Dave Wilkinson

David Wilkinson is the Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. He leads White House efforts to identify and scale better, more effective social solutions, advancing Presidential priorities that strengthen communities and enable upward economic mobility. This involves identifying programs that work better through use of data and evidence as well as scaling what works through smarter use of federal resources and cross-sector collaboration.

Mr. Wilkinson leads an Office of Social Innovation that supports the development and launch of outcomes-focused solutions across a range of domestic policy priorities from education and job growth to economic development and healthy communities. In addition, Mr. Wilkinson coordinates efforts to attract and deploy America’s talent, from national service and volunteerism to employing better management strategy, in support of effective community solutions. He is a co-founder of the Data-Driven Justice Initiative.

Mr. Wilkinson draws from an extensive background in impact finance, social entrepreneurship, evidence-based policy and organization management. He previously served the White House as Senior Policy Advisor for Social Finance and Innovation, assigned to the Office of Social Innovation and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. For the Office of Social Innovation, he led a range of initiatives including Pay for Success, evidence-based policy, and impact finance. At CEQ, Mr. Wilkinson served as the lead for green finance. His work spanned CEQ’s portfolio, with a focus on market development, financial innovation and ladders to economic opportunity as they connect to infrastructure, water resources, climate resilience and renewable energy. Mr. Wilkinson currently serves as the US Government Observer to the Global Social Impact Investment Steering Group, the successor to the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce.