Events Overview

Welcome Party

Wednesday, May 3rd
The Chester at The Gansevoort
18 9th Ave, New York, NY 10014

Summit

Thursday, May 4th
The Altman Building
135 W 18th St, New York, NY 10011

Celebration

Thursday, May 4th
Chelsea Factory
547 W 26th St, New York, NY 10001

2023 Programming

Our Summit Stage brought together leaders who have expanded the horizons of social, economic, and environmental progress.

  • 8:00am:  Breakfast + Registration
  • 9:00am:  Welcome Remarks from Greg Behrman
  • 9:20am:  Impact Spotlight with Professor Darrick Hamilton
  • 9:30am:  A Practitioners’ Panel on Economic Mobility
  • 10:10am: An Impact Spotlight with T. Morgan Dixon, GirlTrek
  • 10:20am:  A Fireside Chat with Professor Ruha Benjamin
  • 10:45am:  Morning Break
  • 11:10am:  Better + Bolder: A Shared Conversation
  • 12:05pm:  A Panel on Human Connection
  • 12:35pm:  Lunch
  • 1:35pm:  Afternoon Kickoff
  • 1:45pm:  An Impact Spotlight on Sustainability with Thea Gay
  • 1:55pm:  A Practitioners’ Panel on Sustainability
  • 2:30pm:  NationSwell’s Collaborative Model
  • 2:40pm:  Better + Bolder: A Shared Conversation
  • 3:30pm:  Afternoon Break
  • 3:45pm:  Special Performance
  • 3:50pm:  An Impact Spotlight with Sid Espinosa
  • 4:00pm:  An Impact Spotlight on the American Opportunity Index
  • 4:10pm:   A Fireside Chat with Hamdi Ulukaya
  • 4:40pm:  Closing Remarks
An Impact Spotlight with Professor Darrick Hamilton
In this Impact Spotlight, Professor Darrick Hamilton, Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy and founding director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School, will explore his vision for how baby bonds are an innovative, community-centered policy with immense potential to redress injustice, advance economic mobility and narrow the racial wealth gap.
A Practitioners’ Panel on Economic Mobility
Michael Tubbs, Special Adviser for Economic Mobility and Opportunity to Gov. Gavin Newsom
Pete Stavros, Co-head of Global Private Equity, KKR
Terri Ludwig, President, Ballmer Group
Moderated by Justina Nixon-Saintil, Chief Impact Officer, IBM

Michael Tubbs, Pete Stavros, and Terri Ludwig have some of the boldest visions for how leaders can advance economic equity and opportunity. With Justina Nixon-Saintil’s guidance, we’ll explore how leaders are drawing on the capabilities and resources of their organizations to drive economic mobility and social justice in underserved communities – and what government, philanthropy and business can do to best advance equity and social justice to build the brightest version of our future.
An Impact Spotlight with T. Morgan Dixon, GirlTrek
In this Impact Spotlight,T. Morgan Dixon, co-founder of GirlTrek, will explore how they started, grew, and continue to sustain a movement of one million Black women for health and justice.
A Fireside Chat with Professor Ruha Benjamin
Moderated by Graham Macmillan, President, Visa Foundation

Join Ruha Benjamin, Princeton University Professor of African American Studies and Author, and Graham Macmillan for a conversation on how leaders meet the demands of this moment in racial equity and justice.
A Panel on Human Connection
Sheila Peluso, Chief HR Officer, Sr Legal Officer and Sr Managing Director, Cerberus Capital Management
Jenn Hoos Rothberg, Executive Director, Einhorn Collaborative
Moderated by Scott Keoni Shigeoka, Author, Fellow, Greater Good Science Center

Join Sheila Peluso, Jenn Hoos Rothberg, and moderator Scott Shigeoka for a panel exploring models for building and deepening human connection, and how leaders can utilize strategies to learn, work through — and even draw power — from conflict and difference.
An Impact Spotlight with Thea Gay
In this Impact Spotlight, Thea Gay, youth climate activist and NationSwell Fellow, in partnership with the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact, will explore her vision for intersectional climate justice, the resources she’s building to power the next generation of environmental activism, and the importance of building cross-sector, intergenerational coalitions in the movement for a sustainable planet.
A Practitioners’ Panel on Sustainability
Michael Kobori, Chief Sustainability Officer, Starbucks
Donnel Baird, Founder and CEO, BlocPower
Naomi Morenzoni, Senior Vice President, Philanthropy, Salesforce
Moderated by Nate Hurst, Chief Sustainability & Social Impact Officer; Head of the BlackRock Foundation, BlackRock

Michael Kobori, Donnel Baird, and Naomi Morenzoni have some of the boldest visions for how cross-sector leaders can advance environmental progress. Moderated by Nate Hurst, we’ll explore their innovative approaches for companies and organizations to accelerate their impact and meet the demands of this urgent climate moment.
NationSwell’s Collaborative Model
Amy Lee, Chief Strategy Officer & Managing Director, NationSwell Studio

We know that to achieve the impact we seek, we’ll need to collaborate and partner with others. But, going from intention to true collective impact isn’t easy. Enter: a Fast Company’s 2023 World Changing Ideas Awards finalist, NationSwell Collaboratives. In this panel, you’ll learn from Collaborative participants about how this model for impact has enabled them to partner across sector, resource strengths, and areas of focus to better overcome challenges, boldly accelerate impact, and truly meet the demands of this pivotal moment at a scale and pace that they would not have been able to achieve otherwise.
An Impact Spotlight with Sid Espinosa
In this Impact Spotlight, Sid Espinosa, Head of Social Impact at GitHub, will explore the power of tech as a force for social good — and how leaders can learn from how his team has mobilized the specific resources and advantages of his organization to drive unique and powerful impact.
An Impact Spotlight on the American Opportunity Index
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Head of Policy + Strategy, The Emes Project

In this Impact Spotlight, Rajiv Chandrasekaran will lift up the American Opportunity Index, an unprecedented measure of how the nation’s largest public companies are performing in generating economic mobility for their workers. The Schultz Family Foundation partnered with the Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School’s Managing the Future of Work to launch this groundbreaking project.
A Fireside Chat With Hamdi Ulukaya
Moderated by Greg Behrman, Founder and CEO, NationSwell

In this Fireside, Greg Behrman will chat with Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO + Founder of Chobani, about what Better + Bolder has meant as a guiding principle to him throughout his career, how the Tent Partnership can serve leaders as a model for cross-sector coalition building, and how organizations can engage local communities for place-based revitalization.
NationSwell Evening Celebration
We’re taking the inspiration and energy from the daytime NationSwell Summit programming to our Evening Celebration. We will be supporting the Chelsea Factory in their mission to help and support artists in NYC navigate beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Programming Formats

Fireside Chats

NationSwell Fireside Chats provide intimate, dedicated space for deep exploration and spirited discussion with leaders who have defined Better + Bolder through the social, economic, and environmental progress they have advanced.

Practitioners’ Panel

One complex issue, three Better + Bolder approaches. Each Practitioners’ Panel focuses on one of the most urgent issues shaping the landscape of progress, showcasing pragmatic innovators who are each deploying a unique strategy, tactic, or approach for solving it.

Impact Spotlights

Rooted in the pragmatism of the present but guided by the horizon of what’s possible, Impact Spotlights are designed to showcase Better + Bolder visions for paradigm-changing progress from this community of practice.

Thank you to our sponsors and partners

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