Council of Advisors

Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta

Mr. Mineta's distinguished career includes 20 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and cabinet service under the last two United States presidents. Mr. Mineta joined the administration of President George W. Bush in January 2001, becoming the 14th Secretary of Transportation and was the longest serving Secretary in the history of that cabinet post. He is recognized for his accomplishments in economic development, science and technology policy, foreign and domestic trade, the environment, budgetary issues and civil rights. Following the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, Secretary Mineta guided the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, an agency with more than 65,000 employees, and the largest mobilization of a new federal agency since World War II. Among his numerous accomplishments, Secretary Mineta received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the US.

Robert N. Butler

Physician, gerontologist, psychiatrist, public servant and Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Dr. Robert N. Butler has long been involved in a broad array of social and health issues. He is perhaps best known for his advocacy of the medical and social needs and rights of the elderly and his research on healthy aging and the dementias. In 1975 he was selected the founding director of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health, where he remained until 1982. In 1982, he founded the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, the first department of geriatrics in a U.S. medical school, and served as Chairman and Brookdale Professor until 1995. In 1995 he founded and became President and CEO of the International Longevity Center (ILC-U.S.), a policy research and education center, while continuing as Professor of Geriatrics at Mount Sinai. He is also Co-Chair of the Alliance for Health and the Future of the International Longevity Center which focuses upon Europe.

Andrew Wolk

Widely recognized as a leading social innovator and a pioneering teacher of social entrepreneurship, Andrew founded Root Cause in 2004 and now leads its overall strategic direction. He has consulted to dozens of organizations working for civic engagement, economic development, education, the environment, seniors, and more. Andrew recently authored the first in a series of Root Cause How-to Guides, entitled Business Planning for Enduring Social Impact, as well as a chapter in the Small Business Administration's annual Report to the President of the United States on social entrepreneurship and government. He designed and taught one of the first courses on social entrepreneurship in the country for Boston University's School of Management, which recently awarded him the first ever Rising Star Award. Andrew is a senior lecturer in social entrepreneurship at the Sloan School of Management and Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. He began his career as a private-sector entrepreneur, having built and sold a multi-restaurant delivery business in the 1990s. He holds an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship and Nonprofit Management from Boston University and a B.A. from Lehigh University.