NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, President Bill Clinton, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Clinton Foundation Vice Chair Chelsea Clinton announced additional participants and programming for the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) 2023 Annual Meeting on March 3-5 at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Building on the momentum from the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) 2022 Meeting, CGI U’s 15th Annual Meeting will bring together aspiring leaders and global experts in business, public service, and social impact to develop innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges including climate change, reproductive rights for girls and women, protecting human rights, health equity, and more. This is the first time CGI U is meeting in person since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the three-day convening, students will announce Commitments to Action™ – specific, measurable programs that address an urgent community challenge. Since 2007, more than 11,800 university students from more than 160 countries and 1,800 institutions of higher education have turned their ideas into action through the CGI model, launching more than 8,000 Commitments to Action through CGI U.
President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton will be joined by leaders in the public, private, and philanthropic sectors, including Dr. Andrew Aboujaoude, CGI U ‘16, Founder and President, Hearts for the Homeless International; Donnel Baird, CGI U ‘13, CEO, BlocPower; Abemelech Mesfin Belachew, Co-Founder and CEO, GardenMate; Grant Bennett, Diversity Strategist, Google; Joel Bervell, CGI U ‘18, Social Media Medical Educator, Johns Hopkins University; Melissa Bradley, Managing Partner, 1863 Ventures; Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Secretary of Transportation; Natalie Byrne, Founder, blank space; Dr. Sweta Chakraborty, CEO of North America, We Don’t Have Time; Ben Conard, CGI U ‘16, Chief of Staff, Fair Trade USA; John Cooper, Mayor of Nashville; Danielle De La Fuente, Founder and CEO, Amal Alliance; Melissa Diamond, CGI U ‘13, Founder, A Global Voice for Autism; Pashtana Dorani, Executive Director, LEARN Afghanistan; Allyson Felix, 5 Time Olympian and Co-Founder of Saysh; Abby Feuer, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Growth, DonorsChoose; Sasha Fisher, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Spark MicroGrants; Shadrack Osei Frimpong, CGI U ‘12, Founder and CEO, Cocoa360; Jonathan Gilligan, Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University; Vinny Johl, CGI U ‘10, Commitment Mentor, CGI U; Olivia Julianna, Director of Politics & Government Affairs, Gen-Z For Change; Yusra Mardini, Olympian and Goodwill Ambassador, UNHCR; Diego Mariscal, Founder and CEO, 2Gether-International; Larissa May, Founder and Executive Director, #HalfTheStory; Jacob Mchangama, Executive Director, The Future of Free Speech; Michelle Morse, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer & Deputy Commissioner, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; Amanda Nguyen, CEO, Rise; Michelle Nunn, President and CEO, CARE USA; Love Odetola, CGI U ‘14, PhD Candidate, University of North Carolina Greensboro; Ryan Ubuntu Olson, CGI U ‘10, Global Manager-Diversity, Equity, Engagement, & Inclusion, DAI; David Owens, Executive Director and Professor, The Wond’ry; Georgina Pazcoguin, The Rogue Ballerina, Author, Disruptor, Soloist Ballerina with the New York City Ballet, Co-Founder, Final Bow For Yellowface/Gold Standard Art; Rachael Perrotta, Editor-in-Chief, The Vanderbilt Hustler; Ai-jen Poo, President, National Domestic Workers Alliance; Jordan Reeves, Co-Founder, Design With Us; Oscar Jorge Romero Jr., CGI U ‘17, Chief Information Officer, NYC Civic Engagement Commission; Elissa Russell, CGI U ‘20, Founder and CEO, READI Consulting; Sukhmeet Singh Sachal, CGI U '21, Medical Student, Health Activist, Social Entrepreneur; Founder, Sikh Health Foundation; Belinda ‘Otukolo Saltiban, Associate Vice Chancellor of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Vanderbilt University; Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO, Moms First; Jaylen Smith, Mayor of Earle, Arkansas; Dr. Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, Dean, Clinton School of Public Service; Jonathan Webb, Founder and CEO, AppHarvest; Cynthia Williams, Global Director, Sustainability, Homologation and Compliance, Ford Motor Company; Sevetri Wilson, CEO & Founder, Resilia; Kaakpema "KP" Yelpaala, MPH, Chief Impact Officer, Health Equity Moonshot, StartUp Health; and many more who will be in attendance at the Annual Meeting.
