About greg ricks

mentors, Greg became the youngest dean at Northeastern University at age 23.

Greg championed the voices and power of youth to make a difference. He went on to serve as deans at Dartmouth College, Sarah Lawrence College, and Stanford University. In those roles, he often encouraged students to see their educations as opportunities to find their own passions and to then pursue them, especially in service of a greater good. For instance, at Dartmouth, he advocated for students who built a shantytown on its green to protest the College’s investments in South Africa and to promote divestment and reconciliation. Greg promoted multicultural education and taught colleagues and young people around the U.S. how to work for diversity, inclusion, and social justice.

Greg became a driver of the growing service movement in cities and campuses across America. In 1993, he was instrumental in the founding of AmeriCorps, which provided federal and state funding and support for thousands of organizations in the U.S. At the request of President Bill Clinton, he facilitated its first Town Hall Meeting in Philadelphia and later trained hundreds of AmeriCorps members. Greg became the first dean at City Year, a demonstration program in Boston, helping to recruit and grow its staff and sites. He served on boards for Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL), Public Allies, and Youth Build USA.

Through City Year, Greg eventually pursued a lifelong dream to live in South Africa. He helped build the Clinton Democracy Fellowship, which supported young adult leaders who were working, often through founding or growing their own nonprofit programs, to rebuild their country and promote community on to pursue their own careers and lifetimes working for social change. Through monthly online meetings, Fellows will build their network with leaders from many places and spaces. They will gain skills and knowledge, including in building programs and garnering resources, and apply them to their own action projects.

The hallmark of the fellowship is two immersion experiences – a July 2024 immersion in South Africa and a July 2025 in the United States.