Microsoft Alumni Foundation Announces 2011 Integral Fellows Awards Program Nominees

BELLEVUE, Wash., Aug. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Microsoft Alumni Foundation today announced the nominees and judges for the 2011 Integral Fellows Awards Program.  A flagship program of the Foundation, the Integral Fellows Awards recognizes Microsoft alumni who are dedicating their lives to creating something extraordinary to help address challenges locally, nationally and around the world.  The nominees represent nonprofit organizations either started by Microsoft alumni or where Microsoft alumni have made impactful contributions doing philanthropic work helping others.  

The award winners will be recognized at the Microsoft Alumni Foundation Celebration Event on November 16 in Seattle.  The winners each will receive a $25,000 unrestricted grant for their nonprofit organization, as well as support from fellow alumni to help them increase resources and efficiencies for their initiatives.

The nominees and their nonprofit organizations are:

• Nancy Andrews, Project Director, SCOPE, http://scopehealth.org/ (Seattle, WA)
  • Hometown: Grand Rapids, MI; Alma Maters: Wheaton College, Northwestern University; Seattle Pacific University
• Rachel Bondi-Whitaker, Founder, Men Matter, http://menmatter.com/ (Seal Beach, CA)
  • Hometown: San Francisco, CA; Alma Mater: Eckard College
• Jeff Camp, Chair of the Education Impact Circle, Full Circle Fund, http://fullcirclefund.org/ (San Francisco, CA)
  • Hometown: Danville, CA; Alma Mater: Harvard University
• Digvijay Chauhan, Co-Founder and CEO, SeeYourImpact, http://seeyourimpact.org/ (Seattle, WA)
  • Hometown: Adhoya Haryana, India; Alma Mater: Seattle University
• Dave Cole, Founder and President, Santa Cruz TOPSoccer Starz, http://www.sccysl.org/stars.html (Santa Cruz, CA)
  • Hometown: Santa Cruz, CA; Alma Mater: Potsdam College, NY
• Dan Davids, President, Plug in America, http://www.pluginamerica.org/ (San Francisco, CA)
  • Hometown: Woodinville, WA; Alma Mater: Harvey Mudd College
• Rikin Gandhi, Co-Founder and CEO, Digital Green Foundation, http://www.digitalgreen.org/ (Berkeley, CA)
  • Hometown: Cherry Hill, NY; Alma Maters: Carnegie Mellon University, MIT
• Mir Hajmiragha, Board of Directors, Songea's Kids, http://songeaskids.org/ (Sammamish, WA)
  • Hometown: Redmond, WA; Alma Mater: University of Washington
• Njideka Harry, Founder and Executive Director, Youth for Technology Foundation, http://www.youthfortechnology.org/ (Louisville, KY)
  • Hometown: Louisville, KY; Alma Maters: Northwestern University (Kellogg), University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Shirley Heath, Board Vice President, Washington Women in Need, http://www.wwin.org/ (Bellevue, WA)
  • Hometown: Louisville, MO; Alma Mater: Mississippi State University
• Oliver Hurst-Hiller,  Chief Technology Officer and Executive VP Products, DonorsChoose.org, http://www.donorschoose.org/ (New York, NY)
  • Hometown: Brooklyn, NY,  Alma Mater: Brown University
• Tom Ikeda, Founder and Executive Director, Densho, http://www.densho.org/ (Seattle, WA)
  • Hometown: Seattle, WA; Alma Mater: University of Washington
• Mahnaz Javid, Founder and President, Mona Foundation, http://www.monafoundation.org/ (Kirkland, WA)
  • Hometown: Bellevue, WA; Alma Maters: University of Washington; Seattle University
• Karen Marcotte Solimano, Board Member and Committee Chair, United Way of King County, http://www.uwkc.org/ (Seattle, WA)
  • Hometown: Seattle, WA; Alma Mater: University of Washington
• Rae Matthews, Volunteer and Employee, The National Topical Botanical Garden, http://www.ntbg.org/ (Kalaheo, Kauai, HI)
  • Hometown: Kalaheo, HI;  Alma Mater: Montana State Northern University
• William Mowat, Regional Chair, Anti-Defamation League, http://regions.adl.org/pacific-northwest/ (Seattle, WA)
  • Hometown: Bellevue, WA; Alma Mater: Brown University
• David Risher, Co-Founder and President, Worldreader, http://www.worldreader.org/ (Seattle, WA)
  • Hometown:  Saint Helena, CA; Alma Maters: Princeton University; Harvard University
• Kevin Ross, Founder, WA FIRST Robotics, http://www.firstwa.org/ (Carnation, WA)
  • Hometown: Carnation, WA;  Alma Mater: University of Washington
• Dan Shepherd, Vice President, VisionTrust International, http://www.visiontrust.org/ (Colorado Springs, CO)
  • Hometown: Colorado Springs, CO  

The Microsoft Alumni Foundation brings Microsoft alumni together to positively affect the world's challenges. " When I think about the nominees each making an impact in their own way, I realize that what we have in common is that we don't wait for change, we make change," said Jeff Raikes, chairman of the board of the Microsoft Alumni Foundation.  "This is what we did at Microsoft and we are now working to do it again."

"The Foundation is honored again this year to have such a noteworthy panel of esteemed judges working closely with us to recognize Microsoft alumni and their nonprofit organizations," said Sharon Maghie, secretary of the board of directors, and co-chair of the Integral Fellows Committee.  The panel of judges includes:

• Phyllis Campbell, Chairman, Pacific Northwest Operations, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• William Drayton, Founder and CEO, Ashoka
• Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent, CNN
• Beth Kanter,  Author, Non-Profit Social Media Innovator, Co-founder and partner, Zoetica
• Eric Liu, Author, Educator and Civic Entrepreneur, Guiding Lights Network
• Pierre Omidyar, Founder and Chairman, eBay Inc.
• Tom Tierney, Co-founder and Chairman, The Bridgespan Group

For more information on the nominees, visit: http://www.microsoftalumni.org/Programs/integral_fellows/2011_nominees.aspx.

The Integral Fellows Award Program is a rigorous evaluation of the nominees, recognizing achievements that embody the values of the Microsoft Alumni Foundation, including: innovation, entrepreneurship, effectiveness, collaboration, and integrity.  Additional criteria in selecting the winners will include: the ability to create something extraordinary out of limited resources, selflessness, passion, smarts, need, and scalability.

About the Foundation:  The Microsoft Alumni Foundation was established to catalyze the collective power of the Microsoft Alumni Family and leverage our resources to make a difference for others. Launched in 2007, the Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public nonprofit organization with its worldwide headquarters based in Bellevue, Washington, USA. Board members include: Jeffrey Raikes, Chair; Charles Hirsch, Vice President; Akhtar Badshah, Vice President; Paul Shoemaker, Treasurer; Sharon Maghie, Secretary and Tony Audino, Carla Lewis and Brad Smith, Trustees.  The Executive Director is Microsoft alum Marylou Brannan.

Note to editors:  If you are interested in viewing additional information on the Microsoft Alumni Foundation, please visit www.microsoftalumni.org.  

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SOURCE Microsoft Alumni Foundation