As an innovation coach, Ethan’s focus is on helping students discover the path from a good idea to real, tangible, positive impact on the world. He sees high school as a critical juncture for students to discover what kind of work inspires them and broaden their minds to the possibilities of the different ways they can affect change. If an Innovation student has a dream for a way they can make a difference, Ethan is excited to help them every step of the way in making that dream a reality.

Ethan is a founder, social impact strategist, and mentor. He broke into journalism with The New York Times when he was 22 and spent a decade writing for the Times and magazines like Sports Illustrated, Wired, Popular Science, and Marie Claire. After the 2016 election, he founded the national grassroots political organization Swing Left, which was named one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies” in 2018. In his six years building and running the organization, he raised $75M and recruited hundreds of thousands of volunteers to support get-out-the-vote efforts, including well-known political and cultural figures such as Hillary Clinton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Anna Wintour, Kevin Bacon, and Kerry Washington. He is now in the early stages of starting up a new nonprofit focused on leveraging grassroots energy to power America’s clean energy transition. Ethan’s work has been written about in The New Yorker, TIME, The Washington Post, and dozens of other publications, and he has appeared on MSNBC and PBS.