Kriss Deiglmeier
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Passions and Voice

Get to Know Kriss

 

Highlight Reel

Kriss Deiglmeier is a dynamic board director, CEO, and thought leader who drives growth and innovation. Known for her strategic leadership and transformative approach, she has served on numerous boards, helping them evolve by recruiting new members, restructuring committees, and improving governance practices. Her extensive experience spans both public and private sectors, with a particular focus on delivering value across industries and geographies.

An avid traveler, Kriss's passion for adventure and love of learning has shaped her belief system and fueled her commitment to positively impacting the world. Her diverse personal and professional experiences inspire her to create a better future for everyone’s family, friends, and communities. 

fun facts

  • Kriss believes you grow when you “repot” yourself. She has worked in the corporate, philanthropy, nonprofit, social enterprise, and academic sectors. 

  • She has backpacked around the world and visited more than 50 countries and counting.

  • Kriss has presented nationally and internationally on, social innovation, stakeholder economy, ESG,  responsible AI, design thinking, and impact investing. 

  • Each year, she picks a “word for the year” and strives to live by it — believing firmly in keeping things simple.

  • Kriss’s core beliefs include:  “Learn something new every day” and “Be adventurous. Be afraid.”

  • She loves walking meetings and agrees with Nilofer Merchant that “sitting is the smoking of our generation.” 

  • She prefers research articles over what seems like an infinite number of “blogs” 

  • She co-authored the most cited article on social innovation, Rediscovering Social Innovation—with over 3,200 citations. 

  • Her family, friends, and colleagues bring her joy and keep her going. 

 

What Makes a Social Innovator: Five Who Dared

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I was fortunate to attend the TED conference in Long Beach this past March. TED, a nonprofit organization, is focused on identifying and cultivating “ideas worth spreading,” and it does so better than any organization I know. Of course, at the Center for Social Innovation, we’re interested in taking ideas into action. So, while at TED, I located five social innovators who embody the qualities, skills, and character that we believe are critical to leading meaningful social change.

World Visionaries — Wadah Khanfar
World visionaries see opportunities where others see only obstacles. They are skilled at integrative thinking — the ability to hold two opposing ideas in their minds at once, and then reach a synthesis that improves each one. As the director general of Al Jazeera, the only international TV network based in the developing world, Wadah Khanfer is one of these visionaries. He knew that to build a new future for the people in the Middle East, a new platform was needed that could amplify the voices of the people throughout the world. Thus, Wadah has brought information, transparency, and dissenting voices to repressive states and political hot-zones. Through his efforts, the media has helped to build a freer Middle East. Hear Wadah Khanfar in an interview with PBS/Frontline.

System Thinkers — Amina Az Zubair
Amina Az Zubair, senior special assistant to the president of Nigeria, is charged with helping the country achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through the Virtual Poverty Fund. The fund, financed through debt relief to Nigeria, earmarks the funds that would have gone to repayment of debt to addressing the problems of the poor. Amina has brought to the project a systems approach to development. She helped spearhead collaboration among three tiers of government, focusing on increasing service delivery skills at the state and local levels. She has also helped make data available that has led to increased accountability, and she has fostered partnerships within and across government agencies, businesses, and NGOs. By cultivating systems thinking and coordination across healthcare, education, infrastructure, and other critical areas, Amina has helped more people in Nigeria join the world economy and bring equity to those most in need.

Empathetic Innovators — JR
When we think of social innovators, we don’t generally think of artists. But if we had more like JR, who began as a graffiti artist in the streets of France, that might change. JR was awarded the 2011 TED prize, an award given to exceptional individuals who are identified as change makers. JR, who cultivates “anonymity,” walked on stage in sunglasses and a hat so as to remain only a “backdrop” for the people he is helping to empower. His work has taken him to Sierre Leone, Liberia, Kenya, Cambodia, China and Isreal/Palestine, where he has used large-scale photography and public art exhibits to help communities express what they want revealed about themselves. See JR here.

Deep Collaborators — Bruce Aylward
Bruce Aylward is a Canadian physician and epidemiologist who is charged with eliminating polio worldwide through his work at the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). He carries out his mission by creating collaborative relationships with government, businesses, and NGOs all over the world. Big Pharma played a critical role developing new vaccines; nonprofits like the Rotary International led worldwide efforts to ensure the vaccine made it the last mile. The result? While 20 years ago the disease was endemic in 125 countries, today it is present in only 4, and, since 1988, incidences of the disease have decreased by an incredible 99 percent. What other social problems could we solve if we could galvanize such deep and long lasting collaborations?

Action Leaders — Salman Khan
Salman Khan was a hedge fund analyst in Boston when he was asked to help tutor his cousins living in New Orleans. In 2004, he started giving lessons “virtually,” eventually posting them on YouTube. Six years later, his tutorials have been viewed 34,872,216 times, and he has launched the nonprofit Khan Academy, whose mission is to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere. Salman did not have a strategic plan, he simply took action. How many other Salman Khans are out there with the talent but not the willingness to act? Hear Salman Khan and check out the Khan Academy’s free materials and resources.

In this quickly evolving world, we clearly need more skilled change agents like the ones highlighted here to help us address our mounting global problems. We need them not only in positions of leadership, but also peppered throughout organizations and our entire social structure. The recent revolutions in various countries are showing us that heady changes can be instigated from the ground up as effectively as from the top down. What more can we do to promote the 21st century qualities, skills and character to drive social innovation forward? Join me and social innovators from around the Bay Area for the live stream of TEDx Silicon Valley on May 14 as we discuss social innovation and explore the emerging concept of living by numbers.

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