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Jeffrey Kerekes has had an interest in social change
since childhood, starting with perceived injustices, as a six year
old, over the unidirectional nature of his Sunday School class,
to more mature concerns over equal access to health care. Over time,
this initial interest deepened and evolved into a commitment to
social change. This commitment was fed during many volunteer projects
and in formal education, particularly during two years on a nontraditional
and accredited traveling college degree program called the Audubon
Expedition Institute. This unique program focuses on developing
students into agents of social change through detailed and experiential
exploration of complex social issues and even includes camping outdoors
for two years. Jeffrey's experiences include learning from the people
and places involved on different sides of a multiplicity of issues,
from old growth logging in the Pacific Northwest, environmental
racism in New Mexico, the collapse of cod fisheries in Newfoundland
villages, to migrant labor struggles in Florida. This unconventional
exploration of opposing sides has helped detail the complex nature
of not only these issues, but the complex solutions required to
address them.
Seeing the significant and tangible barrier stigma plays in accessing
mental health services as a surmountable hurdle, is an example of
Jeffrey's ability to see solutions in definable problems. To this
end, he co-founded an Internet psychotherapy company (CompleteMind.com)
to make psychotherapy affordable, accessible and most importantly,
approachable. Another example includes helping to resuscitate an
environmental center that had fallen into stagnation through diligent
efforts to revitalize the educational programs, marketing initiatives,
and community involvement in the center.
Jeffrey works to make mission-based
organizations more effective through innovations in organizational
operations, deeper staff involvement, and mindful change. Specifically,
he is excited about using non-profit and for-profit, mission-based
companies in new ways to address social and environmental problems.
Two representative organizations of the work Jeffrey is interested
in include the Ashoka Foundation, an organization which funds the
work of innovative and persistent social
entrepreneurs in countries around the world, and Pioneer Human
Services, an entrepreneurial nonprofit organization that improves
the lives of high risk populations, including adult and juvenile
former offenders and substance abusers, through successful integration
of a self-supporting business enterprise with an array of training,
rehabilitative services, and housing.
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