Sid Espinosa ’94

Sid Espinosa ’94 is all about the big picture. Since earning his undergraduate degree in government and co-chairing Wesleyan’s Chapter of MECha, a political student group focused on Chicanx activism, he has focused his career on long-term strategy, policy, and advocacy. Sid, like many Wesleyan alumni, is driven to make community-wide impact using novel strategies. “There’s a culture that’s built at Wesleyan — aided by those who have self-selected to be here — that we should all leave this world better than we found it. And there’s an appreciation that this can be done in myriad ways. Wesleyan strives to give people the tools to do that—to be able to think critically and to have the educational background to understand the complexity of issues, and to understand how interdisciplinary the world is these days.”

After launching his career in the White House, and then as mentee and assistant to Attorney General Janet Reno, Sid returned to his home in California as Director for Global Philanthropy at Hewlett-Packard (HP). While working on national and global nonprofit investment for HP, Sid also deepened his community involvement, serving on nonprofit boards and working on local policy. His commitment resulted in his election as the first Latino Mayor of Palo Alto, one of the youngest people ever to hold the position. Today, as Head of Social Impact at GitHub, Sid spearheads tech projects focused on strengthening and empowering nonprofits around the world.

Sid’s desire to learn from others, build coalitions, and see beyond himself has its roots at Wesleyan, where one of his government professors once advised that he should look to past and current leaders before looking ahead. Sid now sees his own work as one leg of a long relay race. “Learn from the previous runners, strategize for your specific segment of the race, and always prepare to pass the baton. How do we have a long-term comprehensive view inform immediate goals? How do we build sustainable coalitions? How do we work inter-generationally? I really think that this complex and strategic thinking about social impact stems from what I learned at Wesleyan.”