Democracy Café

If anyone was ever 'meant' for a certain professional position, it's Danielle Olson, freshly minted Executive Director of Portland, Oregon-based Hatch Innovation (website at HatchTheFuture.org). Hatch is all about helping people create enterprises that genuinely help improve communities, and there is just no one better suited for leading such an organization with such a lofty and vital mission than Danielle Olson. Danielle -- who is also a board member of our DemocracyCafe.org (we wouldn't have the wonderful web presence we do if not for her) is a big advocate of a kind of inclusive entrepreneurship that hinges on collective action by diverse stakeholders, especially in the realm of social enterprise where community problems are being addressed. "Certainly it's a challenge to have multiple people from different walks of life and perspectives come together and innovate as a community," she tells me in this exchange, but she believes it will lead to more innovative and lasting solutions, since it "gives m