Alan Khazei

Alan Khazei is the Founder of Be the Change Inc, a non-profit dedicated to strengthening our democracy by mobilizing bi-partisan movements to change policy and culture. Be the Change leverages the “grasstops” and “grass roots” to build citizen movements for change. It taps the wisdom, experience, and networks of practitioners, social entrepreneurs, service alumni and leaders from all sectors, to craft bold, new post-partisan policy agendas, build coalitions, mobilize citizens, and unite Americans behind ideas that can transform our nation and create a better future for all Americans. Be the Change is the driving force behind ServiceNation, an effort to make citizen service a common experience for all Americans and Opportunity Nation, an effort to improve social mobility and fight poverty in our country.

Alan Khazei was Co-Founder and CEO of City Year for almost twenty years, a youth service corps that helped to inspire the development of AmeriCorps, America’s federal investment in national service. Founded in 1988 with 50 young people in service in Boston, City Year is now a global organization operating in 23 cities in America and in Johannesburg and London. City Year annually enlists more than 2000 young adults from all backgrounds for a demanding year of full-time community service, civic engagement and leadership development. An “action tank” for the concept of voluntary national service, City Year envisions a world in which a year of public service will be a civic rite of passage for all young adults.

Alan is also the author of Big Citizenship: How Pragmatic Idealism Can Bring Out The Best In America.

Alan Khazei was appointed to the Commission on National and Community Service by President George H.W. Bush and served as a Vice-Chair from 1990-1992. He is a recipient of the Reebok Human Rights Award, the Jefferson Award for Public Service, The Caring Institute Award, and the Harvard Law School Association Outstanding Alumni Award. In 2006 he was selected by US News and World Report as one of America's 25 Best Leaders and was chosen by the Boston Globe Magazine as one of 11 Bostonians Changing the World. Time Magazine named him one of America’s top 50 leaders under 40. Alan served as a fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics in the fall of 2006. Alan is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and currently lives in Brookline, MA with his wife, daughter, and son.

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