Jamie Van Leeuwen Mentor 2010

Describe yourself briefly.

Jamie Van Leeuwen currently works as the Policy Director for Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. In 2006, Jamie was appointed by then Denver Mayor Hickenlooper to head up Denver's Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. In this role, he oversaw leadership staff, fundraising, public relations and evaluation. In the first five years of the initiative, Denver’s Road Home generated over $50 million in new resources for the homeless, developed over 2,000 new units of affordable housing, prevented over 3,500 families from becoming homeless, reduced chronic homelessness by 70 percent and was recognized by HUD as one of the top six homeless programs in the country. For the past five years he has worked closely with Come Let’s Dance, a non-government organization in Uganda to develop a research and learning institute for students working in the slums of Kampala. He is the recipient of the 2009 “Judy Kaufman Civic Entrepreneurship Award” from the Denver Foundation. Jamie completed his PhD in Public Policy at the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver with an emphasis on affordable housing and homelessness. Jamie has also traveled to over 60 countries.

Describe why you are an Unreasonable Mentor.

I think the work that this organization is doing to engage young people in the entrepreneurial spirit of helping others is extraordinary.