Lee
Davis is a Co-Founder and CEO of NESsT. Prior to starting NESsT, Lee
was a Research Fellow in the "New Directions in Grassroots Development"
initiative of the Johns Hopkins University, Nitze School of Advanced International
Studies (SAIS), where he authored the The NGO-Business Hybrid, an international
study of nonprofit enterprise activities in 13 countries. At SAIS, Mr. Davis
also served as a Professorial Lecturer in the graduate Program on Social
Change and Development where he developed and co-taught the first graduate-level
course on social enterprise. Lee has lived in Budapest, Hungary and worked
on nonprofit sector development issues throughout Central and Eastern Europe
since 1994. From 1996-97, he worked with the Regional Environmental Center
for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) in Budapest as a Program Officer in
the Public Participation Program, coordinating the project activities with
partners in Bulgaria and Romania. From 1993-95, Mr. Davis worked with the
Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies Third Sector Project where he
coordinated training, internship and publications programs with nonprofit
support centers in the 7 participating countries. From 1991-93, he worked
for CARE, the international relief and development agency, in its headquarters
office in New York City, where he launched the organization's internal publications
design unit. While at CARE, Lee also was an active participant in the International
NGO Working Group on Education, working as a member of the international
drafting team for the NGO treaty on education and sustainable development
during preparations for the UN Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED) and at NGO Global Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. Prior
to entering the nonprofit sector, Lee worked in marketing and corporate
identity firms in the US, Europe and Japan producing corporate annual reports
and publications for major corporate and educational clients, including
Canadair, NationsBank (now Bank of America), Xerox Corporation and Yale
University. In 1988, he was a recipient of the prestigious Thomas J. Watson
Foundation fellowship to undertake a yearlong independent research and travel
project in Switzerland and Japan. Mr. Davis holds an M.A. in Policy Studies
from the Johns Hopkins University, Institute for Policy Studies, with a
focus on the nonprofit sector and international development; and a B.A.,
magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Connecticut College, where he was the
recipient of the Barbara E. Gurwitz Memorial Prize for excellence in community
service. He was born in New York and currently lives in Santiago, Chile. |