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:

On February 13, Matthew Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, presented a James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award to Christa Gannon, founder and director of Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY), a program that has been reducing juvenile crime in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties by giving local youth leadership training and classes in criminal justice.

Recently, Cate spoke to Irvine Senior Program Officer Catherine Hazelton about the effectiveness of the FLY approach and how the pending realignment of most juvenile justice programs from state to county control may allow for greater emphasis on crime prevention programs.

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:

Do you need a few more days to nominate an effective California leader for a 2013 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award? You've got it - we have extended the deadline to Wednesday, April 4.

The $125,000 award advances the work of individuals and small teams who are implementing innovative and effective solutions to significant state issues. Nominees may be working in any field — such as education, health, public safety, economic development or the environment — and in the public, private or nonprofit sector. We seek nominees who have demonstrated inclusiveness and leadership in their fields and whose work is ready to be shared with policymakers and other practitioners.

We have simplified the application to make it easier to nominate someone for a James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award. The application has two parts:

Spring is always an exciting, optimistic time of year for us. It’s when we start considering a new round of nominees for the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. Their work inspires us, especially given the significant challenges facing California. Indeed, these nominations make abundantly clear that people and organizations throughout the state are improving their communities every day. They are tackling big issues – including education, health, public safety, economic development and others – and offering breakthrough solutions that can contribute to a better California.

Every spring, we welcome nominations of leaders from all corners of the state for the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. We recognize four to six leaders every year and provide each of them with $125,000 to support their work. At least $100,000 is designated for core support of the leader’s project or organization, and up to $25,000 may be used for professional or organizational development. The Foundation also supports recipients in sharing their approaches with state and local policymakers and practitioners in their fields, with the aim of extending their successful models to benefit more Californians.

We hope you will help us find the 2013 recipients of the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. In this season of new beginnings, please take a moment to tell us about a leader who is breaking through old barriers and creating new solutions for California’s future. The deadline for nominations is Friday, March 30.

Media coverage of this year’s Leadership Awards included three op-ed articles by or about award recipients in some of California’s largest newspapers. These leaders are addressing critical challenges for California, and the coverage provided an opportunity to highlight their successful approaches for a broader audience, including state policymakers. After all, our goal for the Leadership Awards is not just to recognize good work and inspiring leadership, but to help expand their approaches for the benefit of more Californians.

• Health reform’s missing link – nurse practitioners (Los Angeles Times, 2/22/12)
  Award recipient Patricia Dennehy, director of the nurse-managed GLIDE Health Services center in San Francisco, calls for an expanded role for nurse practitioners under federal health care reform. With millions more Californians expected to seek care under health care reform and a growing shortage of primary-care physicians, she argues nurse practitioners can - and should - fill the gap.

“Everybody needs a spark,” observed Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, as he kicked off the seventh annual James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards luncheon ceremony in Sacramento. For a capacity crowd of over 200 guests, in the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel ballroom, there was plenty of inspiration to go around, as we honored the five 2012 award recipients, whose path-breaking solutions are addressing problems in the fields of health care, education, youth development and agriculture. As Steinberg noted, the annual award ceremony offers lawmakers and policy experts “a chance…to get together and reflect on all that is good in California.”

The day of celebration for our five honorees began in the state Capitol, where state Assemblymembers Paul Fong, David Valadao and Sandré Swanson presented each award recipient with a framed Assembly resolution honoring his or her work. (Assembly Speaker John Perez and Assemblymember Bill Monning authored two of the resolutions but were unable to attend the morning presentation.) During the event, Assemblymember Fong told Christa Gannon, head of Fresh Lifelines for Youth and one of this year’s awardees, “Thank you for saving the state a bunch of money by doing the work that you do!”  

More commendations came at the luncheon, in remarks from a distinguished group of public officials: