Ambassador James A. Joseph, a professor at the Sanford Institute and Hart Leadership Program leader-in-residence, has won the 2008 John Gardner Prize for Social Entrepreneurship. The award is presented annually by Civic Ventures, a national think tank and social innovator that seeks to identify and support individuals in the second have of life who are using “encore careers” for social innovation to advance the public good. Founded in the late 1990s by social entrepreneurs John Gardener and Marc Freedman, Civic Ventures is reframing the debate about aging in America and redefining the second half of life as a source of social and individual renewal.
Joseph was recognized for his passion for social service and a life time of social innovation in which he has developed new programs and organizations to solve serious social problems, promote civic engagement and develop a new generation of principle-centered leaders. The Gardner Prize was presented to Joseph Dec. 8 at the Civic Ventures inaugural Encore Careers Summit at Stanford University in Pala Alto, California. Joseph was also the keynote speaker for the closing lunch at the summit.
Joseph founded the United States-Southern Africa Centers for Leadership and Public Values at Duke University and the University of Cape Town. The Centers have graduated more than a hundred emerging leaders who now occupy senior positions in the United States and Southern Africa. One of the Fellows of the Emerging Leaders Program is now the Mayor of Philadelphia and another is the Archbishop of Cape Town. The center is also completing the first year of a leadership program for mid-career leaders in Louisiana. The program is a partnership between the Sanford Institute and the College of Business at Southern University in Baton Rouge.
The John Gardner Prize provides the recipient with a $10,000 cash award and other forms of support for social innovation.