Philanthropy Innovation Summit 2025 | Salon Sessions

Brian Hooks is chairman and CEO of Stand Together, a philanthropic community that works with business leaders and philanthropists to address the country’s biggest challenges[MW1] . Brian is also president of the Charles Koch Foundation. Previously, he served as executive director and COO of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he led strategy and operations for a growing research, education, and public policy center. He is co-author with Charles Koch of the national bestseller Believe in People: Bottom Up Solutions for a Top Down World.

In 2021, the TIME100 Next list recognized Brian as a leader shaping the future of his field. Brian serves on the boards of the Mercatus Center, Cosmos Institute, Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), Institute for Humane Studies, Reason Foundation, and The Just Trust. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife and daughter.

Nancy Lindborg has served as the president and CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation since August 2020. Through international and domestic grantmaking, the Foundation works with people and communities to create ensuring solutions for just societies and a healthy, resilient natural world. 

Nancy has spent most of her career working internationally on democracy, civil society, conflict resolution, and humanitarian response. She previously served as the president and CEO of the U.S. Institute of Peace; as the assistant administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at USAID; and as president of Mercy Corps. She previously lived and worked in Nepal and Central Asia.   

Nancy currently serves on the boards of the ClimateWorks Foundation and International Crisis Group, and as an advisory council member of the Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity. 

Nancy holds a B.A. and an M.A. in English literature from Stanford University and an M.A. in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Rachel Pritzker is President and Founder of the Pritzker Innovation Fund, which supports the development and advancement of paradigm-shifting ideas to address the world’s most wicked problems. The Fund is primarily focused on U.S. Democracy and Climate and Energy.

Rachel is chair of the Democracy Funders Network, a cross-ideological learning and action community for donors concerned about the health of American democracy, and is co-founder of Patriots & Pragmatists, a network and convening space through which civic leaders and influencers debate, envision, and realize a brighter future for American democracy. In addition to serving as chair of the board of Third Way, Rachel is chair of the board of the Breakthrough Institute, a global research center that identifies and promotes technological solutions to environmental and human development challenges, as well as chair of the board of the Energy for Growth Hub, a global nonprofit network designed to promote energy solutions aligned with countries’ own development ambitions by connecting data, research, and evidence with policymakers.

Rachel is a co-author of An Ecomodernist Manifesto, which advocates an abundance-based, politically pragmatic approach to tackling ecological challenges while fulfilling human aspirations. Rachel attended Brown University, where she majored in Latin American studies.

Robb Willer is a Professor of Sociology, Psychology, and Business at Stanford University where he is Director of the Polarization Social Change Lab and Co-Director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.

Willer’s research focuses on addressing critical societal challenges through rigorous scientific methods and practical applications. Working across the fields of social psychology, sociology, political science, organizational behavior, and cognitive science, he aims to develop actionable solutions in three main areas: pathways to healthy democracy, strategies for social change, and rapid application of social science to emerging technologies and current events.

In his democracy research, Willer explores interventions to reduce political division, encourage democratic engagement, and build consensus around structural reforms. Notable projects include the Strengthening Democracy Challenge and the Structural Democratic Reforms Project.

Willer investigates social change strategies and techniques used by both influential elites and grassroots movements to shape public attitudes on issues like economic inequality, racial and gender bias, and climate change. This includes pioneering techniques like moral reframing, which reshapes public discourse and broadens coalitions for progressive social change.

Willer also rapidly applies cutting-edge social science to pressing societal problems, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on motivating vaccination through behavioral science insights. He explores how large language models (LLMs) can be leveraged for social good, including enhancing public service delivery and improving emotional well-being.

Willer employs a diverse range of methods, including survey and field experiments, computational analysis of large datasets, natural language processing, fMRI, social network analysis, and various quasi-experimental methods, Willer collaborates with partners to pilot and scale interventions, driving his research to practical implementation.

Willer has consulted for, or partnered with, a wide range of organizations, including the White House COVID-19 Response Team, the U.S. Surgeon General, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, ideas42, and two presidential campaigns.

Willer has published broadly in sociology, social psychology, organizations, political science, and general science journals, including Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Human Behaviour, American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, and elsewhere.

Willer’s writing on political persuasion, polarization, democracy, elections, and other topics has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, Scientific American, The Los Angeles Times, and Vox. He has appeared on The NBC Nightly News, Fox News, PBS Newshour, Morning Joe, 20/20, and NPR. His research has been covered globally by more than 100 media outlets including The Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Time Magazine, Science Magazine, NPR, and the BBC.

Willer’s 2017 TED talk “How to Have Better Political Conversations” has been viewed over 2.9 million times. He lectures globally to corporate, governmental, and other audiences – including appearances at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Twitter, Meta, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. For speaking engagements, he is represented by The Lavin Agency.

Before coming to Stanford, Willer was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley where his class “Self and Society” was the highest enrollment and top-reviewed class at the university. In 2009, he was the sole recipient of the “Golden Apple,” the only teaching award given by the UC-Berkeley student body.

Willer earned a PhD and an MA in Sociology from Cornell University and a BA in Sociology from the University of Iowa. Before becoming an academic, Willer worked as a dishwasher, line cook, construction worker, pizza delivery man, and a mover, among other things. He grew up in Kansas and South Carolina.