Zack co-founded SBP in 2006 after spending two weeks volunteering in New Orleans six months after Hurricane Katrina. What he and his then girlfriend Liz, thought would be a one-time, two-week trip, led to a passion for direct impact and system change.

Zack’s realization that a delayed recovery causes extensive human impact and that too many survivors suffer unnecessarily, drove SBP’s mission of shrinking time between disaster and recovery. Today, Zack directs the strategic vision, marketing, partnership development, and fundraising for SBP.

Following disaster Zack plays a direct role in the advisement of local and state government officials, and has worked closely with elected officials from South Carolina, New York and West Virginia, as well as with appointed officials at HUD, helping them to craft effective long-term recovery programs. Among the innovative SBP programs that Zack has designed include: Opportunity Housing, an innovative blight eradicating/affordable housing program that turns blighted properties into well-built affordable housing; and Disaster Resilience and Recovery Lab, which among other things, shares SBP’s learnings and model with at-risk and disaster impacted communities.

Zack speaks nationally on a broad array of topics including disaster resilience and recovery policy, organizational culture development, high-impact innovation and leadership. His work has been featured in Newsweek, US News and World Report, Politico, The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.

Before founding SBP, Zack was an E. Barrett Prettyman Teaching Fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center and he ran an indigent criminal defense practice in Washington, DC. One of Zack's most meaningful victories was freeing a man who served 23 years for a murder that he did not commit.

For his work, Zack has been recognized as New Orleanian of the Year and Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project Champion of Justice, and he has received the Manhattan Institute Social Innovation Award.

Zack received a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University and a J.D. from the American University Washington School of Law. He has also received an Honorary Doctorate from Muhlenberg College, and a distinguished alumnus award from Washington College of Law.

Social Entrepreneurship, Social Justice, Innovation, Philanthropy, Philanthropist, Human Rights, Humanitarians, Community Improvement, Leadership