Meet the Team

Sherman is an expert on the most effective ways that people succeed in their attempts to change the world – whether working for public health, the environment, or economic prosperity. He is currently writing a book summarizing his research, How We Win: The Science of Making the World a Better Place.

Over the last decade, Sherman has taught courses on social entrepreneurship and social innovation at numerous universities, including Yale, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins.

In 2005, Sherman won the international Echoing Green competition, which recognized him as one of the world’s “best emerging social entrepreneurs.” Sherman has also won awards from Ashoka U for excellence and innovation in teaching social entrepreneurship, including being part of the first class inducted into their “Hall of Fame.”

His curricula and workshops have been used at more than 50 campuses across the United States from Tulane and Harvard to Stanford and UCLA. His programs have also been used in dozens of nations around the world from Europe to Latin America, and from Africa to Asia.

Sherman earned his undergraduate and law degrees from U.C. Berkeley, as well as his Ph.D. in environmental studies from the University of Michigan.

Gemma still serves as the Founding Director of the Global Women’s Water Initiative, her third social enterprise. GWWI trains grassroots women in Sub-Saharan Africa to become water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) technicians, trainers and social entrepreneurs. GWWI was shortlisted for the Humanitarian Water and Food Award and Gemma was named one of the Top 10 Water Solutions Trailblazers in the world by Reuters Foundation. Prior to stepping in to lead GWWI, Gemma co-founded A Single Drop for Safe Water (ASDSW), developing income-generating community-led water service organizations in disaster prone regions of the Philippines. For this innovation, Gemma received international accolades including Echoing Green as one of the Best Emerging SocEnts in the World; Best SocEnt in the Philippines by Ernst Young; and Best SocEnt in Asia by the Schwab Foundation with a special recognition at the World Economic Forum.

Because of her work in innovative international development, Gemma was invited as a Social Entrepreneur en Residence at Stanford University where she co-taught a class on Social Entrepreneurship. She helped launch a social innovation curriculum where students had opportunities to engage and work alongside award-winning SocEnts through service-learning seminar courses, internships and fellowships abroad.

The initiative that started it all was a global movement that Gemma spearheaded after the tragedy on Sept 11. She was a professional jazz singer and pre-school teacher who called in sick on 9/11 when she was supposed to be in the WTC when the planes hit. As a singer/songwriter, she wrote a song in response called “WE RISE” and left her life, gave away all her belongings and traveled around the globe to build a million voice choir. In her worldwide travels, she was able to mobilize singers and choirs in over 100 cities in 60 countries to sing “WE RISE” from all over the planet on Sept 21, 2004, in celebration of the United Nations International Day of Peace. After being recognized at the United Nations and then winning a $10,000 award from Queen Latifah and CoverGirl for women who were changing the world through music, she seed funded her social enterprise in the Philippines, ASDSW. And the rest is history.

Lidia is a prize-winning newspaper reporter, an elementary school teacher, and former coordinator for an Afterschool Program in the area. She has served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala from 2003 -2005 facilitating a Health and Hygiene Program with the Ministry of Education in the Western Highlands of that country. And, most recently, lived and worked for six years as Country Director of many international organizations in Honduras and Nicaragua.

During her junior year Michaiah took a course with Prof Sherman called Making a Difference: Strategies for Solving Social Problems which highlighted organizations and businesses that are improving the incentive structures people face and thus their quality of life. From there she was hooked. Now working as the Administrative Assistant for the Kravis Lab, she is picking up even more of the small tricks people can implement that drastically change outcomes.