Rachel Zabaneh

FOUNDER AND CEO, VERITAS INSTITUTE FOR LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION
As a Bay Area educational entrepreneur and visionary for over a decade, Dr. Rachel Zabaneh, founder and CEO of Veritas Institute, has inspired education leaders and students across the nation with a revolutionary model of purpose-driven education.
Growing up in San Francisco, Rachel and her family ministered to the needs of the community that surrounded them – including the elderly, urban youth, homeless, disabled, and others marginalized by society. Building on these experiences and guided by the belief that young people are more than a test score, she designed award-winning, pedagogical techniques to help students learn by creating and leading innovative service projects. At Veritas, this is called “education with a purpose.”
Through her doctoral research at Creighton University, and efforts as Founding Director of the Social Entrepreneurship Lab and Caritas Scholars Program, Rachel continues to encourage educators and students alike with the motivational power of connecting a student’s academic work with their future vocation or “calling” in life.
It was Aristotle who famously said, “Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation.” Whether transforming contemporary educational paradigms or participating in local or global humanitarian efforts, Rachel understands how to design systemic change in communities – through sustainable, replicable, and scalable methods of intervention.
At Veritas Institute for Leadership and Innovation, our objective is to empower every student to 1.) identify their God-given unique gifts and talents, 2.) discover what matters most to them and 3.) make lasting change in their communities and world.
“Your care for others is the measure of your greatness.” – Jesus
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” – Frederick Buechner
Special Presentations:
Stanford University Graduate School of Education
Topic: Social Entrepreneurship as a Pedagogical Tool for Student Success
KFAX Radio Station
Topic: Servant Leadership
Q Commons Talk, Silicon Valley
Topic: The Essentiality of Purpose in Academic Achievement
Location: CityTeam San Jose
Silicon Valley Startup: Idea to Ipo (workshop)
Topic: Social Entrepreneurship: How You Can Change the World
Location: Bay Area Entrepreneurship Center
Gina Mazetti Show, Special Guest
New
Advisory Board and Mentors
Dr. Jennifer Camota
Board/Mentor
Former Associate Dean, University of San Francisco
Hult International Business School
Michelle Lacourciere
Global Initiatives Advisor
Director, Sirona Cares Foundation and CEO, Sirona Haiti, S.A.