Venture For America CEO Amy Nelson will be the featured speaker for Innov865 Week’s Startup Day 2018. Amy grew up among the amber waves of Midwestern grain outside of St. Louis (a proud VFA city) and then followed her love of post-punk music to sunny Southern California. After earning a degree in philosophy and government from Claremont McKenna College, she did stints in Cameroon and Cambodia, where she helped grow highly-innovative international development organizations. While earning her MBA at NYU’s Stern School of Business, Amy joined the team at B Lab, where she helped launch B Analytics, the leading data platform for impact investors. Amy joined Venture for America in 2013 to lead fundraising and external relations, rose to Managing Director in 2016 and became CEO in 2017. As CEO, Amy is focused on making VFA the go-to path for aspiring young entrepreneurs and helping lower the barriers to entrepreneurship for all. She lives in beautiful Park Slope with her husband and two children, and can be found attending Cirque du Soleil performances around the globe (she’s up to 15 shows and counting!).