Resource Type: Event recaps

Creating Opportunity: Building Equitable Communities for the Future, a Fireside Chat with Julián Castro

Posted on Sara Danver

On November 21, 2024, the NationSwell Summit opened with a riveting and in-depth fireside chat between the current CEO of the Latino Community Foundation and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Julián Castro, and NationSwell CEO, Greg Behrman. Although the uncertainty of our current political moment was at the forefront of both the conversation and our minds, so too was this year’s theme, Hope in Action. 

Castro started by providing his perspective on this year’s election results and how we understand them within the context of our work. He noted that across the country, Americans continue to feel the impact of high prices and anxiety about the future, making economic opportunity a critical focus in the coming years. And while there have been questions and even unwarranted derision about the rightward swing of the Latino vote Castro was quick to deconstruct the stereotypes and false narratives around a monolithic Latino experience. No one issue, experience, or campaign addresses that complexity. 

Pushing back on these oversimplified and harmful narratives is even more important in the face of the incoming administration’s proposed mass deportations. Castro pointed to the role of all of us in pushing back against this policy by supporting organizations doing vital legal work in immigration services and civil rights, and by using our voices and influence to demand resistance at the city, state, and federal level. 

“We’ve seen part of this before a few years ago,” Castro said. “And so just as the new administration has experience accomplishing whatever it wants to accomplish, there’s also a lot of experience in trying to make sure that we continue to be a nation that lives up to its best values. So, that makes me optimistic for what’s possible.”

Castro is no stranger to that endeavor, and he comes by it honestly. In response to a question about a leadership-defining person or experience in his life, he went straight to his mother, Rosie. 

“My mom was a hellraiser, a Chicana activist, a civil rights activist,” he said, adding later that “She never pushed us to go into politics, but she gave us this sense that you should get educated and do well for yourself and then figure out how you’re going to do good for other people.” 

In fact, service in the Castro family is a multigenerational project. When asked about what 2024 Summit’s theme, Hope in Action, means to him, Castro spoke movingly about his kids. “Every time I think about their lives, and what they are going through, I think that it’s time for us to live up to our values,” he said, “the values of treating each other with dignity and respect and compassion and trying to find the places where people can work together and compromise.”

Julián Castro lives the values of hope in action, as evident in his lifetime of service, and that continues in his work with the Latino Community Foundation. LCF was first formed in 1989 as an affinity group of United Way of the Bay Area, and became an independent foundation in 2016 with the mission of building a movement of civically engaged philanthropic leaders, investing in Latino-led organizations, and increasing political participation of Latinos in California. And while philanthropy is quite a bit different from his work as a public servant (Castro noted with a laugh that he’d never heard the word ‘proximate’ as much as he had this last year), both feature the core themes that have guided his life so far – lifting up community, and doing good work that makes a difference in people’s lives. 

LCF’s projects and investments are wide ranging, but Castro highlighted with particular pride the work they do ensuring that workers at all levels can share in the success that they help create, and building capacity at nonprofits and other organizations whose leaders often have the ideas and the determination needed to enact them, but not the resources. 

“Less than 2% of big philanthropy dollars go to Latino led organizations,” he noted. By providing operations support and financial investment, LCF bolsters community-led initiatives improving the health and wellbeing of thousands of Latino families across California. 

In spite of the differences over the word proximate, however, Castro sees an opportunity space in the overlap between public service and private organizations like LCF. Recognizing that politics is often a fraught endeavor, Castro emphasized the untapped potential presented by public private partnerships. 

“I can count on one hand the number of times that anybody in philanthropy set up a meeting [when I was a councilman, and then mayor],” he noted, but his advice for the room was to be willing to have those conversations because there are a lot of good public servants out there with good ideas that could benefit from that connection with philanthropy. “We have this opportunity to make a lot of progress when you have stronger public private partnerships because from the philanthropy standpoint, there’s no way, even with all the philanthropic dollars, to make changes on housing or other issues. You need government.” 

Willingness to have the conversation was the running theme of Castro’s fireside chat. Whether in communities of practice that share information and resources, or amongst public servants and philanthropic leaders, parents and children, and Republicans and Democrats, it is conversation that leads to community, connection, and compromise. These are the values that we will need to build a future where we can all thrive. 

But that’s not all we’ll need. “This is going to be a time to be bold, to be in partnership, to be strategic, thoughtful, but to stand up,” Castro said, his last advice to the NationSwell audience. “It’s a time to stand up in [whatever] way you can.” 

For more moments from NationSwell Summit 2024, click here.

Hope in Action at NationSwell Summit 2024

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

On November 20 and 21, NationSwell convened changemakers, innovators, and thought leaders in New York City for our Summit 2024. This year’s theme was Hope in Action — a nod to both the radical optimism this moment requires and the intentionality needed to create a more equitable and prosperous world.

