How To Cut Through The Local Clutter

By on January 8, 2016   /   Featured Post, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
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Cut Through Clutter with Carolyn Parrs

One of the biggest challenges for small, local businesses is getting noticed. The truth is that local businesses have unique advantages over the big boxers, and if they are strategic about it, they can carve out a sweet piece of the market pie. The Good News In recent years, there has been a huge resurgence in customers wanting to shop local and support the community. Emarketer recently reported the following: U.S. consumers are choosing small businesses because of the personalized experiences they provide compared with larger businesses. According to April 2014 data from AYTM Market Research, personal service was the Number 2 reason U.S. internet users preferred small businesses vs. large companies, cited by 52.7%. This trailed supporting the local economy (56.2%). What’s more, prices did not play a huge role in choosing small businesses. In fact, 61.2% of respondents said they would pay higher prices to support small businesses. The truth is people are rooting for you to succeed! Here are 3 ways to help make that happen. Don’t Put the Cart Before the Horse One of the biggest and most expensive mistakes I see with small, local businesses is putting the cart (creating a website or ad campaign) […]

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30 Under 30 in 2016: Young Leaders Unleashing Learning For All

By on January 5, 2016   /   Featured Post, Innovation, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
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Maggie Dunne, Forbes' 30 Under 30 Education 2016 List

We shouldn’t need hot-button issues like the deeply flawed college admissions race, DREAM Act and emerging landscape of K-12 digital learning to remind us that educational opportunities matters — to all of us. Luckily, it’s self-evident to the women and men who earned a spot on the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Education. Their spirit of innovating in education is deeply original. They range from edtech entrepreneurs such as literacy champions Matthew Ramirez, cofounder of WriteLab, and Quill’s cofounder Peter Gault, and Rebecca Liebman, whose LearnLux focuses on financial literacy. Zaption’s Charlie Stigler has trained his focus on video learning as a dynamic teaching tool. Cassandra Tognoni of BookReport uses data to help districts figure out best practices for spending and saving, and Christopher Pedregal has $7.5 million in funding to crowdsource learning to Socratic’s 8.5 million customers. Increased access to learning for all startups are prominent in this year’s list. Heejae Lim, founder of Talking Points, built an app that bridges the language barrier between teachers and non-English speaking parents, while Sarahi Espinoza Salamonca’s app helps undocumented students find money to go to college. Chelsey Roebuck, cofounder of Emerging Leaders in Technology and Engineering (ELiTE), left the consulting fast track to […]

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116 Organizations Creating a Sustainable Global Food System

By on December 31, 2015   /   Featured Post, Health, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
116 Organizations Creating a Sustainable Global Food System

Each year, Food Tank highlights organizations that help create a more sustainable global food system. They protect biodiversity, produce valuable agricultural research, fight hunger and much more. This year, Food Tank featured 116 organizations that made vital improvements to our food system in 2015. Here are the 116 sustainable organizations to watch in 2016: 1. 4-H: 4-H is a youth development program of the Cooperative Extension System of land-grant universities in the U.S. Based in Chevy Chase, Maryland, 4-H encourages youth to pursue their own projects, with help from volunteers and mentors. The organization also provides programs in several categories: science programs which encourage youth to learn about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), healthy living programs and programs that encourage young people to be well-informed and engaged citizens of their communities. 2. African Biodiversity Network (ABN): ABN was founded in 1996 in Kenya as a regional network of individuals and organizations in 12 African countries: Benin, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. ABN focuses on indigenous knowledge, protecting biodiversity and improving agricultural policies and legislation. 3. African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD): AWARD works to strengthen the research and leadership skills of African women working in agricultural research and development. Launched in […]

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10 Incredible Moments in 2015: A Landmark Year in Climate Action

By on December 30, 2015   /   Featured Post, Leadership, Nature   /   Leave a comment
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Paris COP21 2015

We’ve really been on a roll this year. And when I say we I don’t just mean 350.org the organization. I mean this big, broad movement we’ve built together—you, me, 350’s many partner organizations, the hundreds of local groups we work with every day and all the many individuals around the world who take action in ways large and small. This was such a landmark year that we had a really hard time picking just 10 things for the list below. In fact, it really seems like we’re getting close to a sort of climate-action tipping point. Of course, we’re not kidding ourselves into thinking that the fossil fuel industry is going to sit back and let it all happen. (In fact, the Secretary-General of Europe’s coal lobby recently accused the European Commission of being “in cahoots with protest movements” and called for the creation of a “less ambitious” climate plan in 2016). People and companies that benefit from the status quo will pull us backwards if we let them—so we can’t let them. Can you help us continue this fight in 2016? Next year, we’re taking on the fossil fuel industry more directly than ever, as well as keeping the pressure […]

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COP21: 15 Women Champions On The Front Lines of Climate Justice

By on December 23, 2015   /   Featured Post, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
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Women For Climate Justice

Studies show that collective intelligence rises with the number of women in a group—but women are often underrepresented at talks like COP21. Meet 15 leaders worth listening to. Women, particularly those in developing countries, are on the frontlines of a changing climate. Extreme weather events, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity threaten their survival and that of their families. Yet, when confronted with social and economic exclusion, women’s vulnerabilities remain hidden and their voices quiet. Women have been severely underrepresented at high levels of policymaking around global environmental concerns as well. In the climate arena, the need to improve women’s participation in negotiations was explicitly recognized by COP 7 in Marrakech in 2001 as the impact of gender balance on decisionmaking became more evident. Why is this a problem? Studies show that collective intelligence rises with the number of women in a group. Engaging a critical mass of women is linked to more progressive and positive outcomes and to more sustainability-focused decisionmaking across sectors. Yet, women have remained a notable minority in climate negotiations at both the national and international level, in the global scientific body on climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and in media debates about climate. Women’s representation in bodies and […]

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This Was A Turning Point For Me

By on December 18, 2015   /   Featured Post, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
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Carolyn Parrs, Founder of Women Of Green. ©2015 Jennifer Esperanza

We all have turning points in our lives. People we meet. Stories we hear. Experiences that mold our life purpose. I’d like to share one of mine with you. It’s about a young mother named Liberty. At the age of 24 she gave birth to her second child, a beautiful, nine-pound baby boy she named Indigo. When he was just three weeks old, significant green mucus started forming in Indigo’s mouth. Liberty took him to the doctor and thinking it was thrush, he prescribed antibiotics. One week. Two weeks. Three weeks. Nothing changed. After seeing more and more doctors who prescribed more and more antibiotics, still nothing changed. Liberty was lost. Five months later, Indigo developed a hole in his tongue “the size of a quarter,” says Liberty. “Red, open flesh that made it impossible for him to nurse or to eat in general. I had to force feed him with an eyedropper every hour and a half with the breast milk I was pumping every two hours.” Can you imagine? While in and out of emergency rooms for months on end, Indigo’s condition worsened. Eventually, Liberty found a medical specialist that treated environmental conditions. After extensive testing, Indigo was […]

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U.S. Falls Far Behind In Gender Equality, U.N. Assessment Concludes

By on December 17, 2015   /   Family, Featured Post, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
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Holding the scales of justice

The U.N. Sent 3 Foreign Women To The U.S. To Assess Gender Equality. They Were Horrified. A delegation of human rights experts from Poland, the United Kingdom and Costa Rica spent 10 days this month touring the United States so they can prepare a report on the nation’s overall treatment of women. Human rights experts Eleonora Zielinska (Poland), Alda Facio (Costa Rica), and Frances Raday (U.K.), visited the United States in December to assess gender equality. The three women, who lead a United Nations working group on discrimination against women, visited Alabama, Texas and Oregon to evaluate a wide range of U.S. policies and attitudes, as well as school, health and prison systems. The delegates were appalled by the lack of gender equality in America. They found the U.S. to be lagging far behind international human rights standards in a number of areas, including its 23 percent gender pay gap, maternity leave, affordable child care and the treatment of female migrants in detention centers. While the U.N. delegates were shocked by many things they saw in the U.S., perhaps the biggest surprise of their trip, they said, was learning that women in the country don’t seem to know what they’re missing. The most […]

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‘Queen Bee Syndrome’ among women at work is a myth

By on December 4, 2015   /   Featured Post, Leadership, Uncategorized   /   Leave a comment
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Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

“Queen bee syndrome” – displayed by leading professional women who keep other females out – is a myth, according to a study. The new research reportedly looked at top management teams in 1,500 companies over a 20-year period and found that where women had been appointed chief executive, other women were more likely to make it into senior positions.

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What The U.K.’s Former First Lady Can Teach Us About Mentoring

By on November 30, 2015   /   Featured Post, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
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Women mentoring women

Fast Co. spoke to Cherie Blair to find out how she’s using technology to pair mentors and protégés in unexpected ways with remarkable results. As an international human-rights barrister, Cherie Blair has traveled around the world and met women in impoverished areas. Many had business ideas but lacked the resources and assistance necessary to get them off the ground. She always thought there had to be a better way to help them than the ubiquitous two- or three-day conference. I wanted to do something that used technology and targeted a particular group of women who were not the poorest of the poor, but who had businesses that were employing other people.” –Cherie Blair If she could help those business owners succeed, not only would each woman and her family have a better life, but she would also be able to employ others and encourage the economic development of her region and country. It was an ambitious goal, but Blair is no stranger to tackling big challenges. She came from humble beginnings, raised by her single mother and her grandmother, each of whom had only attended school until age 14. Having made the journey from her modest Liverpool home to accomplished […]

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Women Change Makers, What’s Your Passion?

By on November 17, 2015   /   Arts, Featured Post, Innovation, Leadership   /   Leave a comment
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Women Change Makers

Ronnie Planalp Ronnie Planalp is a producer of documentary films and theater in New York and London through her production company, Clear Eye Productions. She splits her time between New York City and Martha’s Vineyard. I am passionate about living every day with love in my heart and compassion toward others. By letting this inform my daily life, I can see the positive energy everywhere. I am passionate about connecting people and mentoring. Through these relationships, I hope to affect change, in myself and in others. In my work, I tell stories of pursuing one’s dreams and persevering with purpose and determination. Life is full of surprises, and embracing uncertainty and risk-taking without fear of failure is something I pursue every day—with passion! SHAKESPEAREHIGH.ORG | THEYCAMETOPLAY.COM   Jodi Wing Founder, The Art of Peace Club & Academy Los Angeles, California Jodi Wing, education activist and author, evolved from savvy marketer to satirical novelist, and, finally, thought leader to inner-city youth by creating and teaching Art of War-inspired lessons for practicing peace. Having embraced Sun Tzu’s The Art of War in a modern context, I write about how to manage social conflict and competition to make winning decisions. Working within LA’s […]

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