Shawn Landres connects people, ideas and resources, enabling community leaders to expand what they know, adapt how they think, and redefine what is possible. A Chair Emeritus of the Los Angeles County Quality & Productivity Commission, which oversees the nation’s oldest and largest local government innovation fund, and a past chair of the City of Santa Monica Planning Commission, he is co-founder of Jumpstart Labs and a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. In late February 2022, Shawn founded the UA Support Teams (UAST), a grassroots volunteer humanitarian network that has mobilized more than 375 people across 20 countries to provide critical humanitarian support for Ukrainians and Ukrainian refugees in Europe, North America, and Israel. UAST was cited in OLAM’s “Unprecedented Response and Collaboration” report on the crisis as a frequent partner to numerous organizations in the field. Shawn has more than two decades of international experience in nonprofit, philanthropic, and academic leadership, social entrepreneurship, network building, and organizational development. An award-winning civic leader who bridges multiple communities, his achievements have earned attention in the U.S., Europe, and Israel. Shawn was featured as an Obama White House “spotlight innovator” and his work has been covered in major national and international media. Shawn spearheaded the design of CIVruta, a Lippman Kanfer Prize-winning initiative that equips civic volunteers to advance diversity, inclusion, and dignity through productive public service relationships with people from across the rich diversity of L.A.’s ethnic and religious communities. Shawn holds degrees in religious studies and social anthropology from Columbia, Oxford, and UC Santa Barbara, where he earned a PhD. He lives in Santa Monica, California, with his wife Zuzana Riemer Landres and their two young daughters.