Throughout the event, we heard from some of the nation’s leading social impact, sustainability, and philanthropic leaders on the innovative solutions and game-changing partnerships they’re pioneering. Below are a few of the moments that left us feeling hopeful and inspired to be standing shoulder to shoulder with this community of changemakers for all the work still to come:

Fireside Chat with Julián Castro

“We have an opportunity in this moment to model what we want the world to look like and to do that as leaders in our own organizations; to recommit ourselves to that vision and to breathe more energy into the values that we want to prevail.” – Julián Castro, CEO of the Latino Community Foundation and former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Impact Spotlight by Maria Kim

“What I’ve learned through my work and my life over the years is that lived experience is not what you’ve done or what’s been done with you; it’s sometimes this catalyst that makes you most beautifully, gloriously, affirmatively who you are.  So in a way, my lived experience is more aptly described as my lived expertise.” – Maria Kim, President and CEO, REDF

“I know we can do this if we put our back into it. And if we do it, we end up shifting from a generational transfer of poverty to a generational transfer of joy.” – Maria Kim, President and CEO, REDF

NationSwell founder and CEO Greg Behrman

Impact Spotlight by Scott Pulsipher

“To me, Hope in Action is about changing one life for the better and doing that hundreds of thousands of times, if not millions of times.  And it’s incredible to actually imagine a different world in which we rethink education, we imagine how it can actually operate. Not just for the good of the few, but for the good of the many.” – Scott Pulsipher, President, Western Governors University

“The U.S. higher education system is, in fact, failing those that it was designed to serve.”  – Scott Pulsipher, President, Western Governors University

NationSwell’s Books of the Year panel, moderated by Alesha Washington and featuring Nicholas Kristof and Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

NationSwell’s Books of the Year

“Hope is a muscle.” – Nicholas Kristof, Journalist, The New York Times

“Find the way to connect the dots to your work. I offer a simple diagram: what are you good at, what needs doing, and what brings you joy? The joy part is what keeps you going and will welcome other people into the work. Pick one and roll up your sleeves and see how far we can get.” – Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Co-founder, Urban Ocean Lab

Impact Spotlight by Vilas Dhar

“Leadership in this moment is no longer about just individual courage; it’s no longer about many conversations that happen across society, but a world where we make decisions together.” – Vilas Dhar, President, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation

“We can be architects, we can build blueprints for tools and technologies in the future that incorporate our morals, our values, our norms, our beliefs, and the voices of the people around us.” – Vilas Dhar, President, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation

Impact Spotlight by Aly Richards

“[Affordable and accessible childcare] is a market failure – it is a broken business model. Early educators can’t afford to make less, parents can’t afford to pay more. The sooner we can understand that we need help from local, state, and federal, the sooner we can fix it.” – Aly Richards, CEO, Let’s Grow Kids

The Stonewall Chorale Chamber Choir

The Case for Care: The Business Imperative of Investing in Care

“In many ways, motherhood is the unfinished business of gender equality.” – Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO, Moms First; Founder, Girls Who Code

“You can make a very strong business case for [child care], to do the right thing to help your people.” – Stephan Dolling, AVP, Global Benefits and Well-Being, Merck

“Let’s talk about the challenges more. Talk to me, or talk to your employers, about the caregiving challenges that we’re all experiencing.” – Lindsay Jurist-Rosner, Founder and CEO of Wellthy

The Lounge featured an interactive hopscotch with facts around childcare, a pamphlet with more information on the Collaborative, and signs highlighting childcare solutions
The Care Lounge, presented by the Case for Childcare Collaborative

Creative Forces for Social Change: The Power of Art in Action

“There’s a war on the storytelling of our authentic selves and truth and history.” – Renée Elise Goldsberry, Tony- and Grammy Award-Winning Actress and Singer

“I put all my hope in art. For one, art never cared who was in power.”  – Rahsaan Thomas, Documentary Filmmaker, Podcaster, and Producer

“There’s a lot of misunderstandings going on in our country right now, so we need art more than ever to translate the truth.” – Rahsaan Thomas, Documentary Filmmaker, Podcaster, and Producer

“I think my greatest resource as an artist is my most authentic self.” –  Renée Elise Goldsberry, Tony- and Grammy Award-Winning Actress and Singer

Impact Spotlight by Dr. Carmen Rojas and Tara Raghuveer

“Our country faces an unprecedented housing crisis. Not only are more than 3 million people homeless, housing insecure, or living in shelters, but rents have gone up more than 30% since 2020. This is in a context in which we have 16 million vacant homes in the United States. So this means that we have made a choice not to house our brothers and sisters, our cousins, people that we might fall in love with, slow dance with, sing karaoke with – it’s a decision that our political leaders have made.” – Dr. Carmen Rojas, President and CEO, Marguerite Casey Foundation 

