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

My work (which has never felt like work) is about reclaiming what it means to be human in a world that’s never changed this fast, and will never change this slowly again.

I believe that change happens at the interfaces — where fields cross-pollinate, inner growth drives systemic change, and 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 a lifelong inquiry: How do I cultivate wisdom and courage, and pass it on? 

For two decades, I’ve built organizations that help young people on the cusp of adulthood turn transition into transformation. Over time, this work has shaped lives, seeded movements, and shifted culture.

In 2008, after winning Harvard’s Pitch for Change, I founded Global Citizen Year to reinvent 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 Emerson Collective as an Entrepreneur in Residence to explore how this blueprint could scale to the size of a generation. I took a year to practice what I'd long preached —traveling with my family (and just three carry-on bags) to learn from builders, teachers, and seekers at the live edge of what's emerging.

That journey led to co-founding The Flight School in 2024 with Chalon Bridges — a modern mystery school for a world in transition. Through immersive courses and a global community, we’re summoning a murmuration – a growing force skilled with uncertainty, animated by possibility, and ready to lead from fear to flourishing.

My work has been featured by The New York Times, NPR, PBS, and at global forums like TED, Aspen, and ASU+GSV. I’ve been selected as one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People,” one of 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).

I’m wildly grateful for my formal education and the doors it’s opened. But the learning that’s mattered most didn’t come from institutions — it came from silence and grief, from teachers without titles, and from choosing (again and again) to pause, look up, and leap.

I live in Berkeley (born and raised), where my husband Joel keeps me grounded, and my sons, Rio and Luca, remind me that aliveness is our most precious, and regenerative, resource. 

In another lifetime, I might have been a forest monk, rabbi, or rockstar. In this one, I’m turning glass ceilings into skylights and inviting us all to fly. 

For more, follow me on Linkedin and join Taking Flight -- my Substack community where we trade inherited scripts for lives that feel more fully awake, alive, and free.