Suzanne Ehlers is CEO and Executive Director of USA for UNHCR, the nonprofit organization mobilizing American philanthropy in support of the UN Refugee Agency and millions of people forced to flee their homes.

Suzanne's journey has taken her from growing up in Texas to Cornell University, the Peace Corps in the Central African Republic, and leadership roles at Population Action International and the Malala Fund before assuming her current position.

Along the way, she's developed strong convictions about the power of curiosity, compassion, and human connection — and what it takes to lead organizations tackling some of the world's most difficult challenges.

We begin with how the values she learned growing up helped shape a lifetime of service and a remarkable career in international philanthropy.

Kara Logan Berlin is the founder and CEO of Harvest, a consultancy that helps nonprofits raise more money, develop talent, and expand their impact.

Kara grew up on a farm in eastern Oregon, dreamed of becoming a broadcast journalist, and found her way into fundraising through a series of unexpected turns.

Since then, she's worked with organizations including Harlem RBI, the Robin Hood Foundation, and the Obama Foundation, where she helped develop the fundraising strategy for the Obama Presidential Center.

She's also a TED speaker, an educator, and a passionate advocate for investing in the people who do the work of fundraising.

Today, we'll talk about the unexpected paths that lead us to our life's work, the importance of finding purpose, and what it means to be a force for good.

Darrow Zeidenstein began his career as an anthropologist, studying the cultures and conflicts of the Middle East as a Fulbright Scholar in Syria and a researcher in Morocco. But his search to understand people eventually led him in an unexpected direction: fundraising.

Over the past three decades, Darrow has held senior leadership positions at some of America's leading universities and healthcare institutions, including serving as Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations at Rice University and Senior Vice President and Chief Philanthropy Officer at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he led the institution's $2.5 billion fundraising campaign and helped grow annual philanthropic revenue from $153 million to more than half a billion dollars.

Today, Darrow is Chief Development Officer of the American Cancer Society, where he's working to restore annual fundraising to more than a billion dollars and tackle cancer on every front, from research and treatment to healthcare access, public policy, and the financial burdens faced by patients.

In this conversation, Darrow reflects on the experiences that shaped him, the art and science of philanthropy, the challenges of leading people through change, and his desire to use the final chapter of his career to make a difference.

Bridgette “Bri” Simpson — co-founder and executive director of Barred Business, which works to expand opportunity and legal protections for justice-impacted people.

Bri studied finance and accounting and dreamed of building a financial services firm. Instead, she spent ten years incarcerated in Georgia.

When she came home in 2018, she struggled to find work, experienced homelessness, and encountered barriers to employment, housing, and opportunity.

Those experiences helped lead to the creation of Barred Business in 2020. Since then, its work has expanded into reentry, entrepreneurship, voting rights, civic engagement, and public policy.

In 2022, Barred Business helped lead the successful campaign to add criminal-history status to Atlanta’s nondiscrimination protections — work that has since helped inspire similar efforts elsewhere.

In this episode, Bri talks about incarceration, reentry, stigma, and what she calls the permanent punishments that can follow people long after a sentence ends — and how she turned those experiences into a fight for dignity, opportunity, and full participation in community life.

Daryl Upsall is founder and president of Upsall International, and a nonprofit leader with more than four decades of experience working with organizations around the world.

Daryl grew up in a small town in England, but from an early age wanted to see the world. He found his way into social causes through music and activism, eventually working in international development, human rights, and the HIV/AIDS crisis.

At the Terrence Higgins Trust, he built the first professional HIV/AIDS fundraising program in Europe, working with Elton John, Queen, and others during some of the darkest years of the epidemic.

He later joined Greenpeace International, where he helped turn around its global income, pioneered digital fundraising, and helped create the modern face-to-face model. Since 2001, through Upsall International, he has advised and recruited leaders for nonprofit organizations across the globe.

In this episode, we trace Daryl’s remarkable journey through music, activism, HIV/AIDS, Greenpeace, and a lifetime spent working for causes — and explore what it has taught him about leadership, change, and making a difference.

Jim Balfanz is the CEO of City Year, the national nonprofit that helps students succeed in school while developing the next generation of leaders through national service.

In 1993, Jim joined City Year for what he thought would be ten months of service before moving on to graduate school and a career in international affairs. More than thirty years later, he's still there, having risen from corps member to CEO.

But Jim's own experiences with dyslexia, education, and the transformative power of working alongside people from different backgrounds have given him a particularly personal perspective on human potential, leadership, and the role of service in American life.

Jerry White is a humanitarian activist, author, diplomat, social entrepreneur, and a leader in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

Jerry’s life changed at twenty when, while hiking in Israel, he stepped on an unmarked landmine and lost his lower right leg.

He went on to co-found the Landmine Survivors Network and help lead the campaign that produced the 1997 Ottawa Treaty banning landmines. He later helped advance two more landmark international agreements: the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Jerry has since served as a senior U.S. State Department official on conflict and stabilization, as a Senior Ashoka Fellow, and as the first Professor of Practice at the University of Virginia.

Today, he chairs MADE IMPACT and teaches what he calls “humane leadership” through BeSeeDo. His books include Getting Up When Life Knocks You Down, Religicide, and his latest, Be See Do: The Art of Humane Leadership.

In this episode, we trace Jerry’s extraordinary journey — from surviving a landmine explosion to helping build a Nobel Peace Prize-winning movement, shaping international treaties, serving in government, and developing a practical approach to humane leadership, philanthropy, and systems change.

Jennice Fuentes is founder and CEO of BoricuActivatEd, a nonprofit that helps people understand government, find their voice, and become more effective advocates for themselves and their communities.

Jennice was born and raised in Puerto Rico and spent 25 years working in the U.S. House of Representatives, eventually serving as chief of staff to Congressman Luis Gutiérrez. After leaving Capitol Hill in 2013, she founded Fuentes Strategies, a government relations and consulting firm providing advice to corporations, individuals, and nonprofits with interests before Congress, federal agencies, and the European Community.

Along the way, Jennice also pursued another passion — acting — building a professional career that included appearances in Law & Order, Godless, and HBO’s K Street.

Then, in September 2017, Hurricane Maria changed the course of her life. As Puerto Rico’s infrastructure collapsed and Jennice worried about family on the island, she heard a reporter say, “Without Congress, we are dead.”

Jennice knew Congress. She knew how it worked. And she realized she could use that knowledge to help ordinary people understand the system, navigate it, and advocate for themselves.

That realization became BoricuActivatEd.

In this episode, we talk about Hurricane Maria, Jennice’s years on Capitol Hill, her parallel life as an actor, and what she has learned about power, civic engagement, advocacy, and helping people recognize — and exercise — the influence they already have.