Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia, on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, is excited to announce the UVA Social Innovator of the Year Award to highlight the transformative work of UVA alumni in the social impact space.

The awardee is Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of Acumen, a non-profit impact investment fund changing the way the world tackles poverty. In 20 years, Acumen has been able to provide basic services like affordable education, healthcare, clean water, energy and sanitation to more than 308 million people through its social enterprise investments across Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the United States.

Before Acumen, Novogratz graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor's degree in Economics and International Relations and continued to the Stanford School of Business where she received her MBA. She went on to found and direct The Philanthropy Workshop and The Next Generation Leadership programs at the Rockefeller Foundation, serve on boards of the Aspen Institute, and write her best-selling memoir, The Blue Sweater, on her quest to understand poverty and challenges readers to grant dignity to the poor and to rethink their engagement with the world.

As one of Forbes World’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds in 2017, SE@UVA is honored to celebrate Jacqueline Novogratz as the Social Innovator of the Year 2021!

SE@UVA recognized Jacqueline on March 17th, 2021.