My step into nonprofits and service began back in 1997, when I got involved with my university’s America Reads Challenge program.I quickly discovered that my university, and the organizations we worked with, lacked the resources to make sure their student tutors had the skills necessary to really impact the kids we were working with. As a kid who had benefited massively from the tutors in my own life, this stuck with me. I started researching, looking for solutions.Turned out, we weren’t alone – the lack of resources, funding, support, and tools were universal problems that service organizations around the country faced.I spent the rest of my undergraduate years trying to figure out how to make sure those programs had the capacity to fulfill the big promises they were working so hard to deliver for their communities. During my junior and senior years of college, in partnership with a professor at my university’s School of Education and Social Policy, I developed what would become the first version of the America Learns Impact Suite – a bare-bones paper- and web-based effort to provide support to Northwestern students volunteering as tutors in the community. After graduating, I spent a year as a Coro Fellow in St. Louis, beefing up my leadership skills and gaining a deeper understanding of how different segments of society worked together, including spending two days in a medium security prison, participating in an empathy building workshop with inmates, and gaining a lifelong understanding of the importance of getting in others’ shoes. Invaluable.Then I went home to LA and started working on America Learns again, working 3 jobs to make it happen.In 2003 we got our break when Echoing Green, the nation’s first social venture firm, seed funded us and nine others out of 1,000 applicants.Since then, it’s been an amazing ride.– In 2007, Bill Clinton wrote about us in his book "Giving".– In 2013, our story was featured in the book "Creating Good Work: The World’s Leading Social Entrepreneurs Show How to Build a Healthy Economy." – And our work has been written about by the US Department of Education, the AfterSchool Alliance, the Center for WhatWorks, and Inc., among others.Today, our software supports over 200 AmeriCorps programs and State Commissions around the US, as well as other volunteer-driven, community impact organizations who want to focus on their impact – not their admin.Outside of the office, you’ll find me mentoring young entrepreneurs, practicing yoga, hiking with my kiddo…and envying her parkour skills.