“The rent is the biggest bill in most working people’s budgets. When people need to cut back on living expenses, making cuts to housing is not an option – the alternative is homelessness. The rent is too damn high.” – Tara Raghuveer, Founding Director of Kansas City Tenants

“Derek is one of the tenants who will strike another month. He said, ‘My rent is my power. And I will use my power with my neighbors until we win what we’re owed.’” – Tara Raghuveer, Founding Director of Kansas City Tenants

Impact Spotlight by Jay Bailey

“You want to talk about innovation? Show me someone more innovative than a single mother with two kids making $17,000 a year. She problem-solves, she makes sure there are gifts under the Christmas tree – send her to business school and she’ll run circles around everybody.” – Jay Bailey, President and CEO, Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE)

“Hope in action is black prosperity through ownership.” – Jay Bailey, President and CEO, Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE)

The Augment and Involve panel, featuring Molly Kinder, Nicole Johnson, and Carri Twigg

Augment and Involve: Empowering Workers in an AI-driven World

“We look at the AI development and economy that’s happening as an opportunity space. How can we ensure – unlike the internet – that there’s intentionality to the workforce that’s behind this technology?” – Nicole Johnson, Global Director of Social Impact & Inclusion, Cadence Design Systems

“Tech is all of us – each of us has the ability to engage and change for the tech future we want.” – Michele Jawando, Senior Vice President, Omidyar Network

“The human spirit is indomitable, and art is a fundamental part of that. We will figure out how to fulfill the promise of increasing representation, increasing stories using AI, and we will see more people fight for the art that gives their lives texture.” – Carri Twigg, Founding Partner, Culture House Media

“What gives me hope is that when workers are at the heart of our design of this technology and the decisions around deployment, this is not only good for society and workers, but there’s a lot of evidence that it’s good for employers, too. Workers are assets. They’re experts. They often know their space the best. AI is not something that’s top-down.” – Molly Kinder, David M. Rubenstein Fellow, The Brookings Institution

“Just as we celebrate innovation and we’re awed by it, it creates opportunities for creation and destruction. We need innovation in our policies, badly – we’re at an intersection of technology where it impacts workers, and there’s a role for the government in all of this.” – Ambassador Katherine Tai, United States Trade Representative

Impact Spotlight by Dreama Gentry

“The hope I’m holding – the hope that I’d ask you to join me in – is hope that this great nation can be a place where all of our children and young people are supported and have a choice-filled life.” – Dreama Gentry, President and CEO, Partners for Rural Impact

“We know what will create upward mobility from cradle to career – we just need to invest in that, and we can’t do this work alone.” – Dreama Gentry, President and CEO, Partners for Rural Impact

A fireside chat with Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy

Impact Spotlight with Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy

“When your friend is in a crisis, showing up doesn’t mean coming up with a ten-point plan to solve all problems. The truth is, people derive tremendous comfort from knowing that they’re not alone.” – Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy

Recapping Climate Week with NationSwell

Posted on by NationSwell Team

Each year, the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week bring thousands of cross-sector leaders from around the globe to New York City. Those leaders collectively take stock of our current state and continue the push toward solutions that protect our planet and people.

Bringing our physical presence to these proceedings is significant: During a high-stakes political moment, being together in person better allows us to share our knowledge, refocus our priorities, and reenergize ourselves for all of the important work that lies ahead. 

The NationSwell team was thrilled to host so many of you in New York City during Climate Week for conversations that were designed to inspire forward-thinking initiatives; facilitate solutions-sharing; help forge connections; and inspire our community of changemakers. 

In case you weren’t able to be with us, we’ve recapped highlights from a few of our gatherings below.

Opening Leadership Lunch

On Friday, September 20th, we sat down for lunch with a fantastic group of leaders for a moment of connection and a chance to pause and exhale ahead of a hectic week of events. Alongside our wonderful co-host, Vilas Dhar (president of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation), guests shared the wisdom they bring to their leadership in order to keep it sustainable. 

Some of the insights shared included: 

  • The importance of seeking alignment around shared goals, not uniformity
  • The need to view challenges as stepping stones to growth and progress while embracing “not yet”
  • The ability to embrace humility and recognize what you can and can not know
  • Honoring and encouraging those with deep expertise to translate their knowledge into layman’s terms that others can engage with 
  • The essential role that hope has to play in driving progress — and the necessity of resisting weaponized optimism

Ringing the Nasdaq Bell

On Monday, NationSwell was honored to help ring in Climate Week — literally — by attending the opening Nasdaq bell ceremony. NationSwell Chief Social Impact Officer Virginia Tenpenny kicked things off alongside Deloitte Chief Impact Officer Van Zorbas, Coupa Vice President of ESG Gina Tesla, and Tiffany & Co. Foundation president Annika Dubrall, helping to usher in an exciting week of progress, collaboration, and solutions-sharing.


