SORENSON IMPACT INSTITUTE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Investing
Alan joined the Impact Finance team of the Sorenson Impact Center in 2021. His role involves the management of impact finance projects, the structuring of innovative social finance vehicles, and the account management and business development for the Center.
Prior to joining the organization, Alan had 10+ years of private capital market experience working in the capacity of management consulting, strategic partnerships, and business development. He holds an MBA through the completion of the Executive MBA program at Ivey Business School and a bachelor's degree from York University. He is active in the entrepreneurial community and is currently serving as a board member at the Association of Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurs and a mentor at York University's YSpace Venture Catalyze program.
Born in Hong Kong, Alan moved to Canada with his family in 1990. He currently resides in Toronto with his wife and daughter.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director of the Sorenson Impact Center
- Managing Director, Impact Strategy
Allison Boxer currently serves as Managing Director of the Sorenson Impact Center and Adjunct Professor at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. Allison leads all academic programming for the Center with the goal of embedding social impact into academic programs and content. She developed and teaches the course Social Impact Strategy and Innovation. She also advises on the MAPS grant, which focuses on more equitable and student-centric futures in higher education through the concert of data science, student perspectives, and cross-sector collaboration.
Previously, Allison was a Partner at Wellspring Consulting, where she led strategy and management consulting for nonprofit and mission-driven clients.
Allison received her Doctor of Education degree from the University of Southern California (USC), Rossier School of Education, where her dissertation research focused on the role of higher education institutions in social and economic development. Allison graduated from Harvard Business School with a Masters in Business Administration and St. Olaf College with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology/Anthropology.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Data Science
- Data Scientist
Alyssa Allsop is a data scientist currently working on the dashboard for the MAPS project. The MAPS project focuses on understanding challenges facing institutions of higher education and creating solutions as the future of higher ed evolves. The dashboard tool allows users to see the financial health and equity breakdown of specific higher education institutions and how it compares to state and national data.
Alyssa has a BS in statistics from Brigham Young University and a MS in applied statistics from Colorado State University. Alyssa enjoys learning from data and using it to propose impactful solutions to problems.
Job Titles:
- Director of Events & Convenings
- Manager of Events
Amanda is currently the Manager of Events and Convening's for the Communications, Marketing, & Storytelling team as a passionate event producer of impactful experiences in the virtual world and real life with a sharp focus on social impact & impact investing. In her nine years of producing high-quality, large-scale live and hybrid events, Amanda found her calling - using strategic planning and creative design to facilitate impactful experiences that make the world a better place. Prior to joining the Center she was the Director of Production for SOCAP's flagship conference for 4 years, and was a vital member of their team when pivoting to virtual programming during Covid-19.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Impact Strategy
Anna is an Impact Strategy Associate working on Project DEEP and the Rural Pathways to Education project. She recently graduated from the University of Utah with Bachelor's of Science in Political Science, Philosophy, and International Studies in May of 2022.
Job Titles:
- Student Fellow, Impact Finance
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Video
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Intern, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Finance
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Strategy
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Associate, Impact Strategy
Bryan Brittain serves as an Associate on the Impact Finance team where his main responsibilities include financial modeling, research, and supporting business development efforts for the Center. Prior to joining the Sorenson team, his time was spent largely in the startup space. He worked for Lambda School, a startup focused on providing software engineering training using innovative finance solutions and ISAs to more effectively serve minority populations. He then started his own company developing a wireless irrigation technology that seeks to reduce water usage in irrigation systems. During his collegiate career, he worked as a research assistant in Cambodia, and received funding to implement an innovative EdTech solution in Uganda. He received his BS in Entrepreneurial Management from Brigham Young University.
Bryan's skills include financial modeling, research and start-up venture.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Data Science
Job Titles:
- Student Intern, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer at the Sorenson Impact Center
- Finance & Operations
Chad Salvadore is currently the Chief Financial Officer at the Sorenson Impact Center. He leads financial oversight of the organization coordinating with government, non-profit, and private clients alike. Additionally, he also oversees operational logistics including contracting, compliance, and HR functions. Prior to joining the Sorenson team, he was a Senior Financial Analyst for PECI, a nonprofit energy efficiency organization in the Pacific Northwest. Additionally, he has worked in financial management roles for the Utah Department of Health and WhiteWave Foods, a natural foods company in Colorado. Chad holds an MBA from the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business and undergraduate degrees in Economics and Finance from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Job Titles:
- Manager, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Manager, Impact Strategy
- Sorenson Impact Center As an Associate
Danika Borcik joined the Sorenson Impact Center as an Associate on the Impact Strategy team in November 2021. Previously, she worked at the University of Utah within the Office for Global Engagement and Continuing Education & Community Engagement. She has created and managed orientation and onboarding systems, curriculum development, student leadership programs, and scholarship opportunities for both domestic and international students. Danika received an MBA from the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business and a BA in International Studies with a minor in Chinese from the University of Utah.
Job Titles:
- Director of Partnerships, Impact Labs
Job Titles:
- Student Intern, Data Science
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager, Impact Strategy
Heather holds a Ph.D. in Community Sustainability from Michigan State University. She also has a master's degree in Community Psychology and an MBA. She has deep experience in consulting, strategy, program evaluation, research and project management. She is a former Peace Corps volunteer, and Fulbright/Hayes Scholar. Her interests are wide ranging (who doesn't like a good learning curve?) and include among others: maternal/child health, social-ecological resilience, organizational resilience, social determinants of health, interpersonal abuse, and housing.
Job Titles:
- Director, Impact Measurement
- Senior Director of Impact Measurement at the Sorenson Impact Center
Dr. Nzinga Broussard currently serves as Senior Director of Impact Measurement at the Sorenson Impact Center. She oversees, plans, and implements measurement and evaluation programs for the impact investing and impact strategy team. Dr. Broussard has held various positions in academia, the private sector, and the public sector and has over 15 years of research and applied experience working in the fields of development, agricultural, and labor economics. Prior to joining Sorenson, Dr. Broussard served as a Senior Director of Research and Evaluation at New Markets Support Company, a leading community impact investor and impact fund services provider. Prior to NMSC, Dr. Broussard was a Senior Director of Impact at the Global Innovation Fund, a non-profit organization that invests in the development, rigorous testing, and scaling of innovations targeted at improving the lives of the world's poorest people. At GIF she quantified the social and economic benefits of potential investments to inform GIF's investment decisions and monitored the social impact performance of GIF's investments and investment portfolio. Dr. Broussard has also held positions as an economist at the Millennium Challenge Corporation and USDA's Economic Research Service. Dr. Broussard has a joint doctoral degree in Economics & Public Policy from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Oberlin College.
Job Titles:
- Director, Impact Strategy
- Senior Director of Impact Strategy at Sorenson Impact Center
Tiana N. Rogers, PhD is a Senior Director of Impact Strategy at Sorenson Impact Center. She leads a variety of portfolios using data to inform government and not-for-profit entities with capacity building in various areas. Her career has focused on conducting research and serving as a field expert in the areas of homelessness, child welfare & maltreatment, public health & policy, and racial disparities. In addition to being a published author with teaching experience, Dr. Rogers also consults with national and international social service organizations on program evaluation and development.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Associate, Marketing, Communications
Job Titles:
- Manager
- Senior Associate, Impact Finance
Gabe Freeman is a manager on the Impact Finance team at the Sorenson Impact Center housed at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. At the Sorenson Impact Center he has worked on projects that blend finance, measurement, and social impact into innovative financial solutions, and he is currently a member of the Huntsman Mental Health Institute's Anti-Stigma Grand Challenge.
Prior to joining the Sorenson Impact Center, Gabe worked at University of Utah Health Plans in the finance and accounting department, where he was involved with both the day-to-day accounting and the financial forecasting for the insurance company and its associated entities.
Gabe holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and Accounting from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master of Science in Finance from the University of Utah.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Student Team
Job Titles:
- Student Intern, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- CEO of the Sorenson Impact Center
Geoff is the CEO of the Sorenson Impact Center. In this role, he leads the strategic direction and vision for the Center. Under his leadership, the Center is poised to elevate to the next level of influence within the impact sector.
Geoff has dedicated his life to championing social impact and equipping the next generation of social impact leaders. For his work, Geoff has been recognized as a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum, an "Entrepreneurial Thought Leader" by Stanford University, a Fellow at Harvard's Center for International Development, a "Social Capitalist" by Fast Company, and as "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Ernst & Young. Geoff earned a master's degree from Harvard's Kennedy School and a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University. He speaks both French and Spanish and resides in Salt Lake City with his wife and three daughters.
Prior to joining the Center, Geoff served as the CEO and Managing Partner of Cicero Impact Capital. Over his distinguished career in social impact, he has founded, co-founded, or advised more than 25 startups and impact-oriented investment funds, as well as served on the boards of 14 companies.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Impact Strategy Associate
- Student Intern, Impact Strategy
Job Titles:
- Financial Analyst, Operations
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Member of the Student Team
Job Titles:
- Student Fellow, Moldova Program
James Lee Sorenson provided the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business with a $13 million gift in 2013 to create the Sorenson Impact Center - formerly the James Lee Sorenson Center for Global Impact Investing (SGII) - with a mission to cultivate students' social impact expertise.
Jim plays an active role in supporting the Center and mentoring its student participants. After leading a team that developed a high-quality, low-cost videoconferencing technology that transformed communication capabilities for 1,000,000 deaf individuals in the early 2000s, Jim realized that his investments could "do well while doing good," and he hasn't looked back.
Jim was an early funder of microfinance, funding the nonprofit Unitus in the early 2000s and subsequently investing in Unitus's for-profit spinoff, Unitus Equity Fund (UEF). Through UEF, Jim invested in SKS Microfinance Ltd., now called Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd., an Indian company providing financial services to the poor. From 2006 to 2009, SKS grew from serving 200,000 clients to 3,700,000. SKS went public in 2009 with a market capitalization of $1.7 billion.
In 2012, through the Sorenson Impact Foundation, Jim began making program-related investments (PRIs) into high-impact, early-stage social enterprises with robust business models capable of reaching underserved populations at scale. In 2013, Jim became an early investor into Pay for Success, also called social impact bonds (SIBs). His first PFS investment was in New York State for a program that aimed to reduce recidivism. Financial returns depended on the success of job-training programs for newly released prisoners. When the project was announced, 41 percent of formerly incarcerated individuals returned to prison within three years, costing government $60,000 per prisoner annually. Since then, Jim has participated in several PFS transactions in the state of Utah and Massachusetts.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Intern, Finance and Operations
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, Impact Finance
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Intern, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Finance
Job Titles:
- Creative Director, Marketing, Communications
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Associate, Impact Finance
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Graphic Design
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Finance
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Intern, Impact Strategy
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Finance
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Data Science
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Intern, Data Science
Job Titles:
- Marketing, Communications President, SOCAP Global, PBC
Job Titles:
- Associate Graphic Designer, Marketing, Communications
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Intern, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Intern, Impact Investing
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Strategy
Job Titles:
- Associate, Impact Strategy
Job Titles:
- Director, Impact Strategy
Job Titles:
- Member of the Student Team
- Student Fellow, Impact Finance
Job Titles:
- Student Intern, Impact Investing