Keith Ferrazzi celebrates Chris, founder of the Center for Global Initiatives, as the unifying force behind the New Humanitarians movement. Chris has reviewed for the Baldrige Award, served as faculty at Davos, and assembled cross-disciplinary teams tackling healthcare, human rights, and conflict. Ferrazzi calls him a risk-taker who bridges policy and ground-level care with humor and kindness.
Chapters
Afterword to The New Humanitarians by Keith Ferrazzi. If you take the ingredients of social entrepreneurship, venture philanthropy, and social networking, liberally mix with individuals who hold a passion for making a true difference in various aspects of people's lives throughout the world, and then take a sample of the sum of the best, the result you have is the New Humanitarians. Chris has served as a uniting thread to connect these organizations together in this 3-volume set. While these organizations are all different in their approaches and goals, they each share a common aspect of their work: innovation. Indeed, they are the new humanitarians. They are born from the power of the individual taking action in a novel way, and then using the power of their relationships to effect impactful change. After all, giving back is a huge part of a life well led. In the spirit of Three Cups of Tea, Chris' adventuresome life has taken him to a variety of exotic and often not-so-safe locals, and it is through the work he has done in these venues that resulted not only in his Center for Global Initiatives, but also the New Humanitarians. He has done well with many of the aspects I wrote about in Never Eat Alone, but applied them in the milieu of humanitarian work. He and I share a kinship as Chris was a reviewer for the ABE Awards that I founded, as a fellow Baldrige Award reviewer, we were both "to Dysons" during the Richard Saul Wurman era, and having been elected as a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum, and serving as faculty in Davos. So, it is no surprise that Chris has the brainpower as well as the horsepower to have accomplished this wonderful compilation of Wunderkind. While Chris is able to contribute to Davos talks and UN presentations, he is much more at home working in the field and with his students. He is known for bringing together people in cross-disciplinary projects worldwide—in healthcare, medical education, human rights, poverty, conflict, policy, sustainable development, diplomacy, and terrorism. As the American Psychological Association said about him and his work: He is a rare individual who takes risks, stimulates new ideas, and enlarges possibilities in areas of great need but few resources. He is able to masterfully navigate between the domains of policy development while also rolling up his sleeves to provide in-the-trenches care. His drive and vigor are disguised by his quick humor and ever-present kindness. He is provocative in his ideas and evocative in spirit. His creative solutions and inclusiveness cross conceptual boundaries as well as physical borders. The New Humanitarians serves as testament to this. Simply put, these organizations are amazing. The people behind the organizations are amazing. Their stories are amazing. And as a result, this book is amazing.
