Do you feel frustrated or overwhelmed by the current state of politics? Are you unsure about what you can do to strengthen our democracy? In this talk, Yordanos Eyoel, an Ethiopian-American, offers practical solutions, based on her life experiences and research, on how we can use our day-to-day actions to unleash our civic power and transform our democracy and our country. Because despite our overemphasis on election cycles, our civic duty does not begin nor end at the polling station. Yordanos is a Partner at New Profit, a pioneering venture philanthropy organization that invests in breakthrough leaders and systems change initiatives to break down barriers to opportunity in America.

In her role, Yordanos leads the vision, strategy development, and management of early-stage investments. This entails developing a pipeline of high potential organizations, leading investment selection, and designing and facilitating cohort-based learning communities to build the capacity of portfolio organizations. The capacity-building model is anchored in three pillars: peer community that serves as a support and an accountability system; roadmap for building a high performing organization at various stages of development; and adaptive leadership skills to create strong teams and expand one’s network of champions. The early-stage portfolio currently has three cohorts: Proximity, Unlocked Futures, and Civic Lab.

Originally from Ethiopia, Yordanos is the co-founder and international spokesperson of the Sister March Network that mobilized more than 4 million people across all seven continents for the 2017 Women’s March. She has served as an Aspen Institute Women’s World Leaders Fellow to South Africa as well as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar to Venezuela. Yordanos’ previous experiences include working with the Ethiopian Embassy and the United States Congress.

Yordanos holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science, Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Florida, where she was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame. She also has an M.P.P. in Business and Government Policy from Harvard Kennedy School. Yordanos’ writing has been featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, The 74 Million, Huffington Post, Blavity, and Bold. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx