Speakers
- Natalia Herbst
- Christian Vanizette
Details

Communities of Suffering and Hope will discuss the importance of community level impacts and participation in how we think about and apply security. What are some common threads in the global push to win back democracy and build climate resilience that can help us understand what security might look like in the future, and where the biggest challenges lie? What are people fighting for now, to secure their futures? Our panelists have worked with hundreds of thousands of individuals online and across continents to prevent democratic backsliding and build community resilience against climate threats. Join us to hear their perspectives about what matters most at this moment.
About the Speakers: Natalia is an Obama Scholar ‘19 who has over 10 years of experience in government at the local and national level. She currently is part of President Obama’s Inclusive Capitalism Working Group, and is a strategy consultant based on a methodology she co-developed to guide teams working on social impact to identify how to influence policy to make their projects sustainable and scalable. In her previous role as Strategy Advisor at the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, she focused on innovations for civic engagement and democracy strengthening through sustainability policy. During her appointment as National Director for Community Organizations at the National Youth Institute, her work focused on developing youth-centered public policy focused on social inclusion, sexual and reproductive health and rights, culture and employability, and environmental sustainability so that young people are empowered to define their own goals and reach their full potential, impacting +1.5 million youth across the country. This was done by focusing on shifting paradigms around government engagement with youth. Natalia holds a BA in international studies (UTDT), an MA in development studies (IDS-Sussex), and is an Obama Scholar-Columbia University alumni. She is a JICA, Fulbright, and Aspen Ideas Fellow alumni.
Christian is the Co-Founder of Makesense.org, a global network of 100,000 citizens and entrepreneurs committed to solving social and environmental issues through skilled volunteerism and rapid innovation workshops. Makesense citizens support 3,200 local initiatives tackling the Global Goals in 100 cities and 45 countries. The 80 employees of Makesense work in seven cities across five continents to scale those local initiatives by partnering with forward looking companies and governments around the world. In 2015, Makesense was a finalist in the Google Impact Challenge, an award for innovative high-potential social non-profits. By 2030, Makesense aims to scale its global engagement to 180 million citizens; to launch a “citizen engagement pledge” where corporations, global leaders, and citizens commit to reaching the Global Goals; and to increase the impact of Makesense’s investment fund which supports community-based businesses. Christian received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business innovation from the Kedge Business School in France. In 2016, Christian was named one of Forbes’ Top 30 Social Entrepreneurs Under 30 in Europe. He is also a member of the French Government’s Digital Council and an advisory board member of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Goalkeeper Initiative.