Signature Dinners on Leadership

As Climate Week got underway in earnest, we were thrilled to host three consecutive Signature Dinners on Leadership. While our in-person dinners always mark an opportunity to share, grapple with tough questions, and ultimately elevate one another, Climate Week felt like an especially poignant time to gather to lift up the practices, methods, tools, and resources that help us to navigate the complexities of our ever-changing world. 

From the finesse of maximizing impact with limited resources to the power of cross-sector collaborations to the radicality of rethinking corporate philanthropy, the dinners were at once far-reaching and deeply impactful.

A sampling of some of the most relevant insights from those conversations appear below:

  • Asking the right questions can be a catalyst for big transformation — critically examining the criteria used to make investments, and explicitly asking why underserved communities are not included as a consideration, can lead to more inclusive and effective interventions
  • We need to reframe our perspective in order to see opportunities for kindness and community in what is often characterized as a “fractured” society
  • We must recognize the “paradox of human perception” — our consistent tendency to overestimate the time we have and possibilities that exist
  • By establishing a practice of “checking in,” we can help foster a culture of belonging,allowing individuals to feel seen and understood
  • Seasoned leaders are at the vanguard of not only beating the odds, but changing the odds — retooling our resources and embracing key challenges in order to drive systemic change

NationSwell Open House

On Wednesday, we welcomed our community to the NationSwell offices in the Flatiron District for an afternoon of connection, workshopping sessions, and professional development (featuring professional headshots  and a recruiter station with job opportunities).

Leaders from our community presented and led discussions on a handful of critical issues: youth workforce development, featuring Christina Sass, President & CEO, International Youth Foundation; DEI, featuring Andrea Abrams, Executive Director, Defending American Values Coalition (DVAC); Human-centered future, featuring Baratunde Thurston, comedian and cofounder of Cultivated Wit; and Mission-Driven Recruitment, featuring Tauna Dean, Owner of KWC.

Our Open House also featured a briefing on the forthcoming election and reminders about the ways leaders and organizations can promote a healthy democracy this fall using resources like Civics Inc. — a framework that helps businesses enhance civic participation, improve information accessibility, and address fundamental rights — and our newly-developed election scenario planning toolkit, designed to prepare leaders for various election-related challenges.


Council Salon on AI X Climate

As the Open House concluded, some of our team members (and Baratunde!) journeyed uptown for a NationSwell Council salon on How Can AI Support the Climate Transition. 

Facilitated by Errika Moore, Executive Director for the national STEM Funders Network, the panel discussion featured Jean Louis Warnholz, Dr. John Frey, and Baratunde Thurston, with each speaker addressing a specific piece of how companies, systems, and people can harness AI and new technologies to pursue bold climate solutions. 

Here are just a few of the insights that were surfaced:

  • AI can help us to identify and strengthen the locus of change within our communities
  • If we have all-knowing technology in-hand, now is the right moment to get clear on exactly which types of questions we want to be asking
  • Unlocking the potential of AI to drive climate solutions will require us to become strong advocates for the good we wish to see
  • Consumptive decision-making is one of the cornerstone challenges of climate change
  • Access to unlimited resources can be a hindrance to innovation — constraints are not shackles, but a condition for greatness


Election Scenario Planning Workshop

Our Climate Week programming concluded with a workshop on 2024 Election Scenario Planning for Impact Leaders. Co-hosted with the Civic Business Initiative, the event was designed to help confront and mitigate the anxieties we’ve heard so many members of our community express in the midst of a challenging and high-stakes election. 

Our view is that scenario planning can help to engage with and offset the risks to your organizations, free enterprise, and American democracy this fall, and we are grateful to the members who showed up to the workshop and engaged in such a graceful, intention, and clear-eyed way.

Our participants surfaced fantastic insights on how we might best prepare ourselves for the outcome of the 2024 election, including:

  • How to develop or update your decision-making frameworks for both internal and external responses to crises
  • How to brace ourselves for a high level of emotional stress and anxiety in the workplace
  • The importance of creating intentional spaces for employees to discuss challenging and charged issues
  • The easy win of resocializing internal policies around political engagement
  • The utility of collaborating with industry associations and business groups to nail messaging
  • How to be explicit and proactive about articulating your organization’s values as they relate to American democracy

… and so much more.

