Social
Justice
Accelerator

Doug Lasdon: Executive Director, UJC

Doug Lasdon launched the UJC as a one-person operation in a burned-out building in East Harlem. In addition to leading the UJC and spearheading the Social Justice Accelerator, Doug is an Adjunct Professor at the Cornell Law School, teaching Poverty Law and Social Entrepreneurship and mentoring students on launching their own social justice projects. He was previously an Adjunct Professor New York University. Doug has served as a consultant to the World Bank, and as a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard Law School.

Brooke Richie-Babbage: Director, Social Justice Accelerator

Brooke Richie-Babbage is an organizational design and social impact strategy advisor and consultant. Brooke is also an Adjunct Professor of nonprofit leadership and social innovation at the Baruch Graduate School of Public Affairs, as well as the Director of Impact Network Initiatives at the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. Brooke has been a nonprofit leader, social entrepreneur, social impact strategist, and lawyer at social change organizations for the past 21 years. She has advised and presented papers at law schools throughout the country, and has served on and Chaired multiple nonprofit boards. She is a graduate of Harvard Law, an Echoing Green Finalist, and a Harvard Law School Wasserstein Fellow.

Kristin Jamberdino: UJC Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel

Kristin currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Bronx Documentary Center and on the Professional Board of Sundara Fund’s RISE 100 initiative. She is a graduate of Canisius College and Columbia Law School, where she was an Executive Editor of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. Prior to joining UJC, Kristin served as a partner at Nixon Peabody LLP, litigating matters addressing corporate governance, real estate, and intellectual property issues. She also focused on the development and retention of associates, and addressed human resources issues with respect to attorneys and staff. Her primary pro bono work involved advocating on behalf of unaccompanied minors in Immigration and Family Court matters. Kristin is grateful to be supporting UJC’s incredible team as they do the hard work of effectuating change and providing direct relief in the communities they serve.

Nick Taranto: Entrepreneur Consultant, Social Justice Accelerator

Nick Taranto was born in New York to a Turkish dad and a mom from Minnesota. After earning his MBA at Harvard Business School, Nick commissioned as an infantry officer in the US Marine Corps. Post active duty, Nick spent six months on Wall Street before leaving to found Plated, a technology-driven food company whose mission is to create a world where healthy, affordable, and delicious food is available to everyone. Plated has created over 1,000 jobs in four states, and has shipped tens of millions of meals across the United States. Nick is a husband and father of two young daughters. He is the author of The Evolved Eater.

Bradley Tusk: Entrepreneur Consultant, Social Justice Accelerator

Bradley Tusk is a venture capitalist, political strategist, philanthropist and writer. He created the first venture capital fund to embrace regulatory risk. He ran the campaigns across the United States to legalize Uber and has since done the same for tech startups like FanDuel, Lemonade, Roman, Bird and dozens of others. He ran Mike Bloomberg’s 2009 re-election campaign, served as the Deputy Governor of Illinois (and managed to come out clean), and served as Chuck Schumer’s Communications Director. He has funded and run the national effort to create mobile voting over the blockchain with 20 different jurisdictions (so far) offering deployed military and people with disabilities the chance to vote on their phones. Bradley is also the chair of a publicly traded gambling company (Ivory Gaming Acquisition Corporation). His foundation has passed legislation in a dozen states to bring regular meals to approximately 6 million children, college students and senior citizens. He is the co-founder of the Gotham Book Prize, the owner of P&T Knitwear — a new bookstore and podcast studio opening this fall on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, the co-founder and chair of Exalt — a new startup attempting to digitize religion, the author of The Fixer: My Adventures Saving Startups from Death by Politics, the host of Firewall — a podcast about technology and politics, and writes a column for Fast Company. He is also working on a comedic novel about legalizing flying cars.