Community health workers offer a practical starting point
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How donor-advised funds are becoming catalytic capital platforms
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Why circular migration may offer a better path than mass repatriation
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How Haverford’s student investing program pivoted toward more purpose-suited capital
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Abrupt UK cuts threaten coastal resilience, food security, and community-led adaptation
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At MIE 2026, investors reframed risk as a tool for scale, resilience, and courage
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Making Wall Street Work for the 99%
Globally, almost 2.4 billion women of working age do not have equal economic rights as men due to legal barriers, unequal pay, and limited access to finance. In addition, 56% of unbanked adults are women, and this gender gap in bank account ownership is prevalent in developing markets.
The financial market has traditionally overlooked underserved groups, especially women. It is crucial to transform the financial system to give them value and a voice in the global market for sustainable development.
Prof. Durreen Shahnaz, the founder of Impact Investing Exchange (IIX), is a global leader in sustainable finance and draws from a rich career working on wall street, where she broke down walls and built bridges to connect Backstreets of underserved communities to the Wall Streets of the world.
Join us in this Luminarias Series live fireside chat and audience Q&A, Impact Entrepreneur's Laurie Lane-Zucker welcomes Durreen Shahnaz for an insightful discussion on key topics such as:
Laurie Lane-Zucker is Founder and CEO of Impact Entrepreneur, PBC, an impact economy business that hosts the Impact Entrepreneur Network — a large, global network of “systems-minded” entrepreneurs, investors, and scholars of social and environmental innovation — and editor and publisher of Impact Entrepreneur, a digital magazine covering the emerging Impact Economy. For over 30 years, Laurie has been a “pioneer” (Forbes) and recognized leader in sustainability, social enterprise, and impact investing. Laurie was the founding Executive Director of the international environmental organization, Orion Society, which publishes the celebrated Orion Magazine, as well as the founder of a global sustainability think-tank, the Triad Institute, and Hotfrog, a Founding B Corporation, GIIRS Pioneer Company, and the first company ever to complete an equity transaction on an impact investment exchange. Laurie is the bestselling and multiple award-winning publisher and editor of books and magazines on sustainability and social impact — having worked with such acclaimed authors as Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, and David James Duncan — and the author of numerous articles on entrepreneurship and impact investing. Laurie is contributing author to the academic textbook from World Scientific, Sustainability: Business and Investment Implications. His new book, The Impact Entrepreneur Breakthrough: A Field Manual for the Regenerative Economy, will be pubished by Berrett-Koehler in 2026, with global distribution by Penguin Random House.
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