Cosmo Fujiyama
Developing Responsible and Innovative Leaders
A 2017 study by the Lovell Corporation found that those born between 1994 and 2001 are guided by what gives them purpose and passion, and fosters impact in their world and beyond. But often times the question starts with, ‘where do I begin?’ How do we guide this new generation to harness their talents and unleash their potential? Two leading social innovators from social start-up incubators will lead a series of activities to help participants grow as innovative leaders who have the confidence to catalyze change in the world.
Cosmo Fujiyama is an educator, social entrepreneur and innovation strategist helping people learn, think and act on the change they want to see in the world.
She is Vice President of Dream Academy at The Future Project, a nonprofit organization working to empower the next generation to build the future, one dream at a time. She leads the design and development of the mastery-based curriculum, pedagogy, learning experiences, and systems that most powerfully enable students to thrive in their lives, and equip the Dream Directors to do their work with the highest effectiveness and in alignment with our student outcomes.
Previously, she was the Managing Director of the Center for Social Impact Strategy at the University of Pennsylvania where she directed online and residential training programs for social entrepreneurs, non-profit professionals business leaders.
She also served as a Fellow at The Governance Lab at New York University where she worked on The GovLab Academy, a free, online community for those interested in teaching and learning how to open their institutions and work more collaboratively to solve public problems. She also worked for Ashoka, the world’s largest association of social innovators and supported Ashoka’s Youth Venture’s partnership with New York University’s Stern School of Business.
While an undergraduate student, Cosmo co-founded and led a Students Helping Honduras, a nonprofit organization improving access to quality education for children across northern Honduras.
As a consultant and public speaker, Cosmo has moderated events and designed experiences for organization such as NYU’s Reynolds Changemakers Challenge, Iceland’s Saga Summit, Ashoka Changemakers & American Express Emerging Innovators Boot Camp, Dell Social Innovation Challenge, Hive Global Leaders Programs and the Unreasonable Institute’s Girl Effect Accelerator.
She was selected as St, Gallen’s 46th Symposium “Leader of Tomorrow” and a World Organizing Committee Member for Education Without Border in the U.A.E. Cosmo was a 2011 Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship at NYU and holds a M.P.A from NYU Wagner’s Graduate School of Public Service.
She tweets @cosmofujiyama.