, National Museum of African American Music

Dr. Alex Jahangir, Executive Medical Director, Vanderbilt Center for Trauma

Elizabeth McAlister, Managing Partner, Speak Spanish Nashville

Wendy Thompson, Vice Chancellor for Organizational Effectiveness, Tennessee Board of Regents

Karen Thompson, Assistant Vice President, Strategy and Innovation, HCA Healthcare

Peter Thomson, Vice President Wealth Management, Regions Bank

The Young American Leaders Program (YALP) grows out of a deep concern and a great hope uncovered by Harvard Business School’s ongoing project on U.S. competitiveness. The concern is that the local, shared resources which drive American prosperity are not keeping pace with global standards. U.S. workforce skills, schools, and infrastructure, for instance, are not improving fast enough or, in too many cases, are deteriorating. As a result, an unsustainable divergence has gripped the U.S. economy: working- and middle-class Americans who rely on such shared resources are struggling, even as firms and individuals who can tap global opportunities are thriving. Prosperity is being generated but not shared. Our hope springs from the local level. In cities and towns across the country, we see local policymakers, businesspeople, nonprofit leaders, educators, clergy, and others coming together across sectors to build skills, improve schools, restore infrastructure to build a foundation for economic growth and shared prosperity.

Ten leaders from twelve cities across the U.S. are selected by senior community leaders in those cities to go to Harvard each June for an intensive case study workshop on urban and rural regional collaborations and strategies for economic resilience.  Other participating cities include Boston, Columbus, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Salt Lake City, and Seattle, among others.  The program was launched to develop leaders who understand cross-sector collaborations for shared prosperityand can implement them more effectively and spread them more rapidly than in the past.

“Global Action Platform is committed to advancing local innovation cluster economic growth for shared prosperity,” notes Dr. Massey.  “We are pleased to be the regional affiliate of Porter’s Institute at Harvard and to be working with them on the Young American Leaders Program and other projects.  Through this collaboration, we hope to help prepare a rising generation of local leaders who can work together for the shared growth and prosperity of our region in today’s global economy.”  Lipscomb University’s Linda Peek Schacht helps advise the group, which receives ongoing local program support from Global Action Platform.

Nashville leaders who have participated in the Young American Leaders Program in the previous years include:

2015

Jon Ayers, Executive Vice President, Ayers Asset Management

Landon Gibbs, Managing Partner, Altitude Ventures

Caleb Graves, Director of Business Development, Staffing as a Mission, LLC

Penny Judd, President, PennAvenue Strategies

Stacey Levine, Architect

Shaka Mitchell, Attorney

Laura Moore, Senior Advisor, Education, Office of the Mayor, Metro Nashville

Gabe Roberts, Deputy Director and COO, TennCare

Melissa Waddey, President, Ambulatory and Operations Group, LifePoint Health

Marcus Whitney, Founding President, Jumpstart Foundry 

2016

Agenia Clark, President, Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee

Lucia Folk, Vice President for Public Affairs, CMT

Clay Jackson, Jr., President, nSight Travel Intelligence

John Lowry, Senior Vice President for Advancement, Lipscomb University

Lonnell Matthews, Director of Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods and Community Engagement, Metro Nashville

Mendy Mazzo,  Corporate Senior Vice President, Business Development, Skanska USA

Tim Ozgener, President and CEO, Oz Arts

Renata Soto, President, Conexion Americas

Mario Avila, Director, Turner Center for Social Ventures, Owen Graduate School of Business, Vanderbilt University

Leslee Alexander, Director of International Programs, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development

2017

Jeff Albee, Principal, Innovation and Technology, Stantec

Samar Ali, International Counsel, Bass, Berry & Sims

Kate Chinn, Vice President, Investor Relations/Partnership 2020, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce

Lesia Crumpton-Young, PhD, Vice President, Tennessee State University

Ryan Doyle, General Manager, oneC1TY, Cambridge Holdings

Hank Ingram, Financial Analyst, Ingram Industries

Joelle Phillips, President, AT&T Tennessee

Jay Turner, Managing Director, Marketstreet Enterprises

Caroline Randall Williams, Author, Professor, Fisk University

D. J. Wootson, Principal, Titus Young

About Global Action Platform

Global Action Platform is the leading university-business alliance to advance scalable, sustainable solutions for abundant food, health, and prosperity.  Global Action Platform is the resident nonprofit and think tank for oneC1TY, a twenty-acre global innovation hub now under construction in Nashville, and strategic development partner with GPSS on comprehensive rural development projects. The goal is to create a world of abundance for all people, so that every single individual has a chance to thrive. http://globalactionplatform.org.