Held at least six times a year (October/November, January/February and April/May), Common Good dinners help highlight opportunities where one can find values-driven work in the not-for-profit, public and private sectors. These student facilitated dinners feature two guests who meet with a dozen students over dinner to discuss their career paths.
Tod Murphy is an entrepreneur who founded and runs the Farmers Diner, an innovative local foods initiative in Barre, Vermont. This unique restaurant supports local, organic agriculture by providing a steady market for their goods, and supports its patrons with only the freshest foods. Sixty-five cents of every dollar the business spends goes directly to farmers within seventy miles of Barre. Tod lives with his family in Barre, and is deeply committed to his community. Their motto: Thing Locally, Act Neighborly.
Suzanne Long ‘83, started Luna Bleu Farm in South Royalton, Vermont. The farm is an organic CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) operation, encouraging local, sustainable consumption of vegetables, beef, pork, chicken, eggs, and farm-based crafts. It is also highly engaged in the community, with farm apprenticeships, farm festivals, educational programs, and work with Farm Share and food shelves for low income neighbors.
For more information about sustainable agriculture, check out the following links:
Marc Rosenbaum's company , Energysmiths, was founded in 1979 on the principle that sustainable communities can only be based on renewable resources. Marc has focused on integrating renewable energy systems, daylighting, high performance envelope design, ecological waste systems, efficient electrical and water systems, and benign, resource-efficient materials selection into his projects. Having realized that the barriers to high performance buildings and communities are neither technical nor economic, his work scope has expanded to help clients design the process that is necessary to create these high performance projects. His work in making sustainable design successful and affordable has earned him nearly a dozen national awards.
In his practice of sustainable design consulting, he has worked for institutional clients such as MIT, Vermont Law School, Yale, Dartmouth College, White Mountain School, and Middlebury College; non-profit clients such as the Society for the Protection of NH Forests and the Woods Hole Research Center; commercial clients such as Stonyfield Farm, Inc., Tom's of Maine, and the Hanover Consumer Co-op; cohousing groups such as Pioneer Valley, Pine Street, Island Cohousing, New View, Cobb Hill, and Alchemy Farm; and with many architects including William McDonough Architects, Tsoi/Kobus, Solar Design Associates, Bruner Cott Associates, Moore Ruble Yudell, and Payette Associates, in association with BNIM Architects.
An experienced and enthusiastic teacher, Marc has trained thousands of professionals and especially enjoys working with students. He holds BS and MS degrees from MIT, where he studied mechanical engineering. He is a licensed engineer in NH, VT, MA, and ME, and is a LEED Accredited Professional, certified by the U.S Green Building Council.
Kate Stephenson combines experience working as a Program Manager at Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren, VT, with experience in sustainability education, preservation of historic and natural landscapes, and green building/living as both a career and everyday practice.
For more information about Sustainable Design, check out the following links:
Since 1995, Dean Goodwin has been Director of Environmental Education at Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire. In this capacity, Dean has designed a new science center, and developed a college level environmental science elective for high school students. He works closely with all academic disciplines to fully integrate environmental issues throughout the entire school curriculum. He runs summer institutes for teachers on the topic of curriculum design and problem-based learning, and has been acknowledged nationally for his work. Dean started his teaching career at The City University in London, England. In 1986 he moved to the United States, spending nine years as chair of science at two schools in Virginia.
Julie Clemons currently works as the General Manager for the Dartmouth Outing Club. Over the course of her career she has worked for many organizations in the outdoor education field, including Outward Bound and the Appalachian Mountain Club in addition to time at both New England College and at various organic farms and educational outdoor ropes courses.
For more information about Environmental and Outdoor Education, check out the following links:
Scott Brown '78 is the Chief Executive Officer of New Energy Capital Corporation and former Dean of the Tucker Foundation at Dartmouth. New Energy Capital is a private equity fund focused on financing renewable energy, distributed generation and energy productivity projects. They invest in, own and operate renewable energy and distributed generation projects. These include a biodiesel production plant in Delaware, an ethanol facility in Indiana, cogeneration projects in California and Massachusetts, and a biomass power plant in Maine.
Scott Brown has more than 20 years of entrepreneurial management experience leading start-up service and energy companies. After consulting with Bain & Company in the early 1980s, he joined the founding management team of First Solar in 1988, one of the first thin film photovoltaic manufacturers in the U.S. He left First Solar in 1989 to become President and CEO of Glasstech Solar, Inc, a manufacturer of semiconductor equipment for the photovoltaic industry. Until recently, Mr. Brown has been a consultant to Whitney & Co., a $4 billion private equity company, evaluating investments in renewable energy markets, including a photovoltaic industry component manufacturer and a wind energy finance start-up. Mr. Brown is a member of the National Advisory Board of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Jeff Wolfe is the Chief Executive Officer of GroSolar. GroSolar is a leader in solar energy systems, dedicated to energy independence and the reversal of global warming. A leading distributor of sustainable, green energy products and services, they deliver and install solar power systems for residential and commercial customers. GroSolar has been recognized by Vermont Business Magazine as one of the best places to work in Vermont .
Jeff Wolfe is a recognized leader in the solar industry and has led the design and installation of some of the largest solar projects in the U.S. He serves on the board of the Solar Electric Industry Association and chairs the PV division. While a partner at the engineering firm Bard, Rao & Athanas, he designed over four million square feet of construction and nine MW of power generation. He is a certified professional engineer and has a BSME degree from Cornell University.
For more information about Renewable Energy, check out the following links:
Lelia Mellen graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in Geography in 1986. She became a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Lelia got her graduate degree from Duke University in Resource Economics and Policy and
began working for the National Park Service in 1993. Within the National Park Service, Lelia works as the Director of New Hampshire Projects for the Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program. As such, she works with community groups, local governments and state agencies to help them build trails, protect rivers and conserve open space.
Peg Merrens graduated from Dartmouth in 1987 with a degree in Geography. Peg also received a Masters in Environmental Law and a JD degree from Vermont Law School in 1994. She currently works as Vice President for Conservation for the Upper Valley Land Trust, and has previously served as the Conservation Director and the Conservation Project Manager there. Prior to working at the UVLT, Peg worked as a Senior Analyst at Environment International and as an Environmental Attorney with Lee & Associates, Attorneys at Law. She has also served as a Student Judicial Intern at the United States District Court in Rutland, VT, as a law clerk for the National Wildlife Federation in Anchorage, Alaska, and as a Map Technician at Geographic Data Technology. Peg spent 1989-1991 in Western Kalimantan, Indonesia working as a Resource Consultant for the Bukit Baka Sustainable Forestry Project, and as a Research assistant for the Gunung Palung Tropical Ecology / Biodiversity Research Project. She was also a Development Project Intern with Associates in Rural Development, Inc., and a Research Assistant with Dartmouth College/US Forest Service at Mount Moosilauke.
John Leigh has been working in the recycling and solid waste management field for over fifteen years. His experience includes ten years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in their Office of Solid Waste in Washington, D.C. Prior to this, John served as a Peace Corps Volunteer for three years in Benin, West Africa, where he taught villagers and rural extension agents how to build fuel efficient mud stoves. For the past six years John has promoted sustainability initiatives and managed the award-winning waste and recycling programs at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. John received his undergraduate degree in (World) Political Economy from Colorado College.
Emily Neuman graduated from Dartmouth in 1999 with a double major in "Environmental and Evolutionary Biology" and "Culture, Agriculture and the Environment". While at Dartmouth, she was involved with the organic farm, and continued to work in agriculture after graduation, serving as an apprentice at Intervale Community Farm in Burlington, VT and at Angelic Organics CSA in Caledonia, IL. She received a Lombard Public Service Fellowship to serve as a Research Assistant at the Center for Ecological Plant Breeding in Cochabamba, Bolivia. She graduated from Iowa State with an MS in Sustainable Agriculture in 2004. She has previously worked as a Floral Buyer, Farm Manager, Home Delivery Coordinator at the Weavers Way Coop in Philadelphia, PA, and is currently the Hanover Coop's first full time Sustainability Coordinator.
Wood Turner
Executive Director, Climate Counts
Wood Turner is the executive director of Climate Counts, a non-profit initiative spearheaded by Stonyfield Farm that scores companies annually on their commitment to addressing climate change in meaningful, measurable ways. Wood has led a range of public and private brand-building and social marketing efforts, among them Flexcar, Intel, Genentech, the Seattle Monorail Project, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, and King County (WA) Metro. As senior strategist with a Seattle advertising and strategic communications agency, he consulted the Seattle Mayor's Green Ribbon Commission on Climate Protection, an extension of the city's leadership on the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.
Wood was integral to the team that developed Urban Ecology's "Blueprint for a Sustainable Bay Area," a leading-edge vision presenting actionable ways for non-activists to live with purpose. He also built an e-magazine teaching international audiences about constructive innovations by businesses, organizations, and individuals.
Wood holds a bachelor's degree in English from Duke University and a master's degree in urban and environmental planning from the University of Washington. He sat on the board of the Washington Toxics Coalition, which spearheaded that state's groundbreaking toxic toys legislation. He also participates in the transportation and land use working group of the New Hampshire governor's Climate Change Task Force and the Standards Advisory Council for B Corporation.
Terry Kellogg
Chief Executive Director
1% For The Planet
Terry has worked at the intersection of business and the environment for thirteen years. His focus areas have included forestry issues at the Vermont Natural Resources Council, mining at the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, and renewable energy at Green Mountain Energy. Through work with both for profit and nonprofit organizations, Terry has gained a deep appreciation for the role that each can play in affecting positive change.
In 2000, Terry became the first staff person at The Timberland Company dedicated to minimizing the company's environmental footprint and supporting new markets for sustainable products. As Director of Environmental Stewardship, Terry reduced the company's carbon footprint by more than 15%, adopted widespread use of water-based adhesives, and launched programs in green building and organic cotton. In 2005, Terry joined 1% For The Planet, and has since grown membership from 92 to more than 700 companies. Terry has a BA in Economics from Middlebury College and a MBA and a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University. He serves on the Board of the Northern Forest Center and as an advisor to the Clark Group and eQuilibrium.
Don Clark T'73 is Mission Director/Head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Nepal, overseeing projects in community forestry, drip irrigation, reproductive health, child survival, HIV/AIDS, hydropower, democracy and governance, conflict resolution, human trafficking, and counseling and healthcare for torture victims. Don has been with USAID for 33 years, all but four of them posted in Africa or Asia , ever since he graduated from Tuck. He also spent two years in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso.
For more information about International Development, check out the following link:
Tom Blinkhorn recently moved to the Upper Valley after a career with the World Bank in multiple capacities around the globe. Tom also has a journalism background and has done graduate work in development economics. Among his titles at the World Bank were the following: Operations Officer in Africa; Chief, Public Affairs Division; Senior Adviser, Global Development Learning Network. Tom's wife, Betsy McGean, is a Williams grad who has a master's in forestry from Yale and worked overseas for the Nature Conservancy and the Ford Foundation.
Steven Montgomery is a development consultant. The grant proposals he has written have been awarded millions of dollars on behalf of New York City nonprofit organizations, including the New York Philharmonic, the Lower East Side Family Union and the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning.
Mr. Montgomery has also produced and directed documentaries that have been recognized and televised nationally. His documentary "Morocco: The Past and Present of Djemma el Fna" (1995) received the CINE Golden Eagle award in Washington D.C., the Silver Award at WorldFest Houston, and has been distributed to universities and public libraries throughout the U.S.
Lisa Cashdan is a philanthropic advisor for families, foundations and environmental non-profits. She currently works as a consultant for The Boston Foundation, the Vermont Community Foundation, ECHO Museum, NH Audubon and select other families and non profit clients.
Lisa was most recently the Executive Director of the Upper Valley Community Foundation (from 1999-2004) Prior to that she was a founder and on the Board of Directors and Chair of the Board in 1998-1999. From 1976-1998, Lisa held numerous positions at the Trust for Public Land both in New York City and nationally, culminating her career at TPL as a Senior Vice President responsible for launching the National Green Cities Program. She currently serves on the Boards of the Vermont Land Trust, Vital Communities, Center for Whole Communities and Vermont Institute of Natural Science. She is on the Advisory Councils of the Wellborn Ecology Fund of the Upper Valley Community Foundation, the Appalachian Mountain Club, Upper Valley Land Trust, National and New England offices of Trust for Public Land and Community VIS, Alice Peck Day Hospital, and Northern Stage.
For more information about not-for-profit consulting, check out the following links:
Joan Ai '98 works in the Charitable Services Group at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where she runs the firm's Arts & Culture program, board placement program and various philanthropic initiatives. Joan is a member of Dartmouth College's Trustee Nominating Committee and formerly chaired the Young Alumni Committee on Alumni Council. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association and most recently, the Centennial Host Committee for The Friends for Stuyvesant Campaign. Ms. Ai is also active with the Asia Society, China Institute, and the New York Junior League. She graduated with a B.A. in Asian Studies from Dartmouth College.
Amy Stockman is currently Director of Foundation Relations at Dartmouth. For six years (1992-1998) Amy worked in a variety of positions at the Open Society Institute that manages George Soros' various foundations. She worked directly for George Soros, and also served as Deputy Director of OSI-Budapest, Advisor to the Vice President for National Foundations and Regional Director for the Baltics and Poland where she monitored programs, budgets and the spending of Soros foundations in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland. Before coming to Dartmouth , Amy was the Deputy Director of Operations for Special Projects at the After-School Corporation where she oversaw the development and implementation of the Workforce Investment Act Fellowship program that served 1,000 high school students in New York City public schools as well as a 175-member AmeriCorps program. Amy received a BA in Russian Studies from the University of Vermont and a Masters of Public Administration from Columbia University. She also attended Graduate Russian Language courses at the Language Institute in Middlebury and the Executive Program in Not for Profit Management at Columbia.
Paul Holzer '00, a recent recipient of a MLK Social Justice Award from the College for "Emerging Leadership", is the Director of Higher Education at the Latin American Youth Center in Washington, D.C., where he oversees four college preparation programs that prepare at-risk minority youth for successful entrance to and completion of college. Paul graduated from Dartmouth with a degree and secondary school teaching certification in English and a history of community involvement. During his undergraduate years, Paul served as a Student Assembly vice president, class president, acting principal of an orphanage school in the Dominican Republic, and co-teacher at the Tucker Foundation Prison Project. Upon graduating, he stepped into a fellowship position with the Common Ground Community in Manhattan.
After a year as the economic development fellow, Paul became manager of special projects at Common Ground. In this position, he trained formerly homeless adults as employees of a Ben & Jerry's "PartnerShop" operated by the Times Square Jobs Training Program. Paul provided the structure and guidance needed for the trainees' transition into sustainable employment opportunities.
In 2002, Paul moved to Washington, D.C. to work with at-risk youth at the Latin American Youth Center's YouthBuild program. As GED instructor, education coordinator, and college counselor, he facilitated countless successful transitions to post-secondary education, oversaw curriculum development, and supervised other teachers. Paul also served as a founding board member of the YouthBuild Public Charter School in northwest Washington, D.C.
For more information about Working With At-Risk Youth, check out the following links:
STEPHEN J. ATWOOD '68, DMS'70
Dr. Stephen Atwood graduated from Dartmouth College in 1968 with a degree in English literature and from Dartmouth Medical School in 1970 with a Bachelor of Medical Science degree. He received his M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1972 and went on to complete his internship and residency at the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, where he was chief resident in pediatrics and subsequently director of pediatric emergency services. From 1978 to 1986, Atwood served as associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and as director of the Division of Medical Education, Department of Pediatrics. Atwood began his international public health work in 1986, when he joined CARE International in India as senior primary health care advisor and director of CARE's new Primary Health Care Unit, a post in which he served until 1994. He next worked for seven years in the UNICEF's largest country office--the India Country Office in New Delhi--managing UNICEF's health programs there as chief of its health section. In 2001, Atwood became the regional advisor for health and nutrition in the UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok. Shortly after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Atwood spent six months on mission to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, as UNICEF Indonesia's director of emergency operations. In 2006 he served as advisor to UNICEF Timor Leste in Dili responding to the conflict in that country.
ALLISON BARLOW '86
Allison Barlow came to Dartmouth as a gifted lacrosse and field hockey player. During her years at the College she was named an All-American Lacrosse Player and received the Kenneth Archibald Prize for the most outstanding scholar-athlete. After graduating with a degree in English, she worked for several years at the Children's Hospital in Boston and as a freelance science and health writer. She then was awarded a Rotary International scholarship to earn an M.A. in Aboriginal studies, literature, and ethnography at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Returning to the United States, she served as a documentary researcher for PBS's "Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers" and then as deputy director for public affairs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she also earned a Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in health promotion and adolescent health. Since 1992, Barlow has worked for the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health in a variety of positions--as director of development and communications, director of youth and family services, director of behavioral health, and, for the last four years, deputy director of the Center.
ANNE SOSIN '02
As a Dartmouth undergraduate, Anne Sosin created and ran both Templeton Reads, which continues today under the name ROAR (Reach Out and Read), and Dartmouth Habitat for Humanity's first international service trip Trinidad. She spent time as a legal aide with Have Justice–Will Travel and she won a Tucker Fellowship to travel to Senegal, West Africa, to research strategies for local resource mobilization and to prepare a feasibility study for the launch of a Citizen Base Initiative. Upon graduating from Dartmouth with a degree in English, Sosin worked as a community service coordinator with the Tucker Foundation. After leaving Hanover, Sosin moved to Haiti, where she worked with the Institute for Justice and Democracy investigating and documenting abuses of human rights and advocating on behalf of victims. In 2005 Sosin founded Haiti Rights Vision, which focuses on women's rights, violence against women, health as a human right, and general human rights issues in Haiti. The organization's grassroots program for women survivors of sexual violence was one of a select few programs chosen internationally for the UNIFEM Trust Fund to Eliminate Violence against Women grant. In 2006 and 2007 she also worked as a consultant with Oxfam-UK conducting field research on small arms control in Haiti. Currently, Sosin continues to serve as director of Haiti Rights Vision and is a Master of Public Health degree candidate and Sommer Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Bob Walker is founder, president and executive director of Sustainable Energy Resource Group, a nonprofit organization founded in 2002, which promotes energy conservation, efficiency and renewables. Bob is a certified Home Performance with Energy Star contractor. In 1992, Bob edited and co-authored EarthRight Institute's "Guide to Town Energy Planning in Vermont". Bob is also director of the Elizabeth Mine Study Group, working on the cleanup of an abandoned Superfund site, chair of the Thetford Energy Committee and a member of the Thetford Recycling Committee. Bob has been a social, political and environmental community organizer and activist in Vermont since 1979.
Lisa Johnson, Valley Food & Farm Director at Vital Communities, is passionate about bringing people together to enjoy and benefit from local agriculture. Her educational background includes a graduate degree in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University. Before her eight years working at Vital Communities, Lisa served 11 years as General Manager for retail food co-ops, building relationships between consumers and farmers in both New Hampshire and Vermont. Earlier work experiences included restaurant work and laboring at vegetable farms and apple orchards. Her particular skill is in translating between groups of people who don't normally communicate with one another, and helping them envision and achieve goals together. Find Lisa in White River Junction, Vermont - the home of Vital Communities, a 15-year-old non-profit organization that serves the greater Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire by engaging citizens in community life.
Rick Hausman worked for nonprofits through the Seventies and early Eighties, including a stint as CFO of West Central Services in Hanover. For 6 years in the late Eighties, he served as Vermont state rep. from Newbury. In 1990, he joined Clean Yield Asset Management as Dir. of Research, a post he has held ever since. (Clean Yield is a Greensboro, VT-based firm that manages individuals' investment portfolios along social lines.) MPH '78 from U. of Minnesota. Local nonprofit boards include the Upper Valley Community Foundation, the Vermont Comm. Foundation. Financial. Advisory Comm., and formerly, Vital Communities and the Ninevah Foundation.
Elizabeth Glenshaw is the Director, Community Investment Market & Development with the Calvert Foundation which provides community investing opportunities throughout the world. Housed in Bethesda, MD, the Calvert Foundation grew out of Calvert Group, the mutual fund company that helped pioneer the concept of socially responsible investing, when it teamed-up with the Ford, MacArthur and Mott Foundations to provide investment opportunities to help end poverty through investment. Individual and institutional clients benefit from security enhancements, diversification, rigorous due diligence and portfolio monitoring. Ms. Glenshaw's work with the Foundation has targeted both investment and lending initiatives in an effort to move community investing into the forefront as a recognized and viable asset class.
For more information about Social Investing, check out the following links:
Prior to joining the Tuck Business Bridge Team in January 2005, Victoria Yang worked in Washington, DC for various political entities. Most recently, Victoria worked for the Democratic National Committee as the Executive Director in the Finance Division, helping to raise over $100 million in major donor funds for the 2004 Kerry-Edwards funds. She also spent 2 years as the Special Assistant to Senator Barbara Boxer from California, and another 2 years with Counterpart International, Inc., an international non-profit organization, helping to manage microenterprise programs in the former Soviet Union, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe. She is currently working on her MA in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, and holds a BA in Political Science from Whittier College, in California. Victoria is also a Tuck Partner (spouse to a current Tuck student).
Stephen Klein, currently the chief fiscal officer for the Vermont State Legislature in Montpelier, has crossed sectors for many years. Starting with a B.A. in Political Science from Berkeley in 1973, Stephen went on to earn a master of city planning degree from M.I.T. in 1977 and a J.D. degree from the Northeastern University School of Law in 1982. Along the way, he also served in the Peace Corps in Honduras and the Dominican Republic from 1973-75.
Much of Stephen's work has been in and around state government including stints as legislative director for a state senator in Massachusetts; senior policy development specialist for the Massachusetts State Employment and Training Council; and director of the Massachusetts State Legislature Audit and Oversight Bureau. In addition, Stephen has worked as a private consultant and an assistant director of a $70 million endowment fund.
Karen Martinsen Fleming is a Dartmouth '83 with over 20 years of strategy, marketing, product development and research experience with leading traditional and non-traditional organizations. As Vice President of Marketing at Stonyfield Farm and Seventh Generation (the nation's largest producer of non-toxic, environmentally friendly household products) , she developed and launched the two most successful product lines in the company's histories. Prior to this she worked as a strategy consultant and at companies such as Procter & Gamble and Ocean Spray.
Spencer Putnam was appointed Executive Director of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility in August 2002. Previously he served as General Manager of Danforth Pewterers in Middlebury for two years and as Vice President of Operations at the Vermont Teddy Bear Company for twelve years. He has been active with VBSR for over fifteen years, including five as a member of its board of directors. Spence has been active in local and civic affairs, having served many years on local planning commissions, as a member of the Board of Aldermen in Vergennes, as a Justice of the Peace, and as a member of the boards of the United Way, Community Action, Agency on Aging, The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, and the UVM College of Agriculture Advisory Board.
For more information about Socially Responsible Businesses, check out the following links:
Karsten Barde is Portfolio Analyst at New Profit Inc. in Cambridge, MA, where he is responsible for identifying prospective investments and performing due diligence for the firm's venture philanthropy fund. He also conducts research in philanthropy and social entrepreneurship for New Profit's President and Founder.
Prior to joining New Profit, Karsten helped run Matt Dunne's 2004 Vermont State Senate campaign and worked on Capitol Hill for former U.S. Representative Cal Dooley (D-CA). He also received a fellowship from the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College for the production of an award-winning public affairs television program on air pollution and respiratory health at a PBS affiliate in Fresno, CA.
Karsten is a 2004 graduate of Dartmouth College, where he received his A.B. in Geography and Government. He also studied abroad in Guadalajara, Mexico and Prague, Czech Republic. Originally from California's San Joaquin Valley, Karsten is proficient in Spanish.
For more information about Venture Philanthropy, check out the following links:
Sienna Craig lived in Nepal from 1995-1998, working as a freelance writer, editor, experiential educator, trekking guide, and development consultant. While living in Nepal, Sienna met Kenneth Bauer, whom she married in 1999. In 1998-99, they founded DROKPA, a non-profit organization whose mission is to partner with pastoral communities in the Himalaya and Central Asia to implement grassroots development and catalyze social entrepreneurship. DROKPA currently funds projects in Nepal, Ladakh, India, Bhutan, and the Tibet Autonomous Region, China, in the following areas: alternative energy, education and training, community health and Tibetan medicine, and social entrepreneurship. Sienna's interest in Tibet carried on into her doctoral dissertation, "On the Science of Healing: Efficacy and the Metamorphosis of Tibetan Medicine" which explores the possibilities of defending and transforming a non-western medical and social system in the face of many changes and challenges. In addition to her dissertation research, from 2002-04 Sienna has been an ethnographer and research coordinator with a National Institute of Health / Global Network for Women's Health project based in Lhasa, Tibet. She is currently an assistant professor of anthropology here at Dartmouth and has published widely in both academic and popular venues.
Kesang Tashi, a native of Tibet, is a member of the Dartmouth class of 1970 who founded the InnerAsia Trading Co. After years working as an international banker in New York, Tashi founded the InnerAsia Trading Co. in 1986 with the aim of revitalizing Tibet's rug weaving heritage. The project was appealing for him because it restored pride in this ancient craft which was in danger of being lost, and at the same time ensures that this art will continue for generations to come. InnerAsia also generates a livelihood for Tibet's wool producing nomads, wool corders, yarn spinners and rug weavers. The Tibetan rugs are handmade in the traditional way from the wool of aboriginal sheep and often incorporate symbols from Buddhism, the predominant religion in Tibet. Presently, InnerAsia's Tibetan rugs grace showrooms in Japan, Hong Kong, China, Germany, Australia, and the United States. Tashi retains strong ties to Tibet and in addition to his work with InnerAsia, in 1995 he built the 45 room Gyalthang Dzong Hotel in his hometown of Gyalthang to promote ecotourism and Tibetan culture. In 1996 he began working with the regional Bureau of Forestry, and later the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh and the Nature Conservancy to create an environmental preserve four times the size of Yellowstone National Park in the Yunnan province.
For more information about Social Enterprise, check out the following links:
Janet Cote is the West Central Regional Manager for MicroCredit-NH. Before joining MicroCredit-NH in April 2000, Janet served as Executive Director of Newfound Economic Development Corporation (NEDC), where she worked with communities, businesses and schools to foster economic development opportunities in the Newfound Lake Region of NH. At NEDC, Janet most enjoyed her consultant work with business start-ups as they developed business plans, so that they might secure financing to achieve their business dreams. "It is a great feeling when you see the little successes along the way bring such great joy," explains Janet. At MicroCredit-NH, she continues this work by facilitating workshops, establishing new business groups and providing support and resources to the business group members in her region.
Dana Dakin is the founder and president of WomensTrust Inc. Today, WomensTrust in the village of Pokuase (Ghana) is thriving, with more than 400 women in the loan program and repayment rates consistently above 90 percent. The 501c(3) organization (with NGO status in Ghana) has become a viable community-based partnership approach to long-term social change: bottom-up, playing to the entrepreneurial drive that is alive and well in developing countries, with money going directly into the hands of the beneficiaries.
Dana's career is in the investment business, where she has been a pioneer in marketing consulting to institutional investment firms, both on the trading side as well as for leading money management organizations. Her experience began on Wall Street and in 1971 she joined what became Callan Associates, a top pension consulting firm. With a five-year inside perspective on evaluating money managers, she formed Dakin Partners in 1976, the first firm to creatively package institutional investment organizations. She has worked on some of the great launches in the business, and has authored a summary of the essentials of investment marketing in Five for the Road, available at www.dakinforum.com. She also co-produced the eight-part PBS series "Beyond Wall Street: The Art of Investing" with a companion book published by John Wiley. She was educated at Scripps College, where she graduated with a B.A. in 1964. Her concentration was in international relations, with an honor's thesis on pan-Africanism. She was a member of the college's Board of Trustees for nine years. Other board commitments over the years have included Alumnae Resources in San Francisco, NH Writers' Project and the Women's Fund of New Hampshire.
For more information about microfinance, check out the following links:
