Philanthropy Innovation Summit 2025 | Mainstage Program

Alice Waters is a chef, author, food activist, and founder of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California. She has been a champion of local organic agriculture for over four decades. In 1995, with a background in Montessori education, she founded the Edible Schoolyard Project at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School. Applying the Montessori philosophy of learning-by-doing, the program uses an organic garden and on-site kitchen classroom to teach all academic subjects. The Edible Schoolyard Project model has been replicated in over 6,000 schools around the world.
In 2015 she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama, proving that eating is a political act. In 2022, she was awarded the inaugural Carver Carson Award for American innovation in environmental protection and agriculture from the Henry Ford Museum. In 2023, she received the No Kid Hungry Humanitarian Award from Share Our Strength in Los Angeles, and in 2024 she was honored to receive the Julia Child Award from the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC. Alice is the author of sixteen books including her latest, We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto.

Next session >>

Don Gips is the Chief Executive Officer of the Skoll Foundation, a global philanthropy with a mission to build a sustainable world of peace and prosperity for all. With a career spanning public service, politics, business, nonprofits and technology, Gips leads the Foundation’s work investing in, connecting, and championing social innovators around the world.

In 2008, Gips helped lead President Barack Obama’s transition team and then served in the White House as his Director of Presidential Personnel at the beginning of the Administration. From there he went on to serve as U.S. Ambassador to South Africa from 2009 to 2013. There he was recognized for his efforts to promote improved relations with South Africa when the U.S. State Department chose him as the recipient of the 2010 Sue M. Cobb Award for Exemplary Diplomatic Service.

During the Clinton Administration, he served as Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore and Chief of the International Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission. At the FCC, he helped design the first spectrum auctions for licenses to utilize the continuum of frequencies used to provide wireless services ranging from radio broadcasting to mobile communications and satellite services.

In 1993, he helped create the framework for what would become the U.S. national service program, AmeriCorps, that continues to enroll more than 200,000 Americans each year in public service.

Gips has also held various roles in the private sector. He was head of Corporate Development at Level 3 Communications; led the Africa practice at Albright Stonebridge Group; and served as a venture partner at Columbia Capital and a Senior Advisor at Blackstone. He began his private sector career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.

He currently sits on the board of CassTech, Africa’s leading provider of information and telecommunications services, and is on the Board of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund US. He has also served on the boards of Zayo, Mindspeed, Liquid, Omnispace, and Nextnav.

Don received an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. He is married to Elizabeth (Liz) Berry Gips. Don and Liz have three grown sons: Sam, Peter, and Ben.

Next session >>