Podcast Guest Profile

Lea Endres is an entrepreneur, educator and human rights advocate. A renowned facilitator, she has spent most of her life working to make the tools of leadership available to everyone.

Lea’s commitment to leadership began as a fifteen-year-old working with the Oakland-based California Association of Student Councils. Hooked on the idea that a well organized community could accomplish anything, she spent the next few decades training people all over the world – from mayors in Japan to teachers in Compton. She ran education programs at WorldLink Foundation and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights before helping to found Green for All, an organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy. 

Inspired by the internet’s revolutionary potential to make leadership and community building easier and more accessible, Lea ultimately joined Jim Gilliam and Jesse Haff in creating NationBuilder. She served as the company’s Chief of Staff and then President, before becoming CEO in 2017.

Lea currently serves on the board of the Dream Corps, a social justice accelerator that houses projects including #LoveArmy, #yeswecode, #cut50 and Green for All. She also advises Isidore Electronics Recycling  (now Homeboy Recycling), a Los Angeles-based social enterprise that is creating green jobs for people exiting California’s correctional system. She is an accomplished screenwriter and the co-author of Jim Gilliam’s memoir, The Internet is My Religion.