Abigail Falik is the founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year (www.globalcitizenyear.org).

Abigail has dedicated her professional life to creating new opportunities for young Americans to learn about the world. Her vision for Global Citizen Year grew from over a decade leading new ventures at the intersection of education reform, internationaldevelopment, and social innovation. She is a recognized expert in the global education field, has published in leading journals, and has been an invited to present at high-profile conferences including the Clinton Global Initiative, the Aspen Ideas’ Festival, and Pop!Tech. In 2009, for her work leading GCY, Abigail was awarded the Draper Richards Fellowship forentrepreneurs who are using innovative solutions to create scalable social change. She is also a recipient of the Mind Trust Fellowship for education entrepreneurs who are developing system-changing strategies to tackle education’s greatest challenges, and the Harvard Business School Fellowship for social entrepreneurs.

Abigail holds a B.A. and M.Ed. from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

About Global Citizen Year

Global Citizen Year (GCY) is a San-Francisco based social venture that re-envisions the transition to college as an opportunity for young people to develop the passion, perspective and skills necessary to thrive in higher education and 21st century careers. Through cross-sector partnerships, GCY recruits and trains a diverse corps of emerging leaders and supports them as apprentices across Asia, Africa and Latin America during a “bridge year” before college. At the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative, GCY committed to forge partnerships with colleges, companies, goverments and NGOs around the world to engage 1,000 high school graduates annually by 2015.