The prestigious Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has appointed co-founder of the SEED Foundation and leader of the Aspen Institute’s Youth and Engagement division Rajiv Vinnakota as its next president.
The Aspen Institute is a new venture focusing on youth leadership development, civic engagement, and social justice while the SEED Foundation is the nation’s first network of public, college-preparatory boarding schools for underserved children.
Vinnakota’s career has focused on educating, empowering and support America’s youth, especially adolescents from disadvantaged communities, according to a Woodrow release.
His efforts as a non-profit leader and social entrepreneur has led him to be nationally recognized with distinguished fellowships from The Ashoka Foundation, the Aspen Institute and Echoing Green in addition to being the recipient of Harvard’s Innovation in American Government Award, Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson Award and Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life award.
His work as a non-profit leader and social entrepreneur has led him to be nationally recognized with distinguished fellowships from The Ashoka Foundation, the Aspen Institute and Echoing Green in addition to being the recipient of Harvard’s Innovation in American Government Award, Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson Award and Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life award.
“Leadership development and civic participation are as important today as it was when the Woodrow Wilson Foundation was founded in 1945,” Vinnakota said. “Nobel Laureates, MacArthur Fellows, Pulitzer Prize winners, Presidential and national medal recipients, and thousands of others have been Woodrow Wilson Fellows. This organization has helped develop and support many of America’s most outstanding educators and civic leaders. I am proud to build upon this tradition.”
He is a graduate of Princeton University, where he majored in molecular biology and also earned a certificate of studies from the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs & Public Policy. In 2009, Raj received the Woodrow Wilson Award, the highest honor that Princeton bestows on an undergraduate alumnus. Raj is married and has a daughter.
Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation identifies and develops the nation’s best minds to meet its most critical challenges.