Paul Schmitz is the CEO of Leading Inside Out, which
advances strategies that develop authentic, inclusive, and collaborative
leadership; engages community members as partners in solving community
problems; and help diverse leaders and groups achieve greater impact together.
Paul also serves as Senior Advisor to the Collective impact Forum, a
partnership of FSG and The Aspen Institute forum for Community Solutions, and
the first Innovation Fell at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social
Innovation and Impact.
Paul is the author of Everyone leads: Building Leadership
form the Community Up (Jossey Bass, 2011). The book is based on lessons learned
from 21 years leading Public Allis, an innovative leadership development
program that helped more than 5,000 diverse young adults across the country
turn their passions to make a difference into careers as leaders working for
community and social change.
Paul is a faculty member of the Asset-Based Community
Development Institute; a board member of The Corps Network, Independent Sector,
the NYU Leadership Initiative, Playworks, and The United Way of Greater
Milwaukee. He is the former co-chair of Voices for National Service, which led
advocacy for AmeriCorps and other national service programs. Paul co-chaired
the 2008 Obama Presidential campaign’s Civic Engagement Policy Group, was a
member of The Obama-Biden Transition Team, and was appointed by President Obama
to The White House Council for Community Solutions.
An honors graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
Paul received their Graduate of the Last Decade Alumni award. He has also been
recognized by the Rockefeller Foundation as a Next Generation Leadership
Fellow, by the Nonprofit Times three separate years as one of the 50 most
influential nonprofit leaders in America, and by Fast Company Magazine with
their Social Capitalist Award for innovation. He lives in Milwaukee with his
partner and five children.