​​Hi, I’m Abby and I’m so glad you’re here. 

My work (which has never actually felt like work) reimagines how we learn and lead in a world that's never changed this fast, but will never change this slowly again. I operate at the interfaces — where fields cross-pollinate, where inner growth drives outer impact, and where ancient wisdom shapes future flourishing. I've been called a maverick MBA, an irreverent reverend, and a radical humanist — labels I wear proudly in service of my lifelong mission: finding wisdom, courage and freedom — and passing it on.

For two decades, I've been drawn to perhaps the most powerful threshold of all: the transition to adulthood. In 2008, after winning Harvard's Pitch for Change, I founded Global Citizen Year to reimagine the "gap year" as an accessible, global immersion. As CEO, I raised over $65M in scholarships, helping thousands of emerging leaders find their people, their power, and their purpose before setting life's course.

In 2022, I joined the Emerson Collective as an Entrepreneur in Residence to create a blueprint for scaling this impact to the size of a generation. As part of my exploration, I took the opportunity to practice what I’d preached about “the power of the pause”, and spent a year exploring educational models around the world with my family (and just three carry-on bags) in tow.

These insights led to co-founding The Flight School in 2024 with Chalon Bridges – where we’re combining ancient wisdom with modern technology to reinvent the transition after high school as a rebellious rite of passage.

My ideas have been featured in The New York Times, NPR, PBS, and at leading global forums including Aspen, ASU+GSV and the Milken. I've been recognized as one of Fast Company's "Most Creative People," Goldman Sachs' "Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs," and as an Ashoka Fellow. I received degrees from Stanford (where I'm now a Visiting Fellow) and Harvard Business School (where I serve on the Advisory Board).

While I'm wildly grateful for my formal education and the doors it's opened, here's what I also know: the learning that matters most has little to do with formal schooling. I call it learning on purpose and it's not a privilege, it's our birthright — accessible to anyone ready to begin.

I live in Berkeley (born and raised) where my husband, Joel, keeps me grounded and my young sons, Rio and Luca, remind me to look up.

In another lifetime, I might have been a forest monk, a rabbi, or rockstar.  In this one, I'm committed to anything (and anyone) that helps me become more human in a world becoming less so.

For more, follow me on Linkedin and join Taking Flight -- my newsletter for kindred spirits breaking the rules and building what comes next.