The 2005 recipient was
Greg Walker-Wilson '89
Executive Director of Mountain Microenterprise Fund
Greg Walker-Wilson has been the Executive Director of Mountain Microenterprise Fund (MMF) in Asheville, N.C., since getting his master’s in international development at American University in 1997. MMF provides training, support and loans to aspiring entrepreneurs in the mountains of North Carolina. He has worked in the microenterprise field for the past 11 years. His key accomplishments at MMF include:
- brought organization out of debt and into solvency;
- increased staff of organization from 2 to 12 full-time and 6 part-time;
- increased clients served annually by 700%;
- sustainably increased budget from $160,000 to $800,000;
- increased net assets of organization by $350,000;
- positioned the organization as a leader in the domestic microenterprise field;
- created innovative programs that fit within the organization’s mission – revision of 24 hour entrepreneurial training program, Spanish-language program, Individual Development Accounts, membership/follow-up services; SBA Women’s Business Center, CDFI designation, and for-profit retail subsidiary.
See www.mtnmicro.org
Additional activities and accomplishments include:
- serving as chair-elect and policy chair for the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO), the national microenterprise trade association representing the more than 500 microenterprise programs nationwide.
- served as an advisor on 4 Best Practices in Microenterprise Publications (Basic Training; Marketing to Clients; Networks; and Peer Lending) done by AEO and The Aspen Institute.
- serves on several boards, including chairing two that are national leaders in their fields: Center for Participatory Change (grassroots organizing) and HandMade in America (creative economy and crafts).
- wrote book chapter “From Telling to Teaching in Appalachia,” that was recently published by Jossey-Bass in Dialogue Education by Jane Vella.
- received the 2003 Athena Award from the Asheville Chamber of Commerce – the first man ever to win this award that honors women of high achievement or men who support women’s achievement.
- selected as one of 50 finalist organizations in Fast Company’s 2005 Social Capitalist Awards – an effort to name the most innovative, entrepreneurial, and visionary civic organizations in the country.
- selected by The North Carolina Center for Nonprofits’ 2004 Nonprofit Sector Steward Award - given to three organizations whose leadership and management practices further the public’s understanding of and trust in the state’s nonprofit sector.
- Chosen to be a Marshall Fellow. The Marshall Memorial Fellowship program of the German Memorial Marshall Fund provides a unique opportunity for 60 young policy and opinion leaders from the United States to gain an in-depth understanding of societies, institutions and peoples across the Atlantic. During the 3-4 week traveling program, Fellows develop a broad knowledge of political, economic, cultural and social issues in their host countries through meetings with city officials, school teachers, police officers, government officials, business leaders, labor organizers, farmers, activists, religious leaders, academics and members of the community who open their homes to Fellows. GMF also helps each Fellow set up a few personal appointments that match his or her own expertise and interests. Fellows travel in diverse groups of 18-21 to Brussels, Belgium, for briefings on European and transatlantic institutions before dividing into small groups to visit cities and small towns in Northern, Southern and Central Europe. Fellows complete their Fellowship as a group in Berlin. www.gmfus.org
