Alan Khazei

Alan Khazei *
Founder and CEO
Be the Change, Inc.
Co-Founder and Former CEO
City Year, Inc.
Boston, MA

Alan Khazei co-founded City Year in 1988 and served as its CEO until 2006. Founded in 1988 with 50 young people in service in Boston, City Year today enlists more than 1,200 young adults, in 16 communities across America and in Johannesburg South Africa, for a demanding year of full-time community service, civic engagement and leadership development.  

Alan left City Year in 2006 after 19 years and is now the Founder and CEO of "Be the Change", an organization committed to building broad-based non-partisan citizen support for systemic solutions to our nation's problems that leverage the experience of social entrepreneurs, civic and community leaders, and national service alumni.

Mr. Khazei has received numerous honors for his leadership in the nonprofit sector - in 2006, U.S. News & World Report recognized Mr. Khazei and Michael Brown as among America's Best Leaders, and the two leaders of City Year have also received the Reebok Human Rights Award and the Jefferson Award for Public Service. Mr. Khazei currently serves on the Board of Directors of Citizen Schools, Harvard Alumni Association, New Profit, Inc., Share Our Strength, and on the Advisory Board of America's Promise, the Partnership for Public Service, and the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. An honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Mr. Khazei currently lives in Jamaica Plain, MA with his wife and daughter.