The full program will be available to stream during the meeting via Digital All Access – a free hub for all things CGI U to view all livestreams of plenary sessions, a complete list of featured speakers and participants, and announcements of new Commitments to Action. Digital All Access can be found at cgiu.org/2023. Follow CGI U on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram for meeting news and highlights.
Additional programming at CGI U includes:
- Day of Action: On Sunday, March 5 at 9 a.m., the CGI U community will bring together students, alumni, and other volunteers for a Day of Action – an opportunity to mobilize and provide meaningful community service on and off the Vanderbilt campus. Through partnership with Hands On Nashville, the CGI U community will provide food to families with Second Harvest Food Bank, prepare flashcards and school supplies for students with PENCIL, and clear land for an upcoming cultural center with the Native American Indian Association of Tennessee.
- CGI U Story Studio: A curated speaker experience where students will have the opportunity to learn innovative ways to create community through conversation. Building on President Clinton's storytelling legacy, CGI U Story Studio is an informal and relaxed space where students can hear inspirational stories from trailblazers and innovators at the front lines of our biggest common challenges. Participants include: Samar Ali, President and CEO, Millions of Conversations; Zahra Biabani, Author and Climate Activist, In the Loop; Karen Hayes, Film Producer and Director, Ubuntu Motion Pictures; Zulfat Suara, Councilmember at Large, Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County; and Pamela L Tom, Producer, Ubuntu Motion Pictures.
CGI U is a continuation of President Clinton’s legacy of inspiring public service in the next generation of leaders. In 1993, President Clinton established AmeriCorps National Service Program, through which millions of members have contributed more than 1.6 billion hours of community and public service in communities across America. In 2007, two years after the launch of the revolutionary Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) philanthropic model, President Clinton established CGI U to broaden the impact of an engaged and growing community of doers within higher education. During its sesquicentennial year, Vanderbilt University joins CGI U’s history of host campuses, some of which include the University of Chicago, the University of Miami, Arizona State University, Washington University in St. Louis, George Washington University, the University of California San Diego, the University of Texas at Austin, and Tulane University.
About CGI U
Founded by President Bill Clinton in 2007, the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) is a community of students who are taking action together on pressing challenges facing their campuses, communities, and the world. Through the Clinton Global Initiative’s power of convening and Commitment to Action model, more than 11,800 students have made an impact in over 160 countries and all 50 states - with the support of more than $4.5 million in funding from CGI U’s corporate and university partners. Now in its 15th year, CGI U’s robust year-round program engages students, alumni, colleges and universities, and influential voices in creating new ways to effect change on the topics that matter most to the next generation of leaders.
About Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a globally renowned research university located in Nashville, Tennessee. Ranked No. 13 among national universities, Vanderbilt offers an immersive living-learning undergraduate experience, with programs in the liberal arts and sciences, engineering, music, education and human development. The university also is home to nationally and internationally recognized graduate schools of law, education, business, medicine, nursing and divinity, and offers robust graduate-degree programs across a range of academic disciplines. Vanderbilt is committed to inclusive excellence, drawing the world’s brightest students, faculty and distinguished visitors from across all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds and provides a collaborative atmosphere of discovery that drives positive change in the world. Learn more at www.vanderbilt.edu.
About the Clinton Foundation
Building on a lifetime of public service, President Clinton established the Clinton Foundation on the simple belief that everyone deserves a chance to succeed, everyone has a responsibility to act, and we all do better when we work together. For more than two decades, those values have energized the work of the Foundation in overcoming complex challenges and improving the lives of people across the United States and around the world.
As an operating foundation, we work on issues directly or with strategic partners from the business, government, and nonprofit sectors to create economic opportunity, improve public health, and inspire civic engagement and service. Our programs are designed to make a real difference today while serving as proven models for tomorrow. The goal of every effort is to use available resources to get better results faster – at the lowest possible cost.
We firmly believe that when diverse groups of people bring resources together in the spirit of true cooperation, transformative ideas will emerge to drive life-changing action.
Learn more at https://www.clintonfoundation.org/ on Facebook at Facebook.com/ClintonFoundation, and on Twitter @ClintonFdn.