Cheryl L. Dorsey
Cheryl Lynn Dorsey (born August 17, 1963) is the president of Echoing Green, a global nonprofit organization that provides fellowships, seed-stage funding, and strategic support to social entrepreneurs globally. Dorsey received an Echoing Green Fellowship herself in 1992 as co-founder of The Family Van, a mobile health unit in Boston. Dorsey has served in two presidential administrations and has served on several boards including The Bridgespan Group and, previously, the Harvard Board of Overseers. She has a medical degree from Harvard Medical School, a master's in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School and a bachelor's degree in history and science from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges.
Background and education[edit]
Dorsey grew up in an African-American family within a Jewish neighborhood in a Baltimore suburb.[1] She is the daughter of two Baltimore public-school teachers, Maurice Snowden Dorsey and Delores Alston Dorsey. Maurice Dorsey was the former principal of Clifton Park and Pimlico junior high schools.[2] Dorsey graduated magna cum laude with highest honors with a bachelor's degree in history and science from Harvard College in 1985. She deferred her application to medical school and spent two years as a research assistant to the Committee on the Status of Black Americans, a project of the National Research Council in the run-up to the 1988 presidential election. When time ran out on her deferral to Harvard Medical School, Dorsey also applied for a master's at the Harvard Kennedy School to supplement her medical training.[1] In 1988, Dorsey served as a research assistant for the Harvard Kennedy School's Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy. She received her medical degree and master's in public policy in 1992.
Career[edit]
The Family Van[edit]
While Dorsey was studying at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Kennedy School, the head of obstetric anesthesia at HMS, Nancy Oriol, contacted her about an article she'd written about the high infant-mortality rate among black families in Boston. A 1990 Boston Globe series had found that black babies in Boston were dying at three times the rate of white. Dorsey and Oriol developed an idea for a mobile health unit that would address the socioeconomic barriers preventing equitable health care in the Boston's Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan neighborhoods. During this time, Dorsey was walking through Harvard's Littauer Hall, when she noticed a flier for Echoing Green, a new kind of nonprofit offering funding and support to emerging social entrepreneurs. She applied and received a fellowship in 1992 to launch The Family Van. Still in operation, the organization's staff provides screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose (blood sugar), obesity (Weight/Body Mass Index, depression, vision, and glaucoma as well as pregnancy testing, family planning services, and HIV counseling.[3]
Medical career[edit]
After Dorsey's Echoing Green Fellowship ended, she spent three years as a resident physician in the emergency room at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.[1] Although she was helping patients, her experience left her wanting to address the underlying problems beneath institutional injustices. [4]
Clinton administration[edit]
Dorsey became a White House Fellow in 1997, advising the Clinton administration on healthcare issues. She later served as special assistant to the director of the Women's Bureau in the U.S. Labor Department, helping to develop family-friendly workplace policies.[1]
Echoing Green[edit]
In 1998, Echoing Green asked Dorsey to join its board. The organization was in decline having lost its longtime chairman a few years before. Staff and funding had decreased to the point where the organization was sponsoring only five fellows a year. When one of its two main funders pulled out in 2001, Echoing Green, which was then a private foundation, asked Dorsey to evaluate whether it made sense to continue operations. As a consultant, Dorsey analyzed the organization and its impact and recommended Echoing Green continue its work further emerging social entrepreneurs. Echoing Green's board asked her to become the president.[1]
In 2002, Dorsey took over leadership at Echoing Green and turned it into a nonprofit organization. She is the first Fellow to lead the social venture fund. Dorsey expanded Echoing Green's funding to international organizations, created issue-focused tracks in particular program areas, including organizations advancing the life outcomes of black men and boys in the U.S.[5] and organizations supporting the mitigation and adaptation of climate change.[6]
Echoing Green now supports nearly 1,000 social entrepreneurs globally, who are addressing the root causes of social and environmental challenges related to climate change, education, health, human rights, poverty, racial justice and more.[7] Notable Echoing Green Fellows include Michelle Obama, Van Jones, Barbara Pierce Bush, and Wendy Kopp.[7]
Other work[edit]
Dorsey was an Obama administration transition team member of the Innovation and Civil Society subgroup of the Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform Policy Working Group.[8] Dorsey served as vice chair for the President's Commission on White House Fellowships during the Obama administration.[9] She is currently on the board of The Bridgespan Group.[10] Previously, she served on the boards of The SEED Foundation and Harvard Board of Overseers.[11]
Awards and honors[edit]
1992: Echoing Green Fellowship
1992: Robert Kennedy Distinguished Public Service Award
1992: Manuel C. Carballo Memorial Prize[12]
1996: Pfizer Roerig History of Medicine Award, The Washington Society for the History of Medicine
1996: American Delegate, Perspectives on Europe Conference, The British Council and The Ecole Nationale d'Administration
2002: Participant and Facilitator, Second Annual Social Entrepreneur Summit, Schwab Foundation and World Economic Forum
2008: Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Award
2009: “America's Best Leaders” by U.S. News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School
2010 and 2011: The Nonprofit Times’ “Power and Influence Top 50”[13]
2010: Honorary Degree, Walden University
2011: Honorary Degree, Cambridge College
2013: Honorary Degree, The Presidio Institute
2015: Honorary Degree, San Francisco University
2016: America's Top 25 Philanthropy Speakers” by the Business of Giving in 2016[14]
2016: Middlebury College Center for Social Entrepreneurship's Vision Award[15]
2017: American Academy of Arts and Sciences[16]
2019: Schwab Foundation Social Innovation Thought Leader.[17]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Blanding, Michael. "Cheryl Dorsey: Values investor". www.hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
- ↑ Dechter, Gadi. "Maurice Dorsey". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
- ↑ "Services". THE FAMILY VAN. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
- ↑ Stuart, Anne (2004-09-01). "A Prescription for Change". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
- ↑ "Why a Focus on Black Male Achievement?". Echoing Green. 2012-12-05. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
- ↑ Oded, Yair. "On the road to a just world: Echoing Green funds social and environmental entrepreneurs". Fair Planet. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Fellowship". Echoing Green. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
- ↑ "Obama Names Team To Create 'Innovation Agenda'". voices.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
- ↑ "The President's Commission on White House Fellowships". whitehouse.gov. 2015-08-03. Retrieved 2019-12-09. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Board of Trustees". Bridgespan. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
- ↑ "Cheryl Dorsey". Social Innovation + Change Initiative. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
- ↑ "Cheryl L. Dorsey". Echoing Green. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
- ↑ Candid. "NonProfit Times Names 'Top 50' Leaders". Philanthropy News Digest (PND). Retrieved 2019-12-09.
- ↑ "America's Top 25 Philanthropy Speakers". myemail.constantcontact.com. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
- ↑ "Vision Award". Social Entrepreneurship Programs. 2013-04-11. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
- ↑ "Cheryl L. Dorsey". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
- ↑ "Awardees". Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
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