Stewards of Change is grounded in the principle that leaders from all sectors share in the responsibility for improving human services delivery and the lives of the children and families supported by these systems. SOC’s founding partners are dedicated to finding new ways to take social innovation to scale in the 21st Century:
Founding Partners:
Daniel Stein is a cofounder of Stewards of Change and serves as the Managing Partner and a member of the leadership team providing overall strategic leadership and management for the organization. Mr. Stein brings over 22 years of experience working in business and consulting to public, private, and not-for-profit human services organizations focused on building capacity, solving problems and improving outcomes. Mr. Stein has directed multidisciplinary engagements in some of the largest and most challenging jurisdictions including California, New York, Washington DC, Louisiana, Connecticut and New Jersey. These projects draw upon Mr. Stein’s broad experience and knowledge including strategic visioning and planning, business process reengineering, quantitative analysis, organizational development, performance management, marketing and communications, consumer research, and information technology. Prior to forming Stewards of Change, Mr. Stein started True Insight Marketing – a consultancy dedicated to applying business and marketing practices to child welfare organizations. Prior to his work in human services Mr. Stein spent ten years at Kraft Foods where he held senior leadership positions in multiple divisions managing national brands. Mr. Stein has focused on transferring and translating his experience in private industry into the human services to improve operational efficiency and outcomes. Daniel holds an MBA from Yale School of Management, 1987. He received a BA from The Evergreen State College, 1975.
Vernon McFarland Brown is a cofounder of Stewards of Change and a member of the leadership team. Vernon brings 30 years of experience as CEO of Aspiranet, a private Child Welfare Services Agency with forty-four service sites throughout California serving over 2,500 clients on a weekly basis. As a child welfare innovator and leader, Vernon has developed nationally recognized programs that serve children, youth, families and communities. Microsoft recently completed a Case Study on Aspiranet's use of SharePoint to support its IT Network accessed by nearly one thousand staff. Vernon has served on variety of national, state and local boards representing children and youth service agencies, advocacy groups and associations. Vernon holds a Master of Public Administration (1986) from Golden Gate University, SF, CA. He attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, receiving a Secondary Education Degree (1978) and a BA (1977).
Michael Smith was an original cofounder of Stewards of Change. Michael has 25 years of experience in business consulting and marketing as the CEO of Linx Communications where he provides overall leadership and management of day-to-day activities. Linx is a full-service strategic consulting, marketing and communications company. Michael serves on the Federal Advisory Board for the Quality Improvement Center for the Privatization of Child Welfare, studying the process and effects of privatizing services. He is also involved in the Young Presidents Organization where he is spearheading a global project, “Helping Disadvantaged Kids Network,” to support children in developed and developing countries. Michael received an MA from Bentley College, Waltham (1979-1983) with degrees in management, marketing, finance and computer science. He attended the Harvard Business School, Boston, MA (1999-2001) Executive Education program.
Associates & Affiliates
Gerry Pape
Executive Vice President
Stewards of Change
Gerry Pape is Executive Vice President for Stewards of Change (SOC). After 30 years of successfully working for large corporate enterprise technology firms, he joined SOC in 2007 to fulfill a personal commitment to improve the lives of children and others in need. Gerry supports the SOC team through strategic management and project oversight. He most recently oversaw the first Human Services 2.0 Roadmap project with the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Human Services Agency.
Prior to joining Stewards of Change, Gerry was an Executive for AT&T where he worked for 25 years. He has extensive experience in developing, running and transforming major corporate systems and networks; leading large teams and multi-billion dollar engagements on a global and P/L basis, and producing turnaround results in times of business, economic and regulatory change. He has also worked for Alcaltel-Lucent, Aon Consulting, and TeleTech in executive positions.
Gerry is active in community, church and charity organizations, including serving as the 2008-2010 President of the Board of Trustees for Inwood House, a 175 year old New York City Charity. Gerry holds a BS in Engineering and an MBA with emphasis in Organizational Behavior and Finance from the University of Illinois. He also earned an Executive MBA from Penn State University. Gerry is featured in the book “Leading at the Speed of Change”, a business publication by Capodagli and Jackson, McGraw-Hill.