Jennifer Anastasoff, CEO
BuildingBlocks International (BBI)
jennifer@bblocks.org 415-596-1278
Jennifer Anastasia was the first link in the effort to get the math and science portion, (the most pressing need of the Harry Singer Foundation's T2T project), up and running by having it adopted by the state of California. Jennifer's background experience and enthusiasm was not wasted on the dynamic Sherry Lansing who was able to influence the Governor. Press releases will be updated over time to show the progress of what is now known as Encorps. With the most important part of the T2T project in good hands the Foundation is working with other organizations to place applicants with qualifications to help schools in areas other than math and science.
Jennifer Anastasoff has served as CEO of BBI since 2001. Building Blocks International (BBI) is a San Francisco based nonprofit that is working with multinational corporations to develop what Business Week calls a corporate "Peace Corps" and what we call corporate service fellowships.
Ten years ago, founder Jennifer Anastasoff looked around the marginalized community where she taught sixth grade and saw children fighting against terrible odds to get in school, stay in school, and hopefully succeed in school. She saw the extraordinary efforts that local community organizations were making to enable these children to thrive. These community organizations have the local knowledge and the passion to make an incredible impact; however, many of them wanted the management expertise in order to improve and expand their services to the many thousands of children and families who remain in need of help.
She sought a delivery mechanism to provide each organization with the management expertise to squeeze the most out of each dollar (efficiency) and to expand to meet the needs of children and families in marginalized communities (effectiveness). With the advice of seasoned social entrepreneurs such as Vanessa Kirsch of NewProfit Inc., BBI developed a sustainable model based on the concept of a corporate "Peace Corps" which trains global leaders and provides the much-needed management expertise at the local level.
During a corporate service fellowship, employees work full time for four weeks to a year applying their management skills within community-based organizations around the world. These fellowships are building the next generation of socially responsible business leaders – by training global leaders through public service. BBI has convened top companies such as Pfizer, UPS, King & Spalding, Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Cisco, to improve the quality and increase the quantity of such fellowships. We created a corporate service fellowship demonstration program of our own in Santiago, Chile, where we helped build a new school, place street kids in more stable situations, and improve computer literacy.
To date, approximately 2,100 corporate employees have participated in corporate service fellowship programs - our goal is to more than double this number to 5,000 within the next five years. Imagine the impact on business, social and international policy when most future business leaders engage in a personally transformative experience in a marginalized area of the US or a developing country.
Ms. Anastasoff’s prior work includes teaching in the classroom through Teach for America, serving as an analyst in the California Legislature, and working in a for-profit education corporation. She has been a speaker at Harvard Business School, Harvard University, and the University of California at Berkeley, and has presented papers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and at the Comparative International Education Society Conference. Ms. Anastasoff has a Masters in Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government where she received the prestigious Public Service Fellowship.