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Shawn Landres is a Jewish social entrepreneur and scholar in Los Angeles, CA.

Social Innovation
Landres is the co-founder,director of research and CEO of Jumpstart, a research and development laboratory that helps philanthropic startups, chiefly in the Jewish non-profitworld, develop their missions, programs and the connections that will help them get off the ground. Landres has a reputation for bridging the gaps between established Jewish foundations and newer cultural institutions and trends; in naming him to the 2009 Forward 50, the Jewish Daily Forward called him "an essential thinker in explaining the new Jewish spirituality and culture to the Jewish establishment." The Jerusalem Post said that through Landres, Jumpstart "has changed the global conversation about Jewish innovation primarily through research and advocacy."

In addition to Jumpstart, Landres sits on the Investors Advisory Board of The Mother Company and is a Hub LA founding member. He also serves on the board of directors of Keshet.

Scholarship
Landres graduated with honors from Columbia University and received Masters degrees from Oxford in Social Anthropology and the University of California, Santa Barbara, in Religious Studies.

Landres has co-edited four books on topics ranging from ethnographic practices to the interreligious impact of film. He has also authored numerous articles, covering subjects from social innovation to the ethnography of religion. His academic writing has often,though not exclusively, focused on Jewish studies. Landres has undertaken extensive ethnographic studies on Jewish communities in Slovakia and Southern California, among others.

Landres co-edited Personal Knowledge and Beyond, a collection of articles examining practices in ethnography.

After The Passion is Gone: American Religious Consequences, which Landres co-edited with Michael Berenbaum, was released in 2004 and examined the social impact of the film The Passion of Christ on religious groups.

Landres also co-edited Religion, Violence, Memory, and Place with Oren Baruch Stier. The volume looks at the religious memorialization of violent acts linked to specific sites in different civilizations.

His article “Emerging Spiritual Paradigm,” published in Sh’ma, discussed new spiritual Jewish communities, usually distinguished by a “return to Judaism’s sacred pillars of Torah, prayer, and social justice.” Landres and others termed the rise of these communities as “Jewish Emergent,” after a parallel movement in the Christian church. As Landres studied emergent communities further, a 2007 report he co-authored linked independent minyanim to social networking rather than institutional structures. Landres’ research and writing at Jumpstart has continued to add to the conversation about Jewish communities and social impact, including a 2009 report with Joshua Avedon, "The Innovation Ecosystem," and the “Jewish Innovation Economy” report, released in 2011 and edited by Landres with Avedon and Felicia Herman.

Awards and Recognition
Landres spoke at the July 2012 White House Faith-Based Social Innovator Conference, jointly sponsored by the Obama Administration's Offices of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.

Landres co-chairs the William J. Clinton Foundation Millennium Network Leadership Council, which inspires the next generation to address global challenges.

The Liberty Hill Foundation has selected Landres to receive the 2013 Change LA NextGen Award, for being “an inspirational leader who invests time and raises funds to advance social justice in Los Angeles.”

In 2009, Landres was an inaugural Ariane de Rothschild Fellow, Social Entrepreneurship & Cross-Cultural Network. He was an International Nahum Goldmann Fellow in 2010 and 2012.

1992 Clinton Campaign
Landres was credited by Bill Clinton with inspiring the choice of Fleetwood Mac's song "Don't Stop Thinkin' About Tomorrow" as his 1992 campaign theme song. Clinton recognized Landres and related the story of the song suggestion during a 1992 Presidential Campaign Reunion, held in 2011.

With author Robert E. Levin, Landes edited Bill Clinton: The Inside Story,a biography released during the 1992 presidential election, which covered Clinton’s early years and time as governor of Arkansas as well as outlining the candidate's policy platform.