"Change the world." It always struck me that saying that sounded a lot like grandiose hubris, or at best, a dauntingly overwhelming task. The utter impossibility of it seemed certain until I realized that it can mean helping one person at a time. That is a theme you'll see throughout this book and our websites and our work. I have added some of my Linkedin Influencer blogs/essays that I hope may be inspirational, also. The format of this book is inspired by Brian Eno's A Year With Swollen Appendices, not so much the diary aspect but rather the overwhelmingly large collection of information in the various appendices. Additionally, this book is an "analog" version, if you will, of the content and links found at the CenterForGlobalInitiatives.org website and the associated DropBox account. Open-Sourced Humanitarian Interventionism It's long been my goal to make life easier for those working in humanitarian and volunteer endeavors, as well as those in need of help. Indeed, in one way or another, we all need help in one form or another. So, just about everything you find herein and on the Center's website, is free of charge, and a lot you could also find for yourself. What I've tried to do is speed up the search, vet what has been found, and then curate the results, making them as readily and easily available as I know how to. This is my dream of open-sourcing humanitarian work. Current Content, For Pretty Close To Forever The reason for this "reverse engineering" is twofold. First, the amount of content and links on the Center's website may not always be apparent to the novel user. This book allows for near complete exposure to the functional tools and content that await the online user. Second, this book will never be out-of-date, in that when new content becomes available via uploads to the DropBox account, you'll be able to read that as well. All you have to do is email me and ask to be linked (I'm at DrChrisStout@gmail.com). I curate the content constantly. You can also request being added to our mailing list via my email address as well if you'd like to be kept up-to-date on events and other relevant content. We welcome your joining! All proceeds from sales of this book will be donated to the Center for Global Initiatives.
About the Author: Dr. Chris Stout is the Founding Director of the Center for Global Initiatives. He is on faculty at the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois and Advisory Board Member to their Center for Global Health. He was appointed by the Secretary of the US Department of Commerce to the Board of Examiners for the Baldrige National Quality Award. He is on the Advisory Board of the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners, and numerous other organizations. He was one of the World Economic Forum's Global Leaders of Tomorrow, and he was an Invited Faculty in Davos. He is the founder of GordianKnot, LLC, an executive leadership consultancy and he currently runs the Department of Research and Data Analytics for a national sports and rehabilitation medicine organization with $500M in annual revenues. Dr. Stout authored the highly praised and award-winning three volume set, The New Humanitarians, and is an Amazon Best Selling Author. Additionally, he has published or presented over 300 papers and 35 books. His works have been translated into 8 languages. He has lectured world-wide, visited 6 continents and over 85 countries. Dr. Stout was educated at Purdue, The University of Chicago, Forest Institute, and was a post-doc fellow at Harvard Medical School. He has won 5 Humanitarian Awards and received four additional doctorates (honoris causa). He endowed a scholarship in perpetuity at Purdue University 's School of Engineering and Technology, and is an active Angel Investor and Advisory to numerous start-ups.