Emily Elizabeth Douglas (born March 24, 1982) is the founder and Executive Director of

Grandma's Gifts Grandma's Gifts is an incorporated, non-profit organization started by Emily Elizabeth Douglas in 1993 at age 11, in memory of her grandmother. The organization provides goods and services to impoverished children and their families while focusi ...

a co-founder of Experience Management Institute.

Education

Douglas attended

Worthington Kilbourne High School Worthington Kilbourne High School (WKHS) is a public school located in Columbus, Ohio, United States, and is part of the Worthington City School District. Kilbourne was named after James Kilbourne, the founder of the city of Worthington. The sc ...

Worthington, Ohio Worthington is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States, and is a northern suburb of Columbus. The population in the 2020 Census was 14,786. The city was founded in 1803 by the Scioto Company led by James Kilbourne, who was later elected to ...

and received a bachelor's degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

from

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the 10 ...

Oxford, Ohio Oxford is a city in Butler County, Ohio, United States. The population was 23,035 at the 2020 census. A college town, Oxford was founded as a home for Miami University and lies in the southwestern portion of the state approximately northwest ...

in 2004. She was a member of the sorority Kappa Delta. Additionally, she holds a Master of Labor and Human Resources degree and a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

degree from the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

Grandma's Gifts

In 1993, Emily Douglas founded

in memory of her grandmother, Norma Ackison, who passed away from breast and lung cancer in 1991 at the age of 60. Douglas' grandmother, who was one of 11 children, lost her father when she was an infant. As a child, Douglas accompanied her grandmother to purchase canned goods and clothes for veterans, and at the age of six, she believed they were for her. In the first year of Grandma's Gifts, Douglas wrote letters to her parents' friends who donated $300 to the cause, and she used the funds to purchase

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

presents and clothes for four impoverished children in Lawrence County, Ohio. Douglas has traveled and spoken to millions of adults and children throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

about community service, youth activism, service learning,

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

, and

literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

. She has also testified before the

Ohio General Assembly The Ohio General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio. It consists of the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives and the 33-member Ohio Senate. Both houses of the General Assembly meet at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus ...

and the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

. Furthermore, she has made appearances on

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

and has received multiple awards for her work as a youth activist and young adult social entrepreneur.

Career

Emily is a co-founder of Experience Management Institute, which focuses on improving HR policies, practices, and structures to create more human workplaces in various organizations such as businesses, non-profits, and educational institutions. Additionally, she writes for Education Week's K–12 Talent Manager blog, where she covers topics such as strategic human resources, process improvement, leadership, and change management in education. In 2014, Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Microsoft Education, recognized Emily as a "Daily Hero in Education".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Emily Elizabeth Living people 1982 births People from Powell, Ohio Miami University alumni Businesspeople from Columbus, Ohio