We are deeply grateful to all who came from places near and far, and carved time out of their busy schedules, to gather with us in New York. The team at NationSwell is charged up, clear-eyed about the work ahead, and eager to continue driving lasting change with our ecosystem of changemakers.

The NationSwell Council on influencing social and economic mobility in America

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

In Q2, members of the NationSwell Council and team set out across the U.S. for a Salon series dedicated to exploring Mobility in America.

Specifically, our members were interested in unpacking the role our education, government, communities, and families have to play in influencing social and economic mobility — and how our own personal narratives are indelibly intertwined with broader mobility trends.

The series brought us face-to-face with transformative leaders from diverse sectors, sparking discussions that were as rich as they were enlightening. Some of the Council members who were in attendance came together to describe the most actionable insights, resources, and practices that were shared during the events — our full recap appears below.

Key Insights and Questions:

  1. Mentorship is vital to economic and social mobility
  2. We’ve created a narrative of a post-secondary path that is not the reality for most
  3. Policy and legislation are key for advancing mobility
  4. AI will change how society calibrates social mobility
  5. Is social mobility a proxy for proximity to whiteness?
  6. How much coercion are we willing to assert to increase social capital?
  7. Psychological barriers to success can be overcome by strategies that address the mental models of family and community 
  8. Is scale the enemy of impact?
  9. To be truly inclusive, DEI initiatives must include the ex-offender population 
  10. How do we shift narratives when media norms aren’t built for narrative shifts?

What leaders who attended are saying:

NationSwell asked members in attendance to respond to two key questions:

  1. In your own work, how can you support the strength, the visibility, the power, and the influence of ideas, individuals, and institutions from outside the dominant frames that shape and distort our world—be they whiteness, US exceptionalism etc. 
  2. In your work, how can you support and elevate the ideas, individuals, and institutions that are often overlooked or marginalized by mainstream perspectives? (Who can you lift up and how?)

Brian Lovins, President, Justice System Partners

At JSP, we work closely with justice involved individuals and find that while our society says they believe in 2nd chances, we often create significant roadblocks to bringing people back to our communities after a prison sentence. Two major challenges–housing and employment. We have amazing people who have served their sentences and need legitimate pathways forward so they can be their best self. Finding ways to eliminate the labeling of people as ex offenders, convicts, and inmates; centering their humaness, giving grace, and providing direct paths to housing and employment would be great first steps. 

Baffour Osei, Robotics Lab Manager, Princeton University

In your own work, how can you support the strength, the visibility, the power, and the influence of ideas, individuals, and institutions from outside the dominant frames that shape and distort our world—be they whiteness, US exceptionalism etc. 

We can intentionally create spaces and validate them with the authority structures that currently exist in our organizations. E.g. We’ve created a spontaneous book club in our lab focused on our library of books of autobiographies, analyses, etc. around individuals and groups of people from various socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, nations, and other dimensions of diversity. Conversations centered around these topics don’t usually happen in engineering settings and so this library along with the spontaneous book club events are meant to change that by creating spaces where these conversations that touch all of us can happen. We’ve had books donated to our library by other guests and faculty as well and continue to seek ways to grow attendance and encourage our lab residents to come and keep returning. I think a big portion of this is my attendance as the manager of the space and also getting faculty to attend as well as encourage their lab groups to attend. People will leave our robotics program to become leaders in academia and in industry and so it’s imperative that they have proper social frameworks with which to engage their future mentees, coworkers, and customers in person and with their products and services.

In your work, how can you support and elevate the ideas, individuals, and institutions that are often overlooked or marginalized by mainstream perspectives? (Who can you lift up and how?)

We can and have been doing this with the spontaneous book club. Among the books in our library are Crippled, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freedom is a Constant Struggle, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, Viral Justice, The New Jim Crow, and so many more titles. The Spontaneous Book Club structure allows our patrons to pick any book, read for 40 minutes, and then share what we read with the group and discuss. This allows us to learn about different authors’ perspectives on different topics and view tying lines between our various books since we’re all reading something different. Topics that we would’ve never discussed all of a sudden arise in these conversations and many of our patrons have shared taking action and changing behaviors as they learn new information. Our patrons also share how their personal experiences are reflected in these writings or may even contradict some of them. The point is this setting opens up all of these conversations and elevates these ideas, individuals, and institutions for discussion and adjusted behavior moving forward with a new respect and honoring for elements that have been invisible to us in the past.

Kanene Holder, Manager, Create Labs Ventures

As a former educator turned diversity trainer and ethical AI advisor, I’m often called in to manage a crisis. Too often it’s too late. My answers don’t focus on fixing the issue, but rather on preventing the issue and building the capacity to navigate disequilibrium. 

Linkedin is filled with infographics and cheat sheets to maximize productivity and leverage IQ to boost KPIs but rarely are there tools to unleash EQ- emotional intelligence. This overemphasis on people being an ends to a means and a series of data points and accountability measures can trigger mental health issues due to their rigid adherence and reward for those who “succeed” at all costs. The costs include frayed relationships with family, friends, their self concept and their health.

The culture of work is starting to evolve beyond the ruinous compartmentalization that forces people to choose between their personal and professional goals, but not fast enough. GenZ is leading the charge but too often a culture undergird by a Puritanical work ethic is weaponized to shame them into submission rather than make accommodations that would benefit the mental health of all workers. 

Additionally post Covid, I observe what I call “the trauma class”. People who regardless of social economic status are experiencing trauma and triggering the trauma of others. Trauma is no longer relegated to a tragic few or a large majority of those experiencing poverty. The trauma class is diverse. From those who experience school shootings to the opioid crisis and dealing with mourning due to Covid or not being able to afford healthcare, increasingly trauma looks like you and me. Even. when you are minding your own business, isolation from trauma is becoming more difficult. Due to rising rates of homelessness you might experience vicarious trauma as you witness the mental breakdown of someone on a train or in the street. 

The solution is a paradigm shift that centers soft skills and is trauma informed to ensure people feel valued regardless of their ability to “perform”. Having a workplace that is conditional on performance is one fueled by fear which too often metastasizes into stress, resentment, overwhelm, burn out or worse. A workplace that values the whole human being can inspire more innovation, creativity and resilience because fear is replaced with trust. Leaders that master emotional intelligence can model how to balance personal and professional goals and co-create healthy ways for coworkers to deal with stress, grieving, health and other issues. Mental health can be a culture of wellness if designed with human potential and connectedness in mind.

Susan Mason, Founder, Susan Mason Consulting

In your own work, how can you support the strength, the visibility, the power, and the influence of ideas, individuals, and institutions from outside the dominant frames that shape and distort our world—be they whiteness, US exceptionalism etc.

I focus on amplifying diverse voices and perspectives. This includes:

  • Prioritizing Underrepresented Narratives: Centering the experiences and insights of people impacted by the system first, instead of as an afterthought. 
  • Encouraging Proximity: The lived experiences of others helps the dominant culture understand exactly how systems impact individuals and communities. This promotes a deeper understanding of systemic issues. 
  • Strive to Operationalize: By consistently integrating best practices, organizations can move from constantly being in the education phase to truly achieving equity and inclusion. Inclusion is the only way to move past the dominant frames mentioned above; while learning is essential, incorporating these principles is the key.

In your work, how can you support and elevate the ideas, individuals, and institutions that are often overlooked or marginalized by mainstream perspectives? (Who can you lift up and how?) 

  • Promoting Inclusive Practices: Keep sounding the alarm that organizations must prioritize operationalizing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  • Collaborative Projects: Partner with organizations that want to elevate their inclusion and create joint initiatives.
  • Advocacy and Awareness: Use my platform to raise awareness about the systemic issues faced by people with conviction histories and continue to push for inclusion.

Errika Moore, Executive Director, STEM Funders Network

On many occasions, philanthropy is automatically invited to the table when unfortunately fellow community partners are not.  Thus, philanthropy must leverage its circle of influence to effect change, ensure more inclusive dialogues, and create equitable space at traditionally exclusive tables. In my role as a leader in and representative of a philanthropic organization, I encourage our partners to give grantees access to their circles of influence to enhance their strategic partnerships, openly market their grantees to provide visibility, and overtly stand with their grantees to empower them during challenging times.  We are currently operating within a troubling and divisive landscape within education.  Thus, this is an opportunity for philanthropy to serve as champions for justice reflecting persistence amid resistance.  In this heightened capacity and positioning, we can support the strength, the visibility, the power, and the influence of ideas, individuals, and institutions from outside the dominant frames that shape and distort our world. The decisions we do or don’t make now will have multigenerational effects.

In my role with the STEM Funders Network, I have the opportunity to illuminate the ideas and initiatives of marginalized organizations or organizations that represent and support marginalized communities.  The STEM Funders Network is a community leader and partner. As such, it has an obligation to community service and uplift. As I engage in events like the Science Summit hosted by the Simons Foundation, the NSF ADVANCE Equity in STEM Community Convening, or the CONECD conference I meet organizations and STEM leaders from around the country that are making a difference and making an impact.  Through our social media platforms, via our Power of Positive InfluenceTM webinar series, or through partnerships with national media leaders such as STEM Magazine we have an opportunity to leverage our social capital and give voice and agency to overlooked, under-resourced, and marginalized organizations or communities. Not because they “need” us to…but because their great work deserves elevation and illumination.  So often our systems give credence to mainstream or “big box” entities and devalue leaders in marginalized communities.  Philanthropy has an opportunity to be a catalyst for innovation, a change agent, and a positive disruptor of systemic challenges. 

Resources shared:

The Takeaway | In the Green Seat: Lessons from Sustainability Executives on Designing for Impact

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

With market forces and the regulatory environment converging to drive up demand for sustainability expertise in the private sector, the next few years will be pivotal for leaders hoping to develop and fine-tune their sustainability strategies.

On May 31st, NationSwell hosted a virtual Mainstage event called In the Green Seat: Lessons from Sustainability Executives on Designing for Impact that sought to unpack some of the wisdom, challenges, and unlocks shaping this dynamic moment.

Our featured panelists included Michael Kobori, Chief Sustainability Officer of Starbucks; Suzanne DiBianca, Executive Vice President & Chief Impact Officer of Salesforce; Erin Meezan, Chief Sustainability Officer of JLL; Letitia Ferrier Webster, Managing Director and Chief Sustainability Officer of Goldman Sachs Asset Management; and the event was moderated by Jason Rissman, Chief Experience Officer of NationSwell.

Here are some of the key learnings from the event:

– Embrace the unprecedented attention on sustainability to embed the work throughout the business. Sustainability practices are actively shifting from voluntary to mandatory, bringing it top of mind for business leaders. To succeed in mitigating risk, meeting disclosure requirements, and adding value to the business and its stakeholders, sustainability should be integrated into core business strategy. Ultimately, there is no sustainability without a sustainable business model. 

– Interrogate goals and ambitions to include cross-functional priorities, especially if inheriting an existing sustainability strategy. It is difficult to add sustainability to business goals after the fact, much like it’s difficult to add an impact lens to sustainability work once programs are already in motion. Don’t shy away from thought-provoking questions; asking a question as fundamental as “what would our ideal impact be?” can help you identify if your organization is focusing on the best questions and goals for its unique strengths. 

– Prioritize credible and actionable data. Collecting credible, auditable data helps with meeting reporting requirements and enables better strategic decisions, ESG performance projections, and roadmap development. At JLL, Chief Sustainability Officer Erin Meezan started an ESG Center of Excellence to bring together the business functions that generate and own ESG data, including finance, legal, and her own sustainability team. The Center’s activities have included  internal and external audits to assess data quality and data mapping. The Center aims to understand how many people are involved in data generation and identify opportunities for better efficiencies and digitization. 

– Weave sustainability and finance together to unlock new allies and innovation. By aligning financial resources with sustainability principles, companies can unlock new avenues for investment and innovation. All panelists agreed on the importance of bringing financial experts into the fold, as their skillsets are highly transferable to sustainability needs. Beyond personnel, adding a sustainability lens to traditional finance mechanisms can help unlock innovation and generate continued demand for sustainability from investors, as noted by Goldman Sachs CSO Letitia Webster. Large companies are already innovating based on these ideas; for example, Salesforce used a green bond to finance its acquisition of Slack, which allowed it to subsequently invest in additional products like Net Zero cloud.

– Understand your company’s unique role to play across various spheres of influence. It is impossible for any company to be involved in every aspect of sustainability work, so staying focused and playing to your company’s strengths is crucial. There are areas to make significant progress against your climate goals, such as focusing on building infrastructure or circularity in product materials. For example, at Starbucks, new employees all receive a reusable coffee cup that they can also use for their on-shift drinks. It’s an internal-foused change but one with significant impact: Starbucks CSO Michael Kobori estimates that 300 million cups will be saved through this initiative. Meanwhile, at Salesforce, EVP and Chief Impact Officer Suzanne DiBianca categorizes Salesforce’s opportunities under four main spheres of influence: employees, peer networks, policy, and customers. Salesforce’s activities in each of these areas are defined by the company’s inherent strengths – for example, the size of the employee base, or the use of technology to enhance customers’ understanding of their own sustainability impact. 

– Maintain aspiration and passion as drivers of innovation and impact. Historically, sustainability work has been driven by passionate employees and ambitious targets. New regulations and stakeholder interest bring new scrutiny to the work, and ambitious goals will need to be backed up by data and evaluated in the context of the potential scrutiny they will attract. Scrutiny might make ambitious goals more daunting, but at the end of the day, stakeholders expect the work to proceed and increase in impact. Sustainability leaders have an opportunity to shift certain aspects of the work to more natural homes within the organization with the right stakeholder engagement, incentive alignment, and collaboration across functions, leaving the sustainability team with additional capacity for creativity and innovation. 

– Ally with peers to strengthen impact. By fostering strategic alliances with industry peers, non-governmental organizations, and local communities, companies can strengthen accountability, share best practices, and amplify impact. At Goldman Sachs, CSO Letitia Webster is convening fellow leaders to share challenges and opportunities to mobilize partnerships. When partnerships come to fruition, they can shift entire industries – for example, CSO Suzanne DiBianca shared the significance of Salesforce’s participation in advanced market commitments alongside peers like Meta and Google.

View the full conversation:

The NationSwell Council on the role leadership can play in promoting mental health in the workplace

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

In the first quarter of the year, the NationSwell Council embarked on a journey across America as part of a Salon series dedicated to exploring Leadership and Mental Health. 

The series brought us face-to-face with transformative leaders from diverse sectors, sparking discussions that were as rich as they were enlightening. Our dialogue delved into three critical areas: the unique mental health challenges faced by those in leadership; the significant role leaders play in nurturing the well-being of their teams; and the cutting-edge strategies that have successfully cultivated workplace environments of health and positivity. 

The leaders we met shared their experiences with remarkable openness, courage, and sincerity, leaving us inspired. In the following sections, we’re excited to present a curated collection of profound quotes, essential resources, and the most compelling insights we’ve distilled from these conversations.

Key Insights:

  1. The Conversation is the Solution: Opening up about mental health isn’t just therapeutic for leaders; it also breaks down feelings of isolation by sharing the common struggles many face. It highlights the importance of creating spaces where leaders can gather to speak openly and honestly. These discussions are crucial — they not only offer varied strategies for navigating challenges but also build a shared understanding of well-being and resilience.
  2. We care deeply about each other: Across the board, a resounding theme emerged: there’s a profound mutual concern for mental health among staff and leaders alike. This mutual care extends beyond professional boundaries, touching the lives of families and peers, nurturing a culture of empathy, understanding, and collective well-being. The depth of this care underscores the human aspect of organizational life, revealing a widespread ethos of compassion and concern that transcends conventional leader-staff dynamics.
  3. Universal Nature of Leadership Challenges: Even though leadership challenges might seem specific to each person’s situation or industry, we’ve seen a remarkable similarity in the issues leaders face nationwide. Recognizing these commonalities underscores the value of cross-sector dialogue. It encourages a collaborative approach to addressing these challenges, highlighting how much we can learn from connecting with peers across different fields.
  4. Less cynical, and more optimistic: We found an undercurrent of optimism among leaders and their teams across America, grounded in their real-life experiences and challenges. This wasn’t blind optimism but a resilience and belief in the potential for positive change. Leaders are not only addressing current well-being but are also committed to fostering healthier, supportive environments long-term. This collective optimism, driven by practical actions and open dialogue, underscores a more hopeful and robust societal fabric than commonly portrayed, highlighting the dedication of individuals working towards meaningful change.

What leaders who attended are saying:

Elyssa Dole

I had not realized how heads down I had become before attending the mental health and leadership salon. Jason Craige Harris shared a fact and framework that really resonated with me. First he mentioned that most EDs are hired for their project management skills — getting things done — rather than their leadership skills. He also talked about a framework for company culture where you see your team on a spectrum from empathy to accountability, noting that too much of either side is not ideal. Our culture on The Conversationalist team has always been rooted in intersectional feminist values, but as I set strategy for 2024, I realized I had become more focused on outcomes and needed to remind myself about the purpose of our company to ensure that writers and artists — as well as our team — are people before workers, and human beings before agents of productivity. 

Dr. Isaiah Pickens

Mental health in the workplace is inextricably linked with how we define success. The more rigid definition of success we have, the more pressure we put on ourselves to achieve in a particular way —sometimes in ways that are unrealistic. When we begin to expand our definition of success, more options are available for us to achieve. This alone begins to reduce the pressure and rejuvenate our mental health by making it easier for us to close the gap between who we are and who we want to be.

Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay

In December 2023, my beloved father died the night before I was scheduled to undergo surgery for a total hip replacement. The eight weeks of disability leave, which was meant to focus on physical recovery, turned into a hellish journey of building up my physical strength and endurance while picking up the pieces of my broken heart. Now that I’m back to work, I am aware that I am mentally fragile. To get a handle on that fragility, I am committing to grant myself space and compassion. I’ve always extended those things to those in grief around me, but I never gave them to myself when other family members died. In 2024, I’m committed to my mental health. I will grant myself permission to slow down; not immediately respond to demands of my time and attention when possible; and ask for alone time. These acts will let me get myself together in the moments grief blindsides me. Once I get myself together, I will continue to lead.

Anonymous

As a leader, I am committed to incorