Michael Trainer

Michael is a social entrepreneur focused on building movements for social impact. As a Fulbright Scholar he studied community-building strategies in Sri Lanka, where he lived and researched for two years. As a member of the Board of Directors of Sarvodaya USA Michael worked intimately with Sri Lanka's largest social movement and NGO, Sarvodaya, serving 11 million people across 15,000 villages. Since that time he has traveled and worked to build global movements.

Michael has been fortunate enough to support the work of great visionaries like Nobel Peace prize winners Wangari Maathai and President Jimmy Carter. As an entrepreneur focusing on content and strategy for social impact his clients included Acumen Fund, charity: water, Pencils of Promise, and the Summit Series. A graduate fellow at Columbia University, Michael has a Master’s degree in International Development.

Michael is currently the U.S. Country Director for the Global Poverty Project, working to build the movement to end extreme poverty.