Fast Company has named Jennifer Sirangelo ’96 MPA, president and CEO of the National 4-H Council, to its annual list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. The award from Fast Company recognizes influential and forward-thinking individuals for innovations in business, leadership, and culture. Aside from Sirangelo — who earned the No. 46 spot for “raising new leaders” — others named to this year’s list include business leaders from Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, and Google Cloud, to name just a few.

This recognition for Sirangelo follows the launch of 4-H’s new Grow True Leaders campaign — the largest brand and alumni activation initiative in 4‑H history. Started by Sirangelo in 2016, the campaign is focused on supporting growth and leadership development for nearly six million young people through 4‑H programs in science, agriculture, health, and citizenship, and is aimed at promoting diversity in 4-H membership and programing, while increasing 4-H enrollment to 10 million members by 2025. Already, 4-H alumni social media engage­ment is up 40% and unrestricted fundraising has grown 27% in the past year.

The Grow True Leaders campaign is also about changing the perception that many people have about 4-H. As Fast Company notes, “For many Americans, the name 4-H still evokes im­­ages of kids raising sheep for the county fair,” says Sirangelo. “But today, the nonprofit organ­ization serves more young people in urban and suburban areas than in rural ones. In addition to courses in animal husbandry, 4-H offers school and community programs in robotics, rocketry, and computer coding.” She adds, “Alumni are at different places than you might think — from NASA to the NBA to Facebook. Ten governors and over 50 members of Congress are 4-H alumni.” 

More information about Jennifer Sirangelo, her designation as one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business,” and 4-H’s Grow True Leaders campaign can be found here.