James Toole

James Toole, Ph.D., works with youth, social entrepreneurs, governments, teachers, communities, schools, and NGOs to support a new generation of leaders that are designing innovative solutions to pressing social challenges. His early career focused on pioneering work first in peer counseling and later in service-learning. Over the past two decades, he has taught over 300 youth leaders from 60 countries that are tackling everything from gender-based violence in Botswana and teaching English in Brazilian slums, to protecting the oceans in the Philippines and supporting female education in Syrian refugee camps. Parts of his curriculum on social innovation and entrepreneurship for the International Youth Foundation are translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, and Arabic and used in 24 countries. He is also a Senior Fellow in the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota, the President of Compass Institute, and a Senior Consultant for the YMCA of the North Equity Innovation Center. He is passionate that everyone is born with a purpose, and we find mattering and meaning by discovering what that is.

Dr Toole possesses a BA in political science from the University of California at Santa Barbara, an MA in History of Ideas from England's University of Sussex, an MA in Education from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy from the University of Minnesota.