Blog Out Loud Speakers

Check out our great speaker line-up and sign-up to attend Blog Out Loud on October 11. 

Tara Daniels: Fringe the World

Tara Daniels is the associate director-community. She is also known as the lieutenant of badassery and distraction. Born and raised in St. Louis, Tara has always loved the arts. For some reason, though, she decided to study Information Technology in college. However, after a few years of working in the corporate world, she had the epiphany that working in the arts and education was her calling. Besides working for St. Lou Fringe, is also studying to become a teacher and working on becoming a writer.

Adam Hasz: Building a Social Innovation Hub for the Public Benefit Sector in St. Louis

Adam Hasz is a recent graduate of Washington University (class of 2012, summa cum laude), where he studied environmental studies and urban studies. Adam is passionate about the intersection of sustainability and urban vitality, and he believes that local social innovation is one of the most effective methods to contribute to solving the world's large environmental challenges. Through his current work on the Powell Square(d) project, Adam sees an opportunity to help transform the city and make a lasting contribution.

Adam's social change experience mostly falls into the realm of environmental organizing. Adam has been active within the US youth climate movement for the past four years, organizing and mobilizing students for campaigns on the WashU campus, coordinating protests in the St. Louis, building a student network across the state of Missouri, and participating in national student convergences in Washington DC. Most recently, Adam traveled to Rio de Janeiro to attend the United Nations Rio+20 Earth Summit, an international mega conference focused on sustainable development. For his organizing efforts, Adam was awarded the Udall Scholarship in Environmental Leadership from the Udall Foundation (a branch of the federal government) in 2011.

Karl Guenther:  inveSTL

Karl Guenther is a Community Development Specialist at the Public Policy Research Center at the University of Missouri St. Louis. Karl is lead staff on the creation and management of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis. The Network is a professional association of nonprofit community building organizations whose goal is to build vibrant neighborhoods where people want – and can afford – to live, creating a stronger and more competitive regional economy. Also in this role, Karl helps to advance research and data driven decision making related to regions community development sector by participating in research and connecting people and organizations to best practices from around the country.

Previously Karl was a Program Associate at the Incarnate Word Foundation where he helped organize the first Marketplace of Ideas to attract funders to community projects on the city’s northside; coordinated a funders circle to learn lessons from experts in collective impact; and maintained relationships with grantees from across the region.

Karl holds a Masters Degree from the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis focused on social & economic development and research.

Joe Jovanovich: Taking "People Power" to Scale

Joe Jovanovich is a St. Louis native who earned a BA from Webster University and and MSW from Washington University. He spent four years working for City Year, an AmeriCorps program that deploys volunteers to address school improvement. He is the founder and president of the St. Louis Chapter of AmeriCorps Alums. Since 2010, Joe has worked as a project manager with Beyond Housing and its 24:1 Initiative focused on the Normandy School District geography, where he oversees program and partnership development in the creation of a cradle-to-career system of youth services.

Paul Sorenson: GoodMap: an online connection engine

Paul Sorenson is a recent graduate of Washington University's Brown School of Social Work, where he studied social entrepreneurship. He works in St. Louis community development and is passionate about creating innovative tools for nonprofits and the people they serve.