As part of her effort to engage the global criminal justice community, IBJ Founder and CEO Karen Tse participated last month in New York University’s Reynolds Speaker Series. According to NYU, the series:

…presents prominent social entrepreneurs and leaders from across the spectrum of public and professional sectors who will share their insights as cutting-edge, far reaching change makers.

As always, Karen captivated the audience with her own background as a criminal defender and her insights into human rights in the 21st century. But what was particularly interesting and inspiring to me was the intensity and passion with which the audience responded to her comments.

At the end of the day, IBJ can scream its head off about the need to implement criminal justice legislation… but progress will only come when we can inspire the next generation of defenders and social entrepreneurs to invest their time, passion and resources in the transformation of their local legal infrastructure.

If the diverse and highly talented audience at NYU was an indication of that coalition, it seems we’re well on our way…

Among the social entrepreneurs featured alongside Karen in the series, were Jed Emerson, Jacqueline Novogratz, and Dr. Paul Farmer. Many thanks to NYU and the Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship for putting together such a fantastic series.