Geoffrey Canada

President and CEO, Harlem Children's Zone

What if the problem of guns and drugs in Harlem could be solved, Geoffrey Canada first wondered, would that let the people lift themselves out of poverty?  For more than two decades as the CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, Geoffrey Canada has been working to rescue kids from violence and chaos.  His dedication and sustained effort have made him a world expert on anti-poverty programs.  Called one of the "biggest social experiments of our times" by New York Times Magazine, the Harlem Children's Zone has developed, tested and refined programs to discover what works to change the lives of poor children.  Because of its success, the HCZ has become the model, one that President Obama announced he would like to replicate in 20 other cities. 

Newsweek named Canada one of “America's Best Leaders.”  He's appeared on 60 Minutes, Charlie Rose, Oprah, and The Colbert Report.  He is featured heroically in the education documentary, Waiting for Superman, directed by Davis Guggenheim, academy award-winner for An Inconvenient Truth.  In fact the title of the documentary comes from something Canada’s mother said to him as a child in a profound bubble-bursting moment--that superman wasn’t real.  He cried.  He has said that was the moment when he realized no one was coming “with enough power to save us.”  Sometimes a parent says something that singes a child’s soul, and singe Canada's soul his mother did.  But its effect was to make Canada spend his life helping impoverished children waiting for a hero.  Whatever It Takes, a PCM Top 10 Book for Parents, tells his powerful story.

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