AUTHORS
The team behind the Blueprint
Andrea Levere launched the Blueprint initiative during an Executive Fellowship hosted by the International Center for Finance at the Yale School of Management (SOM). She focused on how finance can advance a more equitable economy. Five outstanding research assistants from SOM supported the development of the report: Corey Baron ’21, Elizabeth Davidson ’20, Bryan Fike ’20, Alexandra Sing ’20 and Vicky Zhang ’20. To reflect the significance of their contributions to the Blueprint, they are credited as co-authors.
LEAD AUTHOR
Andrea has spent her career working for, financing, leading and advising organizations in the nonprofit sector. She began as an organizer of primary health care centers in Appalachia, an experience that led her to business school after watching some of them fail for lack of capital. In the decade after receiving her MBA she focused on development finance, structuring public and private capital for small businesses, rural and urban development projects and low-income housing. She joined Prosperity Now (then known as CFED) in 1992, serving first as Director of Economic Development, then as Executive VP; she became President in 2004. During her 27 years there, Prosperity Now tripled in size, navigated the great recession, and built a national network of local and state nonprofit partners to raise up promising policy and program solutions for building security and wealth in their communities. After years spent helping Prosperity Now pursue a mission of building financial security and wealth for low-income households and households of color, Andrea uses the lessons she learned to strengthen the financial condition of nonprofits and social enterprises through writing, consulting, training and creation of the Blueprint.
Corey is an MBA candidate in the Yale School of Management (SOM) class of 2021. Originally from Colorado, Corey worked in philanthropy and economic development prior to attending SOM and is passionate about innovative efforts in the fields of economic justice and climate-friendly food systems.
Elizabeth has worked across social enterprise, innovation, fintech, and impact investing globally for the past decade. Having lived and worked in East Africa for five years, she is particularly knowledgeable and passionate about social innovation across the African continent. She has managed investments and worked on projects in Rwanda, DRC, Madagascar, Burundi, Togo, Morocco, Cameroon, Brazil, and Samoa. Previously, she worked for Kiva, the World Bank, global NGO Accion, and for a Tanzanian solar energy start-up.
A 2020 graduate of SOM, Bryan previously coordinated risk management, financial compliance, and program integrity activities at the U.S. Department of Labor. He also served as a Peace Corps volunteer with the Community Economic Development project in Namibia, where he trained and advised youth entrepreneurs, supported a government-funded microcredit program, and implemented school-based programming in entrepreneurship and financial literacy.
Alexandra is an investment associate with the Open Road Alliance in Washington, D.C., where she performs due diligence and portfolio management for the organization's Social Investments Team. Prior to her graduation from the Yale SOM in 2020, she served as an investment analyst for Boston University’s Investment Office and as a research analyst at Forester Capital.
In addition to her work on enterprise capital, at SOM Vicky served as Co-Chair of the Economic Development Club, Co-Chair of Net Impact, and as a research assistant on an RCT examining the impacts of electrification on rural productivity in Sierra Leone. She is passionate about using data and analytics to improve decision making, and upon graduating in 2020 she joined Vanguard as a senior manager.