Fostering youth innovation

Gretchen Zucker brings in-depth experience in management consulting and international development to her work at Ashoka. She is the Executive Director of Youth Venture, providing young people leadership opportunties for social chance.

Prior to joining Ashoka, Gretchen developed her expertise in trade and development in East and Southern African regions while working in the Africa Bureau of the US Agency for International Development. She later worked for the Ethiopian government, in its Washington DC embassy and in Addis Ababa as a consultant in the Ethiopian Investment Authority. Gretchen then helped launch the Washington office of the Tigray Development Association, a not-for-profit development institution headquartered in Tigray, Ethiopia. Gretchen was educated at Ohio State University, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Gretchen is pushing youth innovation forward using her breadth of expertise and experience.

Speech Topics

• Rising tide of you-led Social Change
• Youth Development
• Citizen Sector Management