The 2013 Leadership Award recipients are making headlines. In the month since the awards were announced, media outlets across the state have been spotlighting the work of these extraordinary individuals who are advancing innovative solutions to some of California’s biggest challenges.

Vida en el Valle, a weekly Spanish language paper serving the San Joaquin Valley, profiled recipients Aida Cardenas (Building Skills Partnership, Los Angeles) and José Quiñonez (Mission Asset Fund, San Francisco), noting that both "have dedicated a substantial part of their lives helping others build their own."

The San Francisco Chronicle featured an op-ed by Quiñonez describing how Mission Asset Fund, through its Lending Circles program, helped a low-income family establish a credit score, build assets and start a small business.

Dori Rose Inda, recipient of a 2011 Leadership Award, has been improving the lives of workers in the Pajaro Valley for a decade. She and her colleagues at the Watsonville Law Center developed an effective way for agricultural and other low-income workers with job-related injuries to access medical care. The model, which connects to the existing workers’ compensation system, would save taxpayers an estimated $100 million each year if it were expanded statewide.

On the heels of publishing a comprehensive replication manual for the program, Rose Inda spoke with Watsonville Patch about her journey and goals. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

When Martha Ryan returned from working as a nurse in refugee camps in Uganda and Somalia, she was shocked by the poverty she found here in the United States — especially that hundreds of pregnant women and children were living on the streets. This led her to start the Homeless Prenatal Program, which transforms the lives of homeless mothers in San Francisco. Ryan, who received a Leadership Award in 2011, was recently featured as a Change Agent by The Bay Citizen.

Here is an excerpt of the article:

“Solar power didn’t just save me money — it saved my life,” says U.S. Navy veteran Elmer Rankin, referring to the solar panels paid for by a California subsidy and installed on his rooftop by GRID Alternatives. Founded by 2010 Leadership Award recipients Erica Mackie and Tim Sears, GRID Alternatives has been helping tens of thousands of low-income California residents like Rankin reduce electricity costs and greenhouse gas emissions, while training thousands of workers in solar installation.

In a recent San Francisco Chronicle op-ed article, UC Berkeley professor and renewable energy expert Daniel Kammen makes the case that policymakers should expand models like GRID Alternatives to help even more people. Here is an excerpt from Kammen’s op-ed:

In response to high-profile cases of harassment and deaths of LGBT youths, many school-safety advocates have demanded "zero tolerance" for bullies. But Carolyn Laub, founder and executive director of Gay-Straight Alliance Network and the recipient of a 2012 Leadership Award, writes in The Huffington Post about why this is the wrong approach and offers a better way.

Here is an excerpt of her article in The Huffington Post:

Poetry slams. Digital filmmaking classes. Tai Chi. These activities sound more like they belong on a college campus than a senior living facility. But at EngAGE, thousands of seniors experience an affordable living environment based on creativity, growth and programs that promote health. As EngAGE prepares to expand to other parts of the country, Tim Carpenter, the organization’s founder and a 2011 Leadership Award recipient, talked with Debra Ollivier of The Huffington Post about how the EngAGE model works.

Here is an excerpt from the article: