Jonah Edelman CEO, Stand for Children
Movement: Children's Rights
 Jonah Edelman is committed to building a nationwide, grassroots constituency to support issues related to children. Inspired by the civil rights movement, Jonah strongly believes in the power of a number of motivated people to create changes that take into account the welfare and future of American children. On June 1, 1996, he helped organize "Stand for Children Day" in Washington, DC. Attended by more than 300,000 people, it was the largest rally for children in American history. Jonah has since committed himself to raising the visibility of children’s issues nationally, pushing for education reforms, health care initiatives, and basic services that give every child a chance to grow up healthy and happy. Because children are not able to speak for themselves through voting and lobbying, Jonah has brought together communities of adults who believe in the right of every child to have a fair chance in life. Jonah’s mission, however, is broader than children’s rights: "To me, children are the most oppressed group in our society, and our ill treatment of them is a litmus test of where and who we are."
In 1998, Jonah co-founded Stand for Children, a nonprofit membership organization whose mission is to use the power of grassroots action to help all children get the excellent public education and strong support they need to thrive. While he was in college, Jonah volunteered to teach a bilingual first grader how to read. From there he went on to run a teen pregnancy prevention initiative, founded a mentorship program for middle school students, and was an administrator for an enrichment project for children in public housing. He graduated from Yale University and attended Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, where he earned a PhD in politics. Jonah was inducted into the International Ashoka Fellowship in 2007. Previous Page Back to Prime Mover Fellows Next Page |