Social and civic entrepreneur Shawn Landres is serving as Civil Society Fellow in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs for the spring and fall quarters, 2015. He is advising The Center for Civil Society on research, meeting with students and guest lecturing in classes, participating in outreach, and working with the Luskin Center for Innovation to develop a civic innovation summit during the 2015-16 academic year.

Dr. Landres cofounded Jumpstart Labs, a Los Angeles-based think tank and infrastructure support organization known for its applied research on faith-based social innovation, and chairs the board of Hub Los Angeles, a social enterprise development center in Los Angeles’s Arts District. A member of the Los Angeles County Quality and Productivity Commission, he chairs its Strategic Foresight Working Group.  Dr. Landres also co-chairs the Santa Monica Public Library’s Innovation Technology Task Force.

“Shawn Landres is a dynamic player in the Los Angeles nonprofit and philanthropic community and beyond,” said Bill Parent, acting director of the Luskin Center for Civil Society. “He is accomplished in solution-oriented leadership, innovation, and research. It is great to have him with us at UCLA.”

Dr. Landres co-conceived and led Jumpstart’s six-part Connected to Give series, a nationally representative study of religion and American household charitable giving. He will be working with the CCS and the California Community Foundation on a study and forecast of giving and civic well-being across Los Angeles to be conducted during the summer of 2015.

“Across the private, public, and charitable sectors, successful innovation is rooted in listening, whether to the data that informs the challenges at hand or to the people closest to them, who are best positioned to lead sustainable change,” said Dr. Landres. “I’m honored to have the opportunity to work with the insightful research team at UCLA Luskin to help advance effective evidence-based policymaking.”

Dr. Landres holds degrees in religious studies and social anthropology from Columbia University, the University of Oxford, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he earned his doctorate. He is a member of the board of directors of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. Dr. Landres has co-edited four books and published award-winning articles and essays that advance intergroup understanding. He has more than two decades of experience in academic, nonprofit, and philanthropic leadership, social entrepreneurship, network building, and organizational development.  In 2009, The Forward named Dr. Landres one of America’s 50 most influential Jewish leaders. In 2012, the White House featured him as a “spotlight innovator” at its Faith-Based Social Innovation Conference and in 2013, the Liberty Hill Foundation honored him with its NextGen Leadership Award.