Yordanos Eyoel: Democracy is a Verb – Launching into Vigorous Action

Aug 16

Yordanos Eyoel: Democracy is a Verb – Launching into Vigorous Action

Like many changemakers who join us on The PlayFull Podcast, Yordanos Eyoel has an impact origin story that began before her 10th birthday. Listen in as she shares the experience of growing up in the midst of civil war in Ethiopia, coups d'état, and ethnic strife. It forged an unshakable commitment to pursuing democracy as both an individual expression and a collective movement. Today, as founder and CEO of KESEB, a transnational pro-democracy platform, Yordanos is bringing the language and practice venture capital, social innovation, and entrepreneurship to the world of protecting, expanding, and growing democracy. Keseb’s fellows hail from Brazil, South Africa, and the US, and, when they’re not singing karaoke or sipping Yordanos’ custom tea blends, they’re inventing, investing, and innovating in the vision of a better democracy.

Key Takeaways:

The crisis of democracy is local, national, and transnational. Solutions need to be built within each of these multiple layers.
Democracy is something we need to treasure, protect, and celebrate, which means it’s going to be in a constant process of renovation.
It is most important to commit to being a participant in protecting and straightening our democracy.
When something is undemocratic, be brave enough to speak up and fight it.
Make your commitment and plan to vote now, don’t wait until election day.
Become a global citizen! The US is not a planet - we live in a world where countries exist, and what happens in other places also influences you.

"There’s a lot we need to appreciate and celebrate about democracy. The challenge we have right now is we have become so consumed by the fear of losing democracy because of what's not working, that we underappreciate the value and gift democracy has given us, as imperfect as it has been." — Yordanos Eyoel

More about Yordanos Eyoel:

Yordanos Eyoel is an Ethiopian-American democracy entrepreneur who is the Founder and CEO of Keseb. Keseb is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization building an ecosystem for cross-country learning, collaboration, and innovation to advance inclusive and resilient democracies. For launching Keseb in 2022, Yordanos was recognized with the “Extraordinary Leader Transforming a Field” award by Unorthodox Philanthropy. Previously, Yordanos was a Managing Partner at New Profit, where she was the first person in the organization’s 22-year history to grow from Portfolio Analyst to Managing Partner.

Yordanos is a Civil Society Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a former Visiting Fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. In 2017, Yordanos co-founded and served as the International Spokesperson of the Sister March Network that mobilized over 4 million people for the 2017 Women’s March. Yordanos serves as the Board Chair of PushBlack, the largest nonprofit media organization for Black Americans. Yordanos’ work and writing has been featured in TED, Fast Company, Stanford Social Innovation Review, NPR, and We the Possibility by Harvard Business Review, among others.

Yordanos holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science, Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Florida and a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School.

Connect with Yordanos:
Website: keseb.org

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/keseb

X: x.com/KesebGlobal

YouTube: youtube.com/@kesebglobal8706/playlists

Connect with Kristine:

Website: impactfullinc.com

Instagram: instagram.com/impactfull_inc

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kristine-breese-michie