Our People

On this page, you’ll see bios for current members of our Integrity Team (aka our board) and members of our leadership team. You will also see information about the board members who have honored us by beaming in from around the world to share their wisdom, since our first board meeting in 2011.

Most of the work at Creating the Future is done by creating teams from our community, who join together for projects and then disband. That includes our faculty, who all come directly from the community of students who have learned Catalytic Thinking alongside us. With a mission focused so intently on sharing what we learn, we feel the more distributed our work among people who care about that mission, the more broadly those learnings can be shared.

Operational Leadership

Hildy Gottlieb
Hildy Gottlieb is co-founder and Chief Boundary Pusher at Creating the Future, where she is leading the charge to rethink the systems that create change in the world. A social scientist, teacher, TEDx speaker and serial social entrepreneur, Hildy co-founded the world's first Diaper Bank, sparking the diaper banking movement across North America. You can find Hildy's complete bio on our founder's page.

Dimitri Petropolis
Dimitri Petropolis, co-founder of Creating the Future, has dedicated his life to making the world a better place. Since 1993, that has meant working side-by-side with Hildy Gottlieb, to aim the Social Change arena at its potential for creating the future of our world. You can find a more complete bio in the Board of Directors list below.

Current Board of Directors

HildyGottlieb-HeadshotSM150x194

Eli Angote
Eli grew up in Kenya then moved to Michigan for college when he was 19. He hired his first employee in 2010 and ran his first full marathon in 2016. After completing that race in 5:25, he realized that he could accomplish whatever he put his mind to no matter what obstacles arise. Eli is the founder of TheBestNotary.net but is first and foremost a kind and loving “SuperConnector” who enjoys deeply connecting with others and helping them along their life’s path by introducing them to other people they are looking to meet.

"I work hard to see the goodness and kindness in everyone before I notice challenges and opportunities for growth. I do my best to speak from the heart at all times and to listen closely and acknowledge what is being said before I respond. My ultimate vision is to help build a world where instead of competing for limited resources, we're all racing to share infinite abundance with others".

_Angie

Dr. Angela M. Eikenberry
Angie Eikenberry is Professor and Director of the School of Public Policy at the University of Connecticut. Angie’s research and creative interests focus on the social, economic, and political roles of philanthropy and nonprofit/voluntary organizations in democratic governance. Her work has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Her most recent book is “Reframing Nonprofit Organizations: Democracy, Inclusion, and Social Change.”

Angie has won multiple awards for her work in the nonprofit sector, including a Fulbright Scholar Award to study giving circles in the UK, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha Awards for Distinguished Research or Creative Activity and Outstanding Graduate Mentor. She is past President of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) and a fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration.

In addition to her extensive academic credentials, Angie brings considerable practical experience in the nonprofit world as well, having co-founded and run Mode Shift Omaha, an organization dedicated to improving transportation equity in Omaha, Nebraska.

John Epps
John Epps is the Managing Principal at Creative Excellence. He and his team support strategies and initiatives that invest in the growth and empowerment of individuals, teams, and organizations that want to transform their markets, communities, and careers. Their coaching, training, research, consulting, and planning services help communities and organizations have greater impact and brighter futures. For over 30 years John has committed a sizable portion of his time to the nonprofit and faith-based community through training, serving on boards, and leading organizations.

Vu Le
Vu Le (“voo lay”) is a writer, speaker, vegan, Pisces, and the former Executive Director of RVC, a nonprofit in Seattle that promotes social justice by developing leaders of color, strengthening organizations led by communities of color, and fostering collaboration between diverse communities.

Vu’s passion to make the world better, combined with a low score on the Law School Admission Test, drove him into the field of nonprofit work, where he learned that we should take the work seriously, but not ourselves. There’s tons of humor in the nonprofit world, and someone needs to document it. He is going to do that, with the hope that one day, a TV producer will see how cool and interesting our field is and make a show about nonprofit work, featuring attractive actors attending strategic planning meetings and filing 990 tax forms.

Known for his no-BS approach, irreverent sense of humor, and love of unicorns, Vu has been featured in dozens, if not hundreds, of his own blog posts at NonprofitAF.com.

Prior to his work with Hildy, Dimitri was an organizer for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, helping to grow the small local of 225 workers into a statewide organization of 6,000.

In 1993, Hildy and Dimitri co-founded the consulting firm Help 4 NonProfits & Tribes, assisting community organizations with strategy, governance and resource development. By 1998, Hildy and Dimitri were aiming their skills at social change and leadership systems themselves, in work that has now become Creating the Future

At Creating the Future, Dimitri is the wizard behind the curtain, making everything work. From designing and producing websites and videos to ensuring there are tech platforms to support our open participatory leadership, Dimitri ensures this online organization is able to do its work.

Among Dimitri's many awards, the highlight is a Points of Light Citation from President Bill Clinton for his work in co-founding (along with Hildy) the world’s first diaper bank - an effort that grew to spark the Diaper Banking movement across the U.S.

When not working, Dimitri is taking apart computers, designing wacky artwork, cycling, or cooking phenomenal meals for the people he loves.

Justin Pollock
Justin Pollock is principal and founder of Orgforward, a consulting agency working with agencies and capacity builders to develop strategies that encourage meaningful community benefit and organizational sustainability. His practice focuses on strengthening the connection between vision and the leadership, programming, finance, and infrastructure needed to make change happen and on supporting organizational leaders with what they need to effectively govern and operate their organizations.

Prior to launching Orgforward, Justin served in a leadership role as Chief Operating Officer for Maryland Nonprofits. Justin has trained and presented to board, staff, and volunteers from hundreds of nonprofit and government agencies ranging from small start-ups to large well-established businesses on topics of governance, financial management, strategic planning, supervision, leadership development, and organizational sustainability. He has more than 20 years of experience in the education and nonprofit fields with an extensive background in the areas of leadership development, organizational management, group process facilitation, curriculum development, teambuilding, and facilitator/trainer development. Justin's career also includes work in the fields of information technology, classroom education, and experiential, outdoor learning.

Karl Wilding
Karl Wilding is a UK-based analyst and advisor working with charities and nonprofit organizations. A former CEO and director of the UK's National Council for Voluntary Organisations, he now supports leadership teams on public policy, governance and strategy. In addition to his board role at Creating the Future, Karl is an associate at MyCake, a firm specializing in financial benchmarking for social sector organizations, and a trustee of Communities 1st, a group that connects and supports community organizations across the UK.