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ESG Next: An Interview With Levi’s Anna Walker

Posted on by Greg Behrman

At a moment of unprecedented attention, investment, and opportunity for the emerging field of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), leaders are asking: Who is best preparing their organization for the society of the future? Who is innovating today to meet decades-long environmental and social goals? Who is setting standards that catalyze their industry’s change for the better? Who is defining what bold and aspirational look like — and how best to advance that work in practice?

Enter NationSwell’s ESG Next, an exemplary group of investors, executives, authors, philanthropists, social sector leaders, academics, and field builders who are helping to shape business as a force for social and environmental progress, advancing — and even pioneering — the most forward-thinking and effective programs, initiatives, technologies, methodologies, practices, and approaches.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Anna Walker, Vice President of Impact and Issues at Levi Strauss & Co., on the unique strengths of an organization’s employees to inform corporate action, the undersung value of employee resource groups, and why coalition building is as much about the “where” as the “who.”

Greg Behrman, CEO + Founder, NationSwell: Can you tell us about your professional and personal journey to this field?

Anna Walker, Vice President of Impact and Issues, Levi Strauss & Co.: I went to graduate school for international economics with a focus on developing economies because I thought — very idealistically — that my path was leading me to work at a United Nations agency, that I’d make my contribution to the world through my work there. So while I was in graduate school, I got my opportunity to intern with the UN through the High Commissioner for Refugees, and it showed me that UN agencies are, by necessity, large, slow-moving, bureaucratic, and probably not a fit for me and my long-term goals. 

That’s why I made my way to the apparel industry: it aligned perfectly with my interests in development economics, and in helping countries moving up the development ladder, because it’s an industry that countries pursue when they’re moving forward on their economic development trajectory, transitioning from subsistence agriculture to labor-intensive industries. And Levi’s was the perfect fit within the apparel industry because it was so committed to supporting responsible practices in the supply chain and supporting workers there. 

Now, Levi’s is 170 years old this year. For most of its history, it owned its manufacturing. But in the 1980s, it transitioned from owned factories to overseas facilities. Employees asked the company, “How are we going to take care of the workers, and ensure the same level of care that they have as our own employees when the factories are owned by others and we’re just sourcing the production?” Because our employees asked our leadership that question, Levi’s was one of the first organizations to have a code of conduct for a global supply chain. Listening and responding to employee is a big part of Levi’s organizational DNA, and a big part of how I knew I’d found the right organization for me. 

Behrman, NationSwell: How do you define this moment in ESG? 

Walker, Levi Strauss + Co: This question is so fresh on my mind because we’ve been analyzing the challenges to ESG and so-called “woke capitalism” following the reaction to Bud Light and Target during Pride month — high profile cases of intense backlash that are such a part of this ESG moment. 

Levi’s is a fairly outspoken progressive company that really believes in using our voice to support the issues that our employees care about and that intersect with our business, and we used the backlash as an inflection point to brief leadership. We told them that we’re very cognizant of this changing environment, we assured them that we’ve taken some time to really stare down how it went for these other companies and why it went the way it did, and informed them of what we were going to do moving forward: remain consistent. Companies stumble when they try to change direction or appease a certain audience in a manner inconsistent with what they’ve said or done in the past. Consistency will be the key: it helps us adhere to what we can control and show up in the places where we can show up authentically.

Another big learning we’ve taken from the moment is that often, if you’ve already been outspoken on something, neutrality or silence isn’t going to be acceptable. Silence can be deafening, and stakeholders have come to count on you to be out there, to be supportive, and to be engaged. And sitting one out can often look like the wrong kind of engagement to them.

Behrman, NationSwell: What’s unique about the work you’re leading at Levi’s?

Walker, Levi Strauss + Co: I’m proud to say that through our long history, most of what we’ve been outspoken advocates on and built our social impact programs around — it’s all been rooted in our employees, rooted in what they’ve come to us and said matters to them, because it’s keeping them up at night or because they’re excited to take part in it.  

In the ’80s, we came out in support of employees dealing with HIV/AIDS, even before the disease had a name. We did that because employees came to us concerned about friends and family, and asked the company’s leadership to do something. They’ve held us accountable, and they keep us engaged. Because it’s real for them, it keeps our engagements from being one-and-done; they’re the reason why whatever we do will be far more authentic, genuine, and enduring. 

That’s what happened with our efforts around gun violence prevention. Our employees asked us how we’re going to support a safer America, which sparked us to create a threefold plan: first, we created the Safer Tomorrow Fund to give to organizations addressing community-based violence; second, we advocated to support efforts for common sense gun safety legislation at the federal level; and third, we engaged and informed employees to give them opportunities to volunteer and give, if they were interested.

When we started to build a broad coalition of companies working with us and supporting similar ends, it was slow-going at first. We sent a letter to the House of Representatives supporting the bipartisan background checks bill. And we only had three CEOs on it when we went to the House. But then, come fall of that same year, we had over a hundred CEOs on the letter when it went to the Senate. And last summer, when the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed, we had over 300 CEOs on the letter supporting Congressional action.  

We’re really proud to be a first mover, to be a bold mover that leverages its globally recognized brand name to build a big tent and create the safe space for other companies to join us in the advocacy. We’re going to be most effective when we’re using our brand to build coalitions and bring others along. 

Behrman, NationSwell: In the case of gun violence prevention, what helped you build such an effective coalition?

Walker, Levi Strauss + Co: It’s all about finding good partners. In the case of gun violence, we worked with Everytown and Giffords, and they’ve been really willing to roll up their sleeves and help to make it happen, to help to build the materials, and to engage and be there as experts when companies have questions. We’re not experts in gun violence prevention the way these groups are, so finding those partners that get the value of bringing the business case to advocacy is key.

As we’ve built coalitions, we’ve learned that it’s not only about who your partner is, but about where your partner is — especially when it comes to congressional advocacy. You know what members of Congress will support a bill, you know who is going to oppose it, and in the middle of all of that is the potential gettables you’ll actually need to make something happen. If you can find the companies that are their constituents in their home states, they’re the best advocates  to those members of Congress to make the case.

Behrman, NationSwell: How does Levi’s decide when to speak out or take action as an organization?

Walker, Levi Strauss + Co: Those actions all come to be through different channels. When the Dobbs decision on reproductive rights leaked, we were ready to issue a statement immediately because employees from our women’s Employee Resource Group (ERG), two years before the draft ruling leaked, asked for a meeting with our CEO and sat down with him to have a conversation on the landscape of women’s rights. 

Traditionally, ERGs allow employees from diverse backgrounds to find each other and deepen their bonds to one another, but they’re also an effective tool for surfacing to leadership those early signs of what’s on the horizon, and what your organization can do about it. Because that conversation happened years prior, we’d already had a lot of internal conversations and got our internal policies and programs in place to be able to move quickly. 

Levi’s CEO is Chip Bergh, and we do a monthly “Chip(s) and Beer” that’s sort of an ask me anything-style town hall with the CEO. That’s where a few of our advocacy and philanthropy actions have started from questions and concerns voiced by employees. Not only is it a powerful forum for directly learning what’s on employees’ minds, it helps you to create and maintain a culture of openness. 

Behrman, NationSwell: To which of your leadership practices do you attribute your efficacy?

Walker, Levi Strauss + Co: I have a smart, creative team that’s willing to try new things, take risks. I try to be the wind beneath their wings, I try to ask a lot of good questions, poke around corners, and support them to test, scale, and find what works and what fits. I encourage speed and smart risk-taking so that we always have time to course correct if we get it wrong. 

Really good leadership comes from finding really good people who are motivated, care, who are purpose and mission aligned with the organization and have a lot of energy about what they do.

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are the leaders who inspire your leadership?

Walker, Levi Strauss + Co: I’m inspired by Vicki Shabo, Senior Fellow, Better Life Lab, New America. Vicki is always advocating and innovating to make paid family leave universally available. I think of Michael Kobori, Chief Sustainability Officer at Starbucks Coffee Company, because he’s always willing to try new things, and he’s unceasingly supportive of his team. Worked along side him at LS&Co. And Hilary Dessouky, General Counsel at Patagonia, as well as Corley Kenna, Head of Communications and Policy at Patagonia, because they’ve been part of making some of the most sustainable business practices and best policies for Patagonia employees happen, and made sure to share those best practices with the rest of the business community.

The Multigenerational Prevalence of Social Isolation

Posted on Justin Ladner

Key Takeaways

  • Labor market policies and employment practices have historically been designed with prime-aged workers in mind, yet the economic importance of older workers is growing rapidly.
  • Workers aged 55-plus have grown from less than 11 percent of the full-time workforce 30 years ago to nearly 22 percent today.
  • Over one-in-four dollars of labor income in 2022 was earned by a worker age 55 or older, up from less than one-in-eight three decades prior.
  • Going forward, the health and productivity of the American workforce will depend on recognizing the importance of older workers and developing labor policies and employment practices that meet the needs of every generation.

For decades, labor market policies and employment practices have emphasized the “prime working age” population, which includes people aged 25-54. This focus stems from the sheer size of the group, as well as its reliably high labor force participation. In contrast, workers age 55 and older have historically been a much smaller group with lower labor force participation; consequently, their role in the labor market has received comparatively little attention or care. However, rapid demographic change and shifting labor supply decisions have greatly amplified the economic power of older workers and underscored a fundamental truth: Going forward, the health and productivity of the American workforce will depend on recognizing the importance of older workers and developing labor policies and employment practices that meet the needs of every generation.

One reason that the prime-age workers receive so much attention is that they have historically accounted for the vast majority of full-time employment, making them the primary source of labor income, consumer spending, income taxes, and other critical economic contributions. On the other hand, fewer than one-in-nine full-time workers were 55 or older only 30 years ago. However, the U.S. population has aged significantly since then and people are increasingly choosing to work later in life. The net effect of these changes is that individuals age 55 and older now account for nearly 22 percent of full-time workers, up from 10.5 percent in June 1993. This dramatic increase is mostly due to the growing role of workers aged 60-plus, whose representation in the full-time workforce grew from less than five percent in June 1993 to 12.3 percent in June 2023.

As people aged 55-plus have established stronger ties to the labor force, their role in earning income has grown correspondingly. The figure below illustrates this by comparing the distribution of labor income across age groups in 1994 and 2022.1 In the former year, workers under age 55 controlled nearly 88 percent of labor income, with over two-thirds of that share accruing to workers age 30-49. By 2022, the fraction of labor income earned by those aged 55-plus had skyrocketed from 12.1 percent to nearly 27 percent. This shift has had far reaching implications, including a greater reliance on older workers for consumer spending and tax revenue at every level of government.

Awareness about the growing role of older workers is rising quickly. For example, a pandemic-driven decline in labor supply among people age 65 and over created significant gaps in the labor market and forced employers to recognize the central role that older workers play in supporting their operations. Lessons such as these have highlighted a tremendous opportunity to develop labor policies and employment practices that support an increasingly age-diverse workforce. AARP has been at the forefront of innovation in this area for many years. Recent examples include our ongoing Living, Learning, and Earning Longer initiative, our work on the business case for healthy longevity, and our extensive Longevity Economy® research. These and other efforts promote an environment in which workers of all ages are empowered to pursue employment goals that match their unique needs, resulting in economic gains benefiting every generation.

  1.  This income data comes from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), which is administered as part of the March Current Population Survey (CPS). In these data, reported labor income reflects total wage and salary income earned during the prior calendar year. ↩︎

“Being underrepresented is actually my seat of power”: The story behind the two “badass women of color” leading the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact

Posted on by NationSwell Team

When Shayna Hetzel was in college, she wanted to be a biochemist, examining the intricate relationship between carbon atoms and amino acids and studying the ways they come together to form the foundations of life. Although she didn’t end up pursuing a career in science, Shayna — the Community and Social Impact Investment Director at the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact — now works alongside her longtime colleague and partner, Social Impact Investment Director Nyra Jordan, to identify and facilitate the bonds that strengthen communities and drive prosperity for everyday people. 

On October 3, 2023 the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact celebrated its 5-year anniversary. Launched in 2018 after a two-year benchmarking period, the Institute was initially conceptualized as a way to expand upon both the successes of American Family Insurance’s multi-limited partner model, American Family Ventures, and the American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation, which supports nonprofit organizations through grants and employee and agent engagement programs. According to Shayna, its earliest ambition took the form of a question: How can we go bigger and bolder for equity?

At the urging of then-CEO Jack Salzwedel, Peter Gunder — who was serving as American Family Insurance’s Chief Business Development Officer at the time — formed the Institute by assembling a small team of people, led by Shayna and Nyra, whose primary goal would be to expand the capacity of entrepreneurs and risk-takers to make a difference in their communities. 

Today, the Institute operates out of the Spark building in Madison, Wisconsin, and pursues its long-term mission of closing equity gaps in America by forging partnerships with local changemakers, leaders, and entrepreneurs focused on building scalable social enterprises in four key investment areas: economic empowerment & justice reform, healthy youth development, equity in education, and resilient communities.

Even in the Institute’s earliest days, Nyra says, the members of her team were always disciplined about maintaining a community-minded and -centered approach to the work that they were doing.

“As a corporation, we didn’t want this to be something where we said, okay, here’s American Family Insurance and we’ve created this thing where we’re going to show you how to do social impact and tell you how you engage in your communities,” she said. “We wanted to make sure we didn’t tarnish relationships, and that we were not approaching this work with hubris.”

The need for deeper community investment was made explicit by a report released by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families (now Kids Forward) in 2013 called “Race to Equity,” which revealed widespread disparities across race and ethnicity on nearly every social economic measure, including education, homeownership, and wage earning. According to Nyra, that report’s release was partly what inspired leadership to begin researching issues like mass incarceration and other topics that were “a little less comfortable for a midwest insurance company” in an effort to redress some of the social inequities it had identified.

“I think for us, a company that had been giving millions of dollars to communities, for this report to come out and say that these gaps existed so deeply was just astounding,” Nyra said. “I think that was one of the points where leadership asked, ‘What can we do differently?’”

The creation of the Institute was as much an answer to that question as the appointment of two women of color to its helm. With more than 30 years of combined experience at American Family Insurance, Nyra, a Black woman, and Shayna, a Korean-born, rurally-raised woman, look wholly unlike the traditionally white, male faces usually that typically make up corporate leadership teams. And on top of being women of color, both leaders come from professional backgrounds that are widely considered to be untraditional by venture capital standards. 

“Nyra and I are not the hardened finance MBA folks who sit in Silicon Valley,” Shayna told NationSwell. “We really come from community-first backgrounds, and on top of that we do happen to be, in my very biased opinion, badass women of color. It’s really not the typical story.”

Taking a community-centered approach

That community-centered approach — their willingness to become deeply entrenched in the work and the communities they serve — is the secret sauce that differentiates Shayna’s and Nyra’s leadership, says Lauren Usher, a partner and Vice President at the startup accelerator gener8tor. Since the Institute catalyzed gener8tor’s gBETA social impact programming for early stage social entrepreneurs in the fall of 2018, the platform has worked to close equity gaps in the K-12 education system and justice tech by working primarily with founders who are either formerly incarcerated themselves or working to support returning citizens through their ventures. Her relationship with Shayna and Nyra — and the Institute — “…has been one of co-creation and intentionality from the beginning,” Lauren told NationSwell. 

“There have been many challenging moments that Shayna and Nyra have not shied away from, but seem to embrace as problem-solvers and creative minds,” Lauren said. “In both programs, we are working with underestimated populations like women and people of color who have been excluded from the startup and venture capital space for so long. Several founders have commented that Shayna and Nyra are such genuine people, and the founders didn’t know that high-level executives from large corporations could be so caring and helpful.”

Since 2018, gener8tor’s work has supported 57 social enterprises in intensive programming focused on business coaching and subject matter mentorship, network building, and fundraising. All told, those businesses have created nearly 100 jobs in their respective communities and raised approximately $35.4 million in funding through grants and investments. On top of all of that, Lauren estimates that 58 percent of these companies are led by women, and that 72 percent are led by people of color — figures that, she says, serves as just two examples of “the immense talent and hard work that the Institute’s work supports.”

Establishing trust with partners on the ground

Engaging deeply with communities and trusting local organizations to lead the way has always been a critical and necessary component of the Institute’s philosophy: Early ideas about building out unique, Institute-owned and operated programs were quickly scrapped in favor of pursuing the opportunities already being led by trusted partners on the ground.

“We realized early on that the best role we could be in was that of a linked-arm partner and a financing catalyst for those organizations to have and build their own brands and programs that were then sustainable through their organization instead of having Institute-branded, owned, and operated courses and cohorts,” Shayna says. “Most of our portfolio is based on finding those already doing that.”

The next step was building trust: formalizing relationships with community partners that would ultimately be supportive and generative for a larger ecosystem, and never feel extractive.

Dr. Roxie Hentz — the CEO of CEOs of Tomorrow, and a community partner of the Institute since 2018 who now leads youth social impact entrepreneurship incubators and programming — says that her company’s relationship with the Institute goes “far beyond that of a financial partner… the team has not only become woven into the fabric of our youth programming, but is also a part of the CEOs of Tomorrow family.”

She said that both women have been “true assets to the community,” citing Nyra’s dedication to youth mentorship in particular.  

“She has consistently donated her time and expertise as a lead judge for the past nine Teen Pitch & Launch Events — our signature event that showcases aspiring teen entrepreneurs as they launch new business ideas,” she says.

According to Shayna, that on-the-ground dedication is an integral part of the Institute’s strategy to act as champions for community partners. She describes having what she refers to as “frontman energy” for every single partner in the Institute’s portfolio — an enduring belief in their status as “visionaries, grinders, and equity champions,” that makes it impossible to choose favorites from the pack.

“We are not the kind of partner that writes a check and walks away,” she says. “We are talking to the participants, mentoring them, learning from them, attending their showcases. Nyra and I and our teams are on the road building those deep relationships — it’s why we don’t have 400 partners a year. To go deep really means that we’re on the ground with our partners.”

While being two women of color attempting to nimbly and efficiently bring an ambitious vision to life is not without its challenges, Shayna says that being one of the “onlies” seated around the table has also contributed to a new understanding of how she is able to relate to and serve the communities she represents. 

“[Being a woman of color] has ultimately unlocked this belief that my identity and lived experience — and my proximity to being underestimated and underrepresented — is actually my seat of power,” she said.

Using collaboration as a north star

The alienating nature of being one of the only women of color seated at the table only further highlights the need for and value of collaboration — the true listening, following, and leading required in order to create shared prosperity and dismantle the systems perpetuating injustice. In addition to partnerships with community leaders, entrepreneurs, and other impact investors, the Institute has also teamed up with Annie E. Casey Foundation, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Pivotal Ventures, Working for Women, and NationSwell to form the Case for Childcare Collaborative, whose members have spent the last year engaging in research to understand the widespread challenges, opportunities, and solutions that exist in making the business case for childcare.

While neither woman is certain about what the next five years of the Institute’s future will look like, Nyra says a primary focus will be ensuring that the model that they’ve created will continue to honor community needs — and that her team will never “…lose this humility of truly, truly believing in, empowering, and funding lived experience.” She added that she hopes the Institute will emerge as a standard-bearer in the establishment of internal teams led by and built with women of color — one that might serve as an aspirational north star for other corporations and impact investors in the years to come.

“Having teams led by women of color is actually not just a differentiator because it’s different, but because it’s more prosperous and inclusive and builds more equity on the outcome,” she said.

Endorsing that vision for the future, Shayna added that her hope for the next five years is that her partnership with Nyra will continue to grow and inform the work that the Institute does. 

“I can’t imagine doing this work alone,” she says. “The two of us have really had each other’s backs for 10 years — there’s safety and unending support and coached growth, and it’s not competitive; it is pure, nurturing energy and love.”

What we can learn from George Kaiser Family Foundation’s place-based work in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Posted on by NationSwell Team

This fall, NationSwell launches its first immersive experience on October 18 and 19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma for Place-Based Impact in Practice: An Immersive Experience to Explore Community-Centered Funding and Action. Hosted by George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) as part of our recently launched Place-Based Impact Collaborative, this hands-on event will take place over the course of one and a half days and will allow attendees to explore on-the-ground examples and innovative strategies to foster thriving and inclusive communities, particularly in fast-growing cities and rural areas. We’d love for you to join us.

But, you may be thinking, why Tulsa?

Since its establishment in 1999, George Kaiser Family Foundation has held, as its primary philanthropic goal, cementing Tulsa, Oklahoma, as a vibrant, inclusive, and prosperous environment where children and families can flourish. 

As the primary supporting organization of the Tulsa Community Foundation, GKFF funds organizations and efforts that directly service the greater Tulsa area, all while adhering to its guiding principle, “no child is responsible for the circumstances of [their] own birth.” Foundation investments include robust early childhood education initiatives that serve approximately 2,000 children in year-round education and care; over $100 million earmarked for the arts; economic development initiatives to attract and retain local businesses and talent as well as transform 100 acres of Tulsa’s iconic riverfront into a dynamic and world-class centralized park; neighborhood programs to foster a strong sense of community; and a work stipend program that has welcomed more than 2,500 diverse professionals to the city. 

GKFF harnesses a nimble, entrepreneurial spirit, which has helped to adeptly address community needs. Their approach is holistic and community-centered and driven–designed to lead with the community’s needs so that children and families in Tulsa can thrive. What sets their investment strategy apart from other philanthropic models is that it’s not only nuanced, but multi-pronged–touching almost every part of the Tulsa ecosystem. Parent engagement and early childhood education, health and family well-being, civic enhancement, and breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty are all vital pillars of community prosperity.

George Kaiser Family Foundation’s holistic approach

In order to create and maintain the conditions for a thriving local community, GKFF has taken a holistic, all-encompassing approach to funding that sees early childhood education; health and wellbeing; neighborhood development; thriving public spaces; criminal justice; housing; and arts & culture as vital pillars of economic prosperity. During an onsite visit in March 2023, NationSwell got a firsthand look at how these key initiatives operate on the ground in Tulsa; below are some of the highlights we observed.

  • Parent Engagement and Early Childhood Education

GKFF provides support and resources to young Tulsa families to encourage parent‐child engagement and interaction. Through initiatives like Tulsa Educare and Early Learning Works, families and children are encouraged to pursue skill-building opportunities and early learning workshops, and are given the chance to connect with community and faith-based organizations that help to promote literacy and learning.

  • Civic Enhancement

Robust public spaces provide abundant natural spaces for residents to relax, convene and unplug. Tulsa’s 100-acre riverfront park, Gathering Place, now boasts a skate park, a picnic grove, cultural events and festivals for all ages, and free educational programming to support early childhood development. A $465 million transformation of more than 66 acres in central Tulsa, the park is one of the largest and most ambitious public parks ever created with private funds. The Foundation undertook a similarly ambitious project with Guthrie Green — a former truck loading facility that has now been converted into a 2.6-acre urban park, located in the heart of the Tulsa Arts District and a true living room for cultural programming in downtown Tulsa. 

Investments in a thriving arts scene and strong cultural values are integral to GKFF’s community approach. Both the Bob Dylan Center and the Woody Guthrie Center operate under auspices of the American Song Archives, a project of George Kaiser Family Foundation, and dedicated artist residencies, fellowships, and programming helps to further stimulate Tulsa’s growing arts community. 

In the same Tulsa Arts District as Guthrie Green sits the GKFF-funded Holberton School–a credentialing school for software developers. In addition to training career-ready developers, Holberton provides living stipends to students and tuition incentives to stay in Tulsa both pre- and post-graduation. 

Partnership is at GKFF’s core. GKFF takes a program-forward approach — meaning the Foundation serves as co- or sole owner of many of the LLCs that operate the aforementioned initiatives in Tulsa. When visiting the city, you can explore parks, cafes, bakeries, restaurants, food trucks, and programming initiatives that provide Tulsa residents with meaningful ways to stay engaged in their communities. 

  • Workforce Development

GKFF’s dedication to developing Tulsa’s tech-led inclusive economy is something to aspire to. Tulsa Innovation Labs (TIL) was founded with support from GKFF to establish a city-wide strategy for inclusive, tech-led growth. TIL designs and launches economic and workforce development initiatives in Tulsa’s four emerging tech clusters: virtual health, energy tech, advanced air mobility and cyber, and aims to support the growth of startups, train diverse talent, expand job opportunities, and spur academic innovation. And through the network of local workforce programs in Tulsa, businesses can more easily connect with key hires and launch operations in Tulsa via inTulsa’s talent, relocation, and growth solutions.

36 Degrees North — Tulsa’s basecamp for entrepreneurs, innovators, and startups — works to provide the high-quality workspace, resources, and spirited community that entrepreneurs need to build growing companies and drive economic impact in Tulsa. Workforce development programs like Tulsa Remote — which offers participants a $10,000 grant in addition to a membership at a local co-working space, support in identifying housing, and regular community-building opportunities — have helped draw new workers into Tulsa and boost retention rates for local populations.

  • Health and Family Well-Being

To address the longstanding problem of high recidivism rates in Tulsa County, GKFF has partnered with the Justice and Mobility Fund to launch JusticeLink — a compendium of resources designed to help those navigating the criminal legal system in Tulsa to access a full spectrum of community-based services. JusticeLink primarily focuses on providing court and resource navigation, while also helping individuals to access wraparound supports like phones, IDs, or benefits enrollment services.

And through neighborhood development initiatives like ElevateEast — which works collaboratively with residents, community-based organizations, and public and private entities to invest and support immigrant families living in East Tulsa — residents can further access the wraparound support they need to thrive.

Affordable housing also has a huge role to play in ensuring family wellbeing, and neighborhood development initiatives like Growing Together and Kendall Whittier West Park have been intentionally designed to create vibrant, mixed-income communities and an intense focus on the birth-to-college-to-career pipeline.

  • The Tulsa Artist Fellowship
    Dedicated artist residencies, fellowships, and programming helps to further stimulate Tulsa’s growing arts community. Established in 2015, Tulsa Artist Fellowship was created to address and mitigate the challenges facing artists and arts workers living in and joining the city. Through intentionally crafted programming, the Fellowship celebrates and supports artists across all mediums by providing them with $150,000 over three years in addition to a $12,000 yearly housing stipend. 

Stronger together

GKFF’s approach has necessitated a rethinking of scale and impact as being simultaneously micro and macro. Seemingly hyperlocal initiatives — like the neighborhood development in Kendall Whittier, or the transformation of public spaces into vibrant parks — can scale to an overall transformation that impacts community members’ wellbeing and livelihood. For GKFF, scale is ultimately not about reaching hundreds of millions of people to solve for one issue; it’s about making meaningful and impactful investments that tackle root causes, identify and address social determinants, and take into account the specific moments that come together to make up a well-lived life.

All of us invested in place-based work can learn from GKFF’s approach, bring insights back to our communities, and integrate them into our own strategies — all uniquely tailored to each place. Place-based strategies are inherently collaborative and rely on strong partnerships: together, we can learn from each other, lean on each other’s strengths, and propel strategies that have a community’s best interest at its core.  

This is why we can’t wait to share in the Tulsa experience and the work of GKFF with the broader NationSwell Community this Fall! If you are interested in joining us you can register here or learn more about GKFF’s work or the Immersive Experience on October 18-19 by emailing Joy Gregory at [email protected].

ESG Next: An Interview With Yelp’s Miriam Warren

Posted on by Greg Behrman

At a moment of unprecedented attention, investment, and opportunity for the emerging field of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), leaders are asking: Who is best preparing their organization for the society of the future? Who is innovating today to meet decades-long environmental and social goals? Who is setting standards that catalyze their industry’s change for the better? Who is defining what bold and aspirational look like — and how best to advance that work in practice?

Enter NationSwell’s ESG Next, an exemplary group of investors, executives, authors, philanthropists, social sector leaders, academics, and field builders who are helping to shape business as a force for social and environmental progress, advancing — and even pioneering — the most forward-thinking and effective programs, initiatives, technologies, methodologies, practices, and approaches.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Miriam Warren, Chief Diversity Officer at Yelp, about how her childhood home was the beginning of her journey to the field, the three questions she asks herself before pushing for corporate action amid pivotal social moments, and the fellow leaders that inspire her leadership.

Greg Behrman, CEO + Founder, NationSwell: How did your professional and personal journey lead you to this work?

Miriam Warren, Chief Diversity Officer, Yelp: My journey started as early as my earliest memories. I grew up in a home where I was the only person of color, and the only one who looked like me. Growing up without other Filipinos meant that I was always trying to understand how I fit in with my family, and more broadly, what family means. I didn’t have the words for it then, but that was the early spark that had me thinking about building communities where different people (myself included) can feel like they belong. 

