Gretchen Steidle

Activist, Change Agent, Educator/Teacher, Global soul, Idea generator, Producer, Social entrepreneur, World traveler, Writer/Editor

Gretchen Steidle Wallace graduated in 1996 with BA in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia, where she attended as a Jefferson Scholar, and received her MBA in 2001 from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. At Tuck, she helped to found what is now the Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship. From 1996-1999 she worked in international project finance for boutique investment bank, PMD International, Inc. From 2002-2003 Gretchen served as Managing Director of Youth Venture for Ashoka, an international non-profit organization advancing the profession of social entrepreneurship. In 2004 founded Global Grassroots to provide consciousness practices and social entreprenuership training to catalyze emerging change agents working for women’s rights in post-conflict Africa. In 2005, she launched Global Grassroots’ work in the Darfur refugee camps of eastern Chad, and in 2006 expanded to Rwanda among widowed genocide survivors. Gretchen is a producer of the documentary film, The Devil Came on Horseback, about her brother’s experience as a military observer in Darfur, Sudan and co-author of her brother's memoirs, titled "The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur", published by PublicAffairs. In 2007 she was honored by World Business Magazine and Shell as one of the top International 35 Women Under 35.

The intersection of consciousness or personal transformation and social change.

An idea bank of simple strategies used by rural women in poor countries to protect themselves from violence, accessible and searchable by voice command through remote, solar-powered internet portals and village phone services available at water access points. Think: the most vulnerable women whispering advice to each other across the globe where they meet daily using technology to cut across global boundaries, language barriers and the technology divide.

Africa and international development, Consciousness-based education, Grassroots Development, Holistic approaches, Mind Body Interaction, Participatory Sustainable Development, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, post-conflict reconstruction, Social Enterpreneurship, women creating change

I am curious.