WHO'S NEXT

KIRSTEN LODALO ccupation: CEO, Co-Founder National Student Partnerships Hometown: McLean, Va.

WL: Why did you move to Washington, D.C.?
KL: I established National Stident Partnership’s headquarters in Washington in 1999 while I was still in school at Yale, because I always knew I would return after college. It made sense for a national organization focused on poverty alleviation to be based in D.C., which sits at the epicenter of the NGO, advocacy, and political worlds.

WL: What is your greatest fear?
KL: Most people in the non-profit world have a huge fear of failure due to lack of money, and I fall squarely in that camp.

WL: Favorite time of day?
KL: Early morning before anyone else has come into the office.

WL: Drink of choice?
KL: Nothing beats a well-made classic margarita on the rocks with salt.

WL: What do you do for fun?
KL: My fiancé is a musician, so we see a lot of live music. I have wonderful, creative friends, many of whom happen to be fantastic cooks and hosts.

WL: What is your favorite book?
KL: The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich.

WL: What do you love most about the city?
KL: The people. Everyone I know in D.C. is so curious about life and so driven to make change in some way or another. It’s a city filled with brilliant people, many of whom don’t make much money, so there’s a certain purity to what drives people to do their work.

WL: What do you hate about the city?
KL: Being disenfranchised.

WL: Does social responsibility come with age and experience, or is one born knowing that it is an important issue?
KL: Social responsibility is passed through family, the classroom, direct service experiences, the media, the workplace, and the list goes on. It takes so many different forces to create a strong culture of social responsibility in our society, but I do think people are most profoundly impacted by direct service experiences.