I found my way to the corporate world, and eventually to Yelp, where I built the some of the first communities of contributors to the site. Eventually, I turned that same attention inward to help build the employee community at Yelp as its first Chief Diversity Officer. 

I feel grateful to be able to do work that is meaningful, helps others, and brings light to issues that aren’t talked about enough.

Behrman, NationSwell: How do you make sense of this moment in ESG? Where are we now, and where do you think we’re going?

Warren, Yelp: Despite the narrative that some parts of society want you to believe, the idea that businesses have social responsibility is not a new one. From the emergence of the cooperative movement in the late 19th century to the creation of the first corporate charitable foundation in the early 20th century, plenty of historical influences—Quaker principles, labor movements, and fair trade practices, among them—have laid the groundwork for demonstrating that businesses have a broader responsibility to society.

More importantly, the idea isn’t going anywhere. The stakes feel even higher than before, whether we are talking about political polarization, climate crises, social and economic inequalities, or any number of other core issues that define and threaten our society. Businesses will play a critical role in supporting their customers, communities, employees, and other stakeholders, particularly to the extent that other institutions that have historically served them are failing.  

Behrman, NationSwell: What are some of the programs, strategies, or initiatives you’re leading at Yelp into which other field builders should have visibility?

Warren, Yelp: We should all strive to be more proactive and less reactive, and the way to do that is to have a preexisting framework for evaluating issues so that we can feel like we are happening to the issues and not the other way around. 

Yelp’s framework asks three questions: how does the issue map to our values? Does it matter to our stakeholders? And most importantly, are we uniquely positioned—through our platform or our business—to drive positive impact?

Let’s take reproductive healthcare access as an example. Our values align with the notion that bodily autonomy matters. It was also clear that the issue matters to our employees, many of whom are located in states contemplating or enacting restrictive abortion bans. We hoped to drive positive change by introducing a travel benefit to ensure healthcare equality for all our workers regardless of what state they were in. We also knew that consumers use our platform to find reliable information about reproductive healthcare services, and that we were therefore uniquely positioned to help them find what they were looking for.     

Behrman, NationSwell: To which leadership practices do you attribute your success? 

Warren, Yelp: I have always felt strongly about the concept of calling people in, not calling them out. We’re all on a learning journey, especially in this type of work. At one time or another we’re going to use the wrong words or frame a situation in a potentially problematic way. I want to cultivate an environment where people can make mistakes and know they have space to learn from it.

It takes a lot of energy to do this work and to maintain the grace, compassion, and patience to meet people where they are. I welcome the opportunity to explain why people use different pronouns than you. I’m happy to discuss your confusion over Black History Month. I won’t lose my cool when it comes to enumerating the challenges that many women, and particularly mothers, face in the workplace. My goal is to engage positively, and if someone feels positively toward me, there’s a good chance they’re going to walk away with a better understanding of why these issues matter to others if not to them.       

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are the leaders that inspire your leadership?

Warren, Yelp: Rodney Foxworth is always at the top of my list. His mission-driven work is incredibly inspiring to me and informs a lot of the way I think about many things, from economic development and philanthropy, to being an effective nonprofit board member.

Erin Baudo Felter at Okta is a fellow tech funder and social impact practitioner whose work I hold in high regard. She and I met through another colleague in this space years ago, and it’s been so useful to think together through issues we’re both tackling. 

Lastly, I’d spotlight Vignetta Charles. She is the CEO of ETR, a nonprofit organization committed to advancing health equity globally. Vignetta’s leadership awes me while also reminding me that laughter and friendship go a long way in making this work sustainable. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What are you reading that inspires your leadership?

Warren, Yelp: I cannot overstate how powerful “The Persuaders” by Anand Giridharadas has been for me. It has given me an incredible amount of hope in a time that sometimes feels hopeless, and it’s given me a lot of fuel to keep going. One of my big takeaways from the book is that people who are engaged in changing minds and bridging divisions should talk much more about what we’re for—not just about what we’re against. That notion has really resonated with me and I’m working on applying it expansively in my life.

To learn more about how our ESG Next honorees are shaping business as a force for social and environmental good, visit the series hub. Yelp is a NationSwell Institutional Member. To learn more about membership in NationSwell’s community of leading social impact and sustainability practitioners, visit our site.

ESG Next: An Interview With Omidyar Network’s Michele Jawando

Posted on by Greg Behrman

At a moment of unprecedented attention, investment, and opportunity for the emerging field of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), leaders are asking: Who is best preparing their organization for the society of the future? Who is innovating today to meet decades-long environmental and social goals? Who is setting standards that catalyze their industry’s change for the better? Who is defining what bold and aspirational look like — and how best to advance that work in practice?

Enter NationSwell’s ESG Next, an exemplary group of investors, executives, authors, philanthropists, social sector leaders, academics, and field builders who are helping to shape business as a force for social and environmental progress, advancing — and even pioneering — the most forward-thinking and effective programs, initiatives, technologies, methodologies, practices, and approaches.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Michele Jawando, Senior Vice President at Omidyar Network, about the untold story of ESG’s unlikely allies, the importance of strong and engaged workers for any organization, and why we don’t have permission to surrender to the sorrow — even when working to advance justice becomes incredibly challenging. 

Greg Behrman, CEO + Founder, NationSwell: Can you tell us about how your professional and personal journey led you to where you are today?

Michele Jawando, Senior Vice President , Omidyar Network: I endeavor for my work to be grounded in the simple idea that my contributions should advance and make meaningful contributions to the communities that I serve; that is the single thread that I am proud to be able to trace through my life’s work and purpose. 

It’s a thread that begins with my great aunt, who was both the first woman and the first Black woman attorney on the island of Bermuda; it continues with my grandmother, who was the first Black nurse at a segregated hospital; with my father, who went to law school and engaged his practice in global human and civil rights work; really, through my entire family, who have steadfastly been involved with the social and civil rights movements in Bermuda, Jamaica and here in the US. 

And now, it is with deep humility that I’ve been able to continue it from there on through to every place I’ve worked. All of my work, every single day, is in service of trying to pull that thread forward. Continuing it is a deeply personal, deeply spiritual call for me, and I’ve been fortunate to work at places that can match my passion. 

So it is with reverence for this past and deep appreciation for the present that I’ve arrived at my position in the field.

Behrman, NationSwell: What’s unique about the work you’re leading? What are some of your programs, strategies, and approaches into which other field builders should have visibility?

Jawando, Omidyar Network: We’re trying to figure out how we diversify who’s at the table, who’s talking to investors, and who’s engaged in this conversation.  And we’ve been partnering with a few incredible organizations to help make that happen. One I’m really excited about is the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. You probably don’t often think about faith and corporate responsibility as going hand-in-hand, but ICCR has been working at this intersection for five decades, and successfully engaged Fortune 500 companies from a faith perspective on issues like public health, pollution, and forced labor in ways that have changed corporate behavior for the better.. This is an opportunity to bring a very different voice into this conversation. We’ve also been working with an organization called the Investor Advocates for Social Justice, grounding us in the belief that investing can be a key part of a social justice framework — core to any movement. 

Too often, workers are missing from the conversations on the most important decisions an organization makes. People sometimes forget this, but some of the biggest investors in the world are the pension funds of working people. That’s why I’m really excited to spotlight our partnership with the Committee for Workers Capital; they’re working to center the perspective of workers within the investment community. To have strong corporations, you need strong workers. Including them makes your company stronger, which in turn makes your investments more profitable. It’s a very different way of thinking about smart investments, but I think it’s critical as we move forward. Workers, employees, customers and community members are uniquely positioned to identify when a company is doing something risky — even before the company’s leadership apparatus does. 

It can’t just be about investors, corporate board members, or academics; the present moment is giving us an opportunity to broaden the conversation and giving people more opportunity to see what a co-created future could look like.  If we don’t engage more of these groups at every level of decision making, then they’re missing out on opportunities for agency and growth, and management is missing out on their crucial perspective.  And so I think it’s such a critical moment for ESG investors to really listen to stakeholders to show up differently. But though it’s a great opportunity, it’s also a challenging moment, but only because it’s still so hard for us to have multi-party conversations in this country. 

Behrman, NationSwell: How are you making sense of this moment for ESG? 

Jawando, Omidyar Network: In order to create real change in the system, the conversation around ESG has to be deeply grounded in broader social conversations. 

We all want to see businesses do great work, and we want them to operate sustainably. But I think why we’re having such a passionate conversation about this right now is because we differ on what “great work” and “operate sustainably” mean. We’re seeing ESG as a topic bubble up almost daily because I think each person on the planet is impacted by corporations, and wants to be actively involved in what the solutions are. Changing the framework to make corporations and companies more profitable, more inclusive, more thoughtful — all while adding a greater amount of dignity in the work — is exactly what we need to be doing. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What’s exciting to you about this moment, and where do you see it going?

Jawando, Omidyar Network:  I see policy as an opportunity to scale impact, so I am currently really  interested in what we’ve seen in Missouri, where citizens stood up before the state legislature and said they wanted to see their pensions invested in a responsible and sustainable way  And while we know there’s been an uptick of anti-ESG legislation, the untold story that’s unfolding under the headlines is that you’re getting really interesting bedfellows. Players like the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, SEIU, the Sierra Club — they  were all working together to defeat these anti-ESG bills. There aren’t many places where you’re seeing unlikely allies coming together. You really love to see it.

To me, that’s proof there’s something unique about this work that is positive and is worth fighting for and is worth engaging. But there’s been such a collapse of nuance, which means it’s been hard for people to hold that you can both be profitable and have ESG as a core part of your investment strategy. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What is it about your leadership style that helps you to be effective? 

Jawando, Omidyar Network: As a leader, I strive to acknowledge that the people who come and work with me — or for me — have some challenge in their life that they’re dealing with every day, alongside their work. That acknowledgment helps me as much as it helps them. If I can walk into a workplace, or a board room, or Capitol Hill and recognize that these are people who are dealing with challenges in their lives, the dialogue will be a lot more productive than if I see them all as adversaries or challenges, lead with people’s humanity and it changes the dynamic every time. 

I’m not saying that view doesn’t come with its own set of challenges, but I deeply believe that this is the best approach to leadership. 

Behrman, NationSwell: Who are the leaders who inspire your leadership?

Jawando, Omidyar Network: Edelman CEO Lisa Ross is amazing. Not only is she a people first leader, but she’s also a true believer in the power of representation. There’s something unique about her voice that helps me really grapple with the importance of the work we’re doing.

KR Liu, who heads accessibility marketing at Google, is a constant source of inspiration to me. She’s one of the most profound people that I’ve worked with, one who’s helped me advance my own thinking about accessibility, representation, and policy. She lives with such intention and passion. 

Another leader who inspires me is Nicole Taylor of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. I think it’s hard running any foundation, but when you show up in the valley and you’re trying to hold a lot of different equities all at the same time, it’s even more challenging. And yet, Nicole  does it with such grace, effervescence, and a deep commitment to this work.

The last leader I’d like to mention is Amandeep Singh Gill, who’s the United Nations Secretary General’s Envoy on Technology. Whether you’re a techno optimist or a techno realist, it’s undeniable that technology has a profound effect on society. Amandeep is working to make sure it is not just a catalytic force, but a unifying one. 

Behrman, NationSwell: What are you reading, watching, or listening to that’s inspiring your leadership?

Jawando, Omidyar Network: “Blind Spot” by Jon Clifton has such great insight into why leaders were missing the unrest that led to everything from the Arab Spring to the state of our politics in America — and really asks us to reckon with what we value as a society, and whether we’re using the right metrics for what makes a nation thrive?

I’m loving “How to Citizen” with Baratunde Thurston, who just did an episode on democracy fractals and sci-fi. I’m a big, big sci-fi nerd. I love the way it calls the imagination to a different place. 

Lastly, Ross Gay is one of my favorite authors, and my favorite poem of his called “Sorrow is Not My Name.” I think about it every time the work gets challenging, or it feels like we’re taking a step back. I’d like to read it for you:

“No matter the pull towards the brink, no matter the florid, deep sleep awaits. There is a time for everything. Look, just this morning a vulture nodded his red grizzled head at me and I looked at him admiring the sickle of his beak. Then the wind kicked up and after arranging that good suit of feathers he up and took off, just like that. And to boot there are on this planet alone, something like two million naturally occurring sweet things, some with names so generous as to kick the steel from my knees. Agave, persimmon, stick ball, the purple okra I brought for two bucks at the market.

“Think of that, the long night, the skeleton in the mirror, the man behind me on the bus taking notes, yeah, yea. But look, my niece is running through a field calling my name. My neighbor sings like an angel and at the end of my block is a basketball court. I remember my color’s green, I’m spring.”

That piece calls me back to all of the things that are beautiful and simple and worth fighting for. We can’t get lost in the sorrow. We actually don’t have permission to do that. Then we start to feel like nothing can change — and I believe deeply that things can.

To learn more about how our ESG Next honorees are shaping business as a force for social and environmental good, visit the series hub. Omidyar Network is a NationSwell Institutional Member. To learn more about membership in NationSwell’s community of leading social impact and sustainability practitioners, visit our site.

ESG Next: An Interview With American Express’ Jennifer Skyler

Posted on by Greg Behrman

At a moment of unprecedented attention, investment, and opportunity for the emerging field of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), leaders are asking: Who is best preparing their organization for the society of the future? Who is innovating today to meet decades-long environmental and social goals? Who is setting standards that catalyze their industry’s change for the better? Who is defining what bold and aspirational look like — and how best to advance that work in practice?

Enter NationSwell’s ESG Next, an exemplary group of investors, executives, authors, philanthropists, social sector leaders, academics, and field builders who are helping to shape business as a force for social and environmental progress, advancing — and even pioneering — the most forward-thinking and effective programs, initiatives, technologies, methodologies, practices, and approaches.

For this installment, NationSwell interviewed Jennifer Skyler, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at American Express, about the importance of leveraging your core values in times of disruption, drawing new strength from embracing discomfort, and the timeless, underappreciated value of resilience.

Greg Behrman, CEO + Founder, NationSwell: Can you walk us through what’s unique about how you and your team have approached ESG?

Jennifer Skyler, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, American Express: When I first joined in 2020, my team undertook a comprehensive process to refresh the ESG strategy and framework based on a materiality analysis of key stakeholder issues. That was an important first step — those first efforts culminated in the launch of our ESG Strategy and Framework which encompasses three core pillars: financial confidence; climate solutions; diversity, equity, and inclusion.

That framework guides us to drive action in alignment with our values and address the top issues that matter the most for our company and stakeholders. It provides the guiding principles, operational structure, and resources to be able to make meaningful, positive impact in people’s lives and the world we live in. 

By having a foundational framework in place to address those issues, we can set tangible goals, build action plans to achieve those goals and hold ourselves accountable for progress, and provide transparency into our efforts for our internal and external stakeholders. 

Behrman, NationSwell: How is the work you’re leading at American Express unique?

Skyler, American Express: We have a very special, values-driven culture. As Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, I carry the responsibility of championing the Blue Box values that our company and brand stand for, making sure all our actions and communications are tightly aligned to those values.

I joined the company in 2020 — and as you can imagine, that meant that my arrival was met with the unprecedented challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Before we even began to address those challenges, we committed to one core principle as our north star: that we would back our colleagues, customers, and communities above all else.

That commitment has since proven critical to how we managed to emerge as an even stronger company. From the early days of the pandemic, we doubled down on our backing of our stakeholders. We invested in the health, safety, and holistic well-being of our colleagues through expanded benefits and support programs. For our customers, we offered financial relief to those experiencing economic challenges and evolved our product benefits and services to meet their changing needs in the face of the pandemic. We also provided philanthropic support to economically vulnerable communities to help them address their challenges and support their recovery.

Those investments have paid off a great deal and put us in a strong position today, where we’re seeing great momentum across our business. Our customers and colleagues are sticking with us, and we are attracting many more to our workforce and card member base – all enabling us to deliver record growth rates that we’ve been seeing for several quarters now.      

Having gone through such a pivotal moment at American Express, I have an even greater appreciation now for working at a company with sound and consistent values that you can lean on during good times and bad times.

Behrman, NationSwell: Is there a significant program or initiative you’re leading into which other field builders should have visibility? 

Skyler, American Express: As Chair of the American Express Foundation, which facilitates the company’s philanthropic and community impact efforts and am deeply inspired by the work our nonprofit partners do to improve their communities. In December, we relaunched the American Express Leadership Academy, transforming the curriculum to help enhance the business and leadership skills of high-potential nonprofit leaders to meet the unique challenges of today. Since its launch in 2007, the Academy helped more than 165,000 social purpose leaders reach their potential.

This year, the theme of our Leadership Academy was resilient changemakers, and I think my overall thinking as a communications and corporate sustainability leader over the past few years has really embodied this idea. If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it’s that we can’t foresee the future and the challenges we will face tomorrow. What’s most important is developing the right skills and having the tools to be able to effectively tackle life’s challenges– whatever they might be – and remain resilient.

More personally, I love to support small businesses, whether shopping in my own neighborhood or at local shops wherever I travel. I have now had the opportunity to turn this personal passion of mine into even greater real impact given American Express’ continued commitment to backing small businesses, like through our Backing Historic Small Restaurants grant program in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has awarded $2 million to 50 historically significant restaurants in the U.S. over the past two years and will provide another $1 million to 25 new recipients this year.

Behrman, NationSwell: To which leadership practices do you most attribute your success and efficacy?

Skyler, American Express: One of the behaviors that we’re expected to demonstrate as leaders is courageous and transparent leadership, which has been something I always believed in. Being courageous and embracing discomfort is necessary to be able to achieve growth and realize your full potential.

You cannot grow in your career without discomfort. You must be receptive to feedback and not be afraid to fail to make progress. That’s why I am always focused on challenging myself and my team to think differently, aim higher, and learn from both successes and failures to grow with each experience.

Behrman, NationSwell: What’s inspiring your leadership right now? 

Skyler, American Express: I’m a voracious consumer of so many different podcasts and media – often multiple screens at a time – so if I made a list, it would be ridiculously long. I like to hear all sides of an issue and stay on top of the fast-paced, ever-evolving environment that we operate in.

Of course, every now and then we need a break from the news cycle. Right now, I’m loving Daisy Jones and the Six on Amazon Prime as my respite.

To learn more about how our ESG Next honorees are shaping business as a force for social and environmental good, visit the series hub. American Express is a NationSwell Institutional Member. To learn more about membership in NationSwell’s community of leading social impact and sustainability practitioners, visit our site.

Five Minutes With Taj Eldridge, Managing Director of Climate Innovation at Jobs for the Future

Posted on by NationSwell Team

The NationSwell Council is made up of social impact-oriented leaders and changemakers who are committed to pioneering solutions in order to better their communities — and the world around them. In NationSwell’s latest series, “5 Minutes With…,” we sit down with members of our community whose exemplary leadership deserves a deeper dive. Here’s what Taj Eldridge, Managing Director of Climate Innovation at Jobs for the Future, had to share with us on green jobs, meeting the demand for a skilled workforce, and the power of dissenting thought:

NationSwell: What does the future of nature-inspired innovation look like, and what can we do to ensure that that future is as equitable and inclusive as possible?

Taj Eldridge, JFF: The future of climate tech looks like America. Here’s what I mean by that: Historically, we’ve thought of the idea of tech as something affiliated with Silicon Valley—Sand Hill Road and the Bay Area. Climate tech will be more about the entire country, with a local-to-global approach of providing tailored solutions to help our planet and, more importantly, every person living on it. This very idea of geographic diversity, along with programs like ‘Climate Resilient Employees for a Sustainable Tomorrow’(CREST) that we at JFF are managing, will ensure that this re-imagination of climate tech is both inclusive and equitable. 

NationSwell: How does the work you’re driving today help to build that future?

Taj Eldridge, JFF: CREST is a 5-year, $25 million project of the Ares Charitable Foundation led in partnership with JFFLabs at Jobs for the Future and the World Resources Institute. This work aims to close the gap between the demand for a skilled workforce for green jobs and the number of people prepared for these opportunities. It focuses on ensuring that people without traditional credentials and varied geographical representation are a priority in green job creation and training for this generation and the next. We recently released Growing Quality Green Jobs as part of CREST, which shares why a just transition requires removing limitations around how we define jobs and skills needed to build a climate-resilient workforce.

NationSwell: What inspires or motivates you — personally and professionally — to do this work?

Taj Eldridge, JFF: My motivation around this work comes from this idea I always mention on how climate change impacts us in three ways: the call for justice, personal wealth, and public health. 

The call for justice, for me, calls attention to the fact that communities that public and private institutions have underserved bear the brunt of the climate impact. But these communities are rarely involved in creating the solutions.   

The personal wealth aspect means that a large amount of funding is going towards this issue via climate tech and other career pathways; thus, green wealth is being accumulated. This capital accumulation has the opportunity to be more just and equitable. 

Lastly, what motivates me is how my own health was impacted by environmental factors growing up caused by climate change. While I was lucky to have a kidney transplant, there are still many others suffering from diseases and ailments caused by climate change. These three lenses motivate me to fulfill this purposeful work around climate change. 

NationSwell: What are some promising signs from the impact you’re driving?

Taj Eldridge, JFF: Through our work with CREST, we see technologies and solutions for the green economy developing outside the Bay Area, and growing in middle America, the South, and other regions directly affected by climate change. We are also expanding the definition of a green job, and developing research that indicates we can make every job of the future a green job in response to social and market opportunities.  

More generally, some of the promising signs include the excitement and willingness of others who want to partner to battle this disease our planet faces. I often mention the phrase “many hands make light work, ” a proverb about collaboration. I am hopeful about the collaborative possibilities raised by new technologies, new partners, and the younger generation’s moving forward regardless of the political and corporate winds. 

NationSwell: Finally, what are some of the challenges you’re facing? How can NationSwell’s social impact community of practice help you with those challenges?

Taj Eldridge, JFF: Some of the challenges for me are that, at times, the language used doesn’t match the intended actions. For example, I often hear the phrase “BIPOC,” but it seems the Indigenous community is left out of the national conversation about how we might utilize some of the solutions they have used for centuries. Similarly, we use this language to describe the “climate-friendly just transition” of going towards a climate-friendly future in the United States and Europe, but we fail to think about other nations, like the Congolese, who toil in mines to collect the very minerals needed to power our batteries. This presents a huge challenge for people to not only trust this transition but also actively participate in it.  

I think the NationSwell community can provide the resource that is just as needed and important as capital—human ingenuity and dissenting thought. We need the ingenuity to constantly think of solutions, as we are in the adolescence phase of our pathways towards a climate-friendly future. We also need the dissenters—to test our assumptions and challenge us to use that same ingenuity to find alternative pathways where ALL will have a just transition.  

Taj Eldridge is the Managing Director of Climate Innovation at Jobs for the Future, a national nonprofit that drives transformation of the U.S. education and workforce systems to achieve equitable economic advancement for all. If you’re interested in learning more, please get in touch.

NationSwell Leaders on Celebrating Juneteenth by Advancing Racial Equity and Justice

Posted on by Anthony Smith

Monday marks the celebration of juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved Black people at the end of the Civil War. As we head into the celebrations, NationSwell reached out to some of the leaders in our community to ask how fellow leaders can join them in their efforts to advance racial equity and justice for Black people.

Here are some of the ideas, actions, and resources they’ve shared with us.

NationSwell: As we celebrate Juneteenth, what is one action that business, philanthropic, and societal leaders can take to meet this moment in racial equity and justice? 

Thea Gay, NationSwell Fellow + Youth Activist: Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said it best in her TedTalk about the danger of a single story, warning that it “creates stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes is not that they aren’t true, but they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story”.

For far too long, Black stories have been manipulated, mishandled, and in many cases completely erased to appease White Supremacy. As a result, widespread Black representation created without the input of Black people oftentimes reflects racist caricatures of our culture and demeans the rich diversity of our community — in turn, putting forth a one-dimensional idea of who we are into the world.

This Juneteenth, I encourage everyone to take some time to immerse themselves in Black History by supporting Black authors and creatives helping to shift the narratives about our stories and who gets to tell them.

Quardean Lewis-Allen, Founder + Executive Director, Youth Design Center: It is always a great time to support initiatives that address systemic inequalities, such as education and economic mobility. But particularly at a time when philanthropy is contracting, we need to lean into local economies and amplifying the infrastructure for self-sufficiency. Place-based investment in communities can help bridge the opportunity gap and empower individuals to thrive.

Carmita Semaan, Founder + CEO, Surge Institute: This may seem overly simplistic, but my advice to leaders and friends when asked this question is to be intentional, but start small. Take one small action to educate yourself, connect with someone whose perspective and lived experience differs from yours, and allow that education or interaction to lead to another action that may positively impact those you lead. Many leaders fail to act or meet the moment in racial equity and justice because they are both afraid to say or do the wrong thing and feel that any action taken must be grandiose to make an impact.

Here’s a bit of inside information: Most grandiose acts done without education or proximity fall flat and are received as performative and lazy by those you are most often seeking to impact. Take the time to invest in your own education, growth, and healing and I promise it will impact the way you see others, the way you see yourself, and ultimately the way you lead. 

NationSwell: What’s one idea for advancing racial equity and justice that more leaders should know about — and where can they go to find out more?

Gay: One approach to advancing racial equity and justice that I think people know of — but don’t actively integrate into their everyday lives — is practicing intersectionality. Not only is it a framework to understand social theory but a lens that can be used to think deeply about our micro and macro interactions. Being aware that everyone has a distinct lived experiences shaped by oppression and privilege is key to understanding the society’s impact on different communities.

As part of your Juneteenth celebration, get curious about your knowledge of Black history and try to go deeper or take part/listen to intersectional conversations that expand your understanding of the Black experience. And most importantly never stop seeking to understand the gaps between what Black stories are being told, how, and by who. While also considering whose stories are then missing, the impact of that exclusion, and the need to highlight the intersectionality of Black identities. 

Lewis-Allen: I love the work of BlackSpace, a Black urbanist collective that collaborates with Black organizers and thinkers to co-create urbanism-themed experiences. These bespoke experiences unite Black urbanists across disciplines to share new ways of to center Blackness in architecture, design, and urban planning. In that regard, they developed the BlackSpace Manifesto to help co-creators engaged in developing projects with Black communities do so in a purposeful, non-extractive way. I reference it often as a central part of our organization’s community revitalization work.

Semaan: There are so many so I’m going to cheat and provide a few. If you’re looking for an equity assessment, customized framework and work-plan for your organization as you seek to advance equity work within your organization, I absolutely love the work Rhonda Brousard is doing at Beloved Community.

If you’re interested in empowering the next generation of leaders to build an anti-racist economy by placing diverse youth in high growth careers, check out LeadersUp under the leadership of the brilliant Jeffery Wallace.

And finally, if you want to support efforts to educate, amplify, and elevate the next generation of leaders of color working to transform systems for students, families and communities, please check out my organization Surge Institute and consider ways to join our community or support us in any way that feels comfortable for you. 

In celebration of Black lives and justice for Black communities, NationSwell asked its leaders to share some resources to support and celebrate BIPOC people. Here are just a few they’ve shared.

The Opportunity Network’s Anti-Racism Resources and Tools
The Opportunity Network is committed to its Active Core Value to Center Social and Racial Equity Relentlessly through our pedagogical practices, engagement activities, and programming. The organization recognizes our country’s long history of structural oppression and deeply rooted racism and brutality, and have compiled the below anti-racism resources for our students, families, and fellow educators. Learn more here.

The Power of Truth and Reconciliation Processes
How can a country with a history steeped in racism and violence ever hope to redress its sins and create a more safe and equitable social landscape? What will it take for America to heal? For some, the answer lies in truth and reconciliation — the process by which persistent inequalities are addressed through careful fact-gathering and supervised dialogues that seek to establish an objective version of historical events. Proponents of truth and reconciliation processes believe that confronting and reckoning with the past is necessary in order for successful transitions from conflict and resentment to peace and connectedness to occur. Learn more here.

Black History, Black Futures
In this NationSwell Mainstage, you’ll learn from cross-sector leaders in environmental, social, and place-based justice who are advancing progress in meaningful, measurable ways. Anchored in their accomplishments and expertise, they discussed the tangible actions we can take and investments we can make to ensure an equitable and just Black Future. Watch to learn how you can build a better Black future — one where Black excellence is celebrated, Black innovation is supported, Black opportunity is accelerated, and Black lives flourish and thrive.