at the parent-owned Iringa International School in Tanzania. Above, her class takes
a field trip to a local photography shop.
By Carolyn Gray Anderson
To be sure, Elizabeth Pratt (MBA/MPP ’16) is gratified to be the recipient of a 2014 John Wooden Global Leadership fellowship because of its prestige and renown; but as a sports fan and reader of Coach Wooden’s published works, she feels a special affinity for the award and its namesake. “The thing that really resonates with me about him is the ethic of service,” Pratt says. “That’s my driving force.”
When Pratt earns her combined MBA and Master of Public Policy from UCLA, she intends to apply new knowledge to the sort of community-based projects she’s always felt so passionately about. “I came to UCLA to acquire management skills and policy knowledge to complement my dedication to service,” she says.
And distinguished service it is, particularly abroad. After earning her B.A. at Stanford in 2008, Pratt taught at the Ouyang Yu Experimental Middle School in China and at the parent-owned nonprofit Iringa International School in Tanzania. She later ran a small NGO in Peru for two years and led teams of Peruvian staff and international volunteers to establish programs and partnerships across organizations. The results were more efficient and effective delivery of educational, health care and financial services to thousands of underserved citizens.
Pratt is bilingual in English and Spanish, and is making strides toward becoming proficient in Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, and Swahili. She recently completed an internship with Amgen, in order to acquire professional experience domestically, which she lacked because she’s so consistently found work overseas. She feels strongly that the nonprofits and NGOs she wants to see succeed can learn lessons from well-run corporations.
“I would like to be running my own social enterprise that is working to effect holistic community change,” Pratt says. “Not just in the form of schools or clinics, but also resources for jobs, for people to help themselves. I need to learn how to run the organization as well oversee all the business elements, financial especially. Most people who lead nonprofits don't have that experience.”
A born leader, as her colleagues and mentors routinely attest, Pratt hopes to inspire a cultural shift away from fixations with high starting salaries toward an interest in social change. “In terms of sharing success,” she says about UCLA Anderson, “it’s a welcoming culture. People take time, the faculty is very accommodating.”
Pratt senses every day the imperative among entrepreneurs to think fearlessly; now, she wants to see that spirit carried over into hands-on opportunities for students pursuing social impact careers. Pratt envisions “an academic specialization in social entrepreneurship or nonprofit management, or a Center for Social Innovation that encourages faculty to bring social impact examples or cases into the classroom. A business school that seriously wants to ‘drive change’ in a global, meaningful way needs to embrace social impact and social entrepreneurship in a tangible, material way.”
Walking her talk, Pratt is leading two social impact consulting programs for UCLA Anderson’s chapter of Net Impact, consulting at a local educational nonprofit, and providing pro bono editing services for the Union Rescue Mission on Skid Row.
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