The Microsoft Alumni Foundation last night named its third annual 2011 Integral Fellows Awards, recognizing three former Microsoft employees who have gone on to found or help lead non-profit organizations that use technology to accomplish their mission.
Here are the winners, along with the foundation’s description of their work.
- Oliver Hurst-Hiller – DonorsChoose.org (New York). Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President. Oliver is passionate about getting critical learning resources to students in high-need communities and empowering front-line educators to be innovators in the classroom.
- Tom Ikeda – Densho (Seattle), Founder and Executive Director. After digging deeper into the struggles and sacrifices barely mentioned in the history books, in 1996 Tom made the commitment to share the untold stories of Japanese Americans and founded Densho.
- David Risher – Worldreader (Seattle), Co-Founder. During a visit to the Perpetuo Socorro girl’s orphanage in Guayaquil, Ecuador, David observed piles of books inside its semi-abandoned library, and in that moment, David realized the profound impact that e-readers could have on the way the developing world learns to read.
Each received an unrestricted $25,000 grant for their organization. Bill and Melinda Gates handed out the awards at an event in Seattle last night.