Leap Ambassador Profile

Michele Jolin launched and is leading Results for America, a project being incubated as part of the national nonprofit organization America Achieves. Jolin also is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Jolin was appointed by President Barack Obama in December 2010 to be a member of the White House Council for Community Solutions.

Jolin served as a Senior Advisor for Social Innovation at the White House in 2009‰ÛÓ2010. In that role she designed and launched the Social Innovation Fund and other policy tools to drive investment toward more innovative and effective social solutions. Jolin also served on President Obama’s Presidential Transition Team.

Prior to joining the White House, Jolin led the Center for American Progress’s presidential transition project and co-edited the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s presidential transition book titled Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President. She also authored a number of articles and reports on policy tools to promote innovation and impact in the nonprofit sector, including a Stanford Social Innovation Review piece in 2007 arguing for the creation of a White House Office of Social Innovation.

Jolin was a Senior Vice President at Ashoka, a global foundation that invests in social entrepreneurs in more than 50 countries around the world. At Ashoka she was responsible for launching and managing several global initiatives designed to support the growth and spread of the work of Ashoka fellows.

Jolin served in the White House from 1995‰ÛÓ1999 as the Chief of Staff for President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, for CEA Chairs Joseph Stiglitz and Janet Yellen. She also worked for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.

Jolin has a BA from University of Wisconsin, MSc from The London School of Economics and a JD from the University of Virginia. Jolin serves on the board of directors of the national nonprofit organizations LIFT, Family Independence Initiative and StriveTogether. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and their three children.