Fall 2024 Fellow
Lea Endres is an entrepreneur, educator and human rights advocate. A renowned facilitator, she has spent most of her life working to make the tools of leadership available to everyone. Lea is the Co-founder and CEO of NationBuilder, the world’s most used software for politics and advocacy.
Lea’s commitment to leadership began as a fifteen-year-old working with the Oakland-based California Association of Student Councils. Hooked on the idea that a well organized community could accomplish anything, she spent the next few decades training people all over the world – from mayors in Japan to teachers in Compton. She ran education programs at WorldLink Foundation and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights before helping to found Green for All, an organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy.
Inspired by the internet’s revolutionary potential to make leadership and community building easier and more accessible, Lea ultimately joined Jim Gilliam and Jesse Haff in creating NationBuilder. She served as the company’s Chief of Staff and then President, before becoming CEO in 2017.
Lea currently serves on the board of the Dream Corps, a social justice accelerator that houses projects including #LoveArmy, #yeswecode, #cut50 and Green for All. She also advises Isidore Electronics Recycling (now Homeboy Recycling), a Los Angeles-based social enterprise that is creating green jobs for people exiting California’s correctional system. She is an accomplished screenwriter and the co-author of Jim Gilliam’s memoir, “The Internet is My Religion.”
Study Group- The Practice of Democracy: Creating Democratic Resilience in Our Daily Lives
In the midst of the biggest global election year in history, this study group will explore what it means to be a democratic practitioner – one whose daily actions support the resilience of democracies around the world. Drawing on Lea’s experience as co-founder and CEO of NationBuilder, the world’s most used software for politics and advocacy, this group will combine research from the fields of neuroscience and political science with practical exercises designed to help students build the muscles required to participate in, and strengthen, democracy. Sessions will be both fun and insightful, with an emphasis on dialogue, listening, engaging in difficult conversations, and other tangible skills that are essential to healthy democracies.
Thursdays, 2PM – 4PM PT
September 12
September 19
September 26
October 3
October 17
October 24
November 7
November 21