A dynamic conversation with Jean Hammond of LearnLaunch and Elizabeth Garlow of Lumina Foundation's Lumina Impact Ventures.

Dr. Stephanie Gripne will interview Elizabeth Garlow and Jean Hammond about their investment and lending strategies edtech and workforce social ventures. LearnLaunch, co-founded by Jean Hammond, catalyzes a community that drives innovation to transform learning and increase achievement. Lumina Foundation is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all.

About LearnLaunch and Jean Hammond

LearnLaunch Accelerator provides the most promising educational technology startups worldwide with all the tools necessary to grow a successful edtech startup.

JEAN HAMMOND is a co-founder and partner at LearnLaunch. She is also the founder of JPH Associates. A serial entrepreneur, she co-founded AXON Networks, which was acquired by 3Com, led 3Com WAN marketing activities, and also founded Quarry Technologies. Jean is an active angel investor focusing on early stage high-tech and high-growth start-ups. She is a member of Hub Angels and Launchpad Venture Group, and she is the founder of the Boston Forum of Golden Seeds. She has an active portfolio and has served as a director or advisor with over 30 of the companies within her portfolio.

Jean was awarded the 2011 Monosson Prize for Entrepreneurship Mentoring by the MIT Sloan School of Management and the 2014 Hans Severiens Award by the Angel Capital Association in recognition of her work advancing angel investing and entrepreneurship. Jean also was awarded the 2013 Boston Business Journal Lifetime Achievement Award. Jean received her M.S. from MIT Sloan School of Management in 1986, and her B.S. in Biology from Boston University.

Board seats include: Member of MIT Corporation (Board of Trustees), North American Executive Board of the MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Innovation Index Advisory Committee, Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center (Trustee Emeritus), The Capital Network, InStream Media, Peach Underneath, Playrific, and Respiratory Motion. Edtech investments include: SmartLunches, Testive, Yummico, Ten Marks (Amazon), Tikatok (Barnes & Noble, Pearson), and Socrative (Mastery Connect).

About Lumina Foundation's Lumina Impact Ventures and Elizabeth Garlow

ELIZABETH GARLOW is Lumina's impact investment officer. She most recently served as a community solutions fellow and domestic policy advisor at The White House during the Obama Administration, where she managed the President's Promise Zones initiative, working closely with local leaders to create jobs, improve educational outcomes, reduce crime and support overall economic growth.

Elizabeth previously served as the executive director of Michigan Corps, where she founded the Pure Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge to develop and fund social enterprises across Michigan. She also served as a business development officer with ACCION USA, supporting the nation’s largest microloan program. Elizabeth has served as a nonresident fellow at the Council of Michigan Foundations, where she consulted with foundations statewide on mechanisms to facilitate direct impact investing activities, and at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, where she helped launch a major research initiative focused on place-based strategies for human capital and economic development in small-mid sized U.S. cities, with a focus on postsecondary "promise scholarship" programs.

Elizabeth earned her masters in public affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and earned her B.A. in political science, Spanish and international economics from Kalamazoo College.

About Impact Finance Center and Dr. Stephanie Gripne

Dr. Stephanie Gripne is the innovative force behind Impact Finance Center, an academic center and movement-builder committed to unleashing $1T in untapped investment and philanthropic assets for environmental and social change. Touted as “the Steve Jobs of impact investing”, Stephanie is responsible for Impact Finance Center's CO Impact Days & Initiative, the first-ever place-based impact investing marketplace and symposium. She is also the creator of the first Regional Rocky Mountain Who's Who & Impact Investing Directory in partnership with the Denver Business Journal. Stephanie’s leadership has been key to growing Colorado’s impact investing ecosystem, which has produced over 200 direct impact investments in Colorado during the last three years. Under Stephanie’s direction, Impact Finance Center is currently developing the Impact Investing Education Institute, which will convert 20+ impact investing courses online and will create a white labeled, business to business solution for associations of donors, foundations, and family offices. Impact Finance Center is also piloting a new tool, Impact Investing Giving Circles that will provide asset owners with direct investing experience and access to the IFC Impact Audit, providing over two dozen ways to align assets for impact.