AUNE MBA Student and Faculty Attend Net Impact Conference in Seattle

Chad Czelusniak-Serviss, Antioch University New England (AUNE) MBA in Sustainability student and Net Impact chapter chair,  and Dr. Taryn Fisher, assistant professor and director for AUNE’s MBA in Sustainability program, attended the 2015 Net Impact Conference in Seattle on November 5-7. Net Impact is a leading nonprofit that empowers a new generation to use their careers to drive transformational change in the workplace and the world.

Chad and Taryn attended several workshops and interacted with sustainability champions from all industries in both nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Topics discussed included the Return on Investment (ROI) of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the circular economy, the role and responsibility of a for-profit, publicly-held company, and the net positive movement. Keynote speakers included Sue Desmond-Hellman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chelsea Clinton of the Clinton Foundation, and Stephen Ritz of the Green Bronx Machine. Session leaders included Jason McBriarty of Levi Strauss & Company, Bruno Sarda of Dell Inc., among many others. Conference attendees had many networking opportunities and  learned about exciting new developments in the field of sustainability.

During the Net Impact conference, Antioch University Seattle hosted an alumni social where graduates from multiple management programs across Antioch University were invited to gather and reconnect. AUNE alumna Becky Elias, MBA ’11, and current student Chad Czelusniak-Serviss, MBA ’16, enjoyed exchanging perspectives on their respective experiences.

While in Seattle, Taryn also met with her colleagues Don Strauss of Antioch University Los Angeles and Mark Hower of Antioch University Seattle to explore the potential of developing a university-wide management curriculum. Doing this would leverage areas of commonality across existing management programs such as the MA in Urban Sustainability, the MS in Management and Leadership, and the MBA in Sustainability. Examples of exciting cross-pollination opportunities might include comparing and contrasting local food systems in the northeast versus the southwest or studying how nonprofit organizations pursue fundraising locally, regionally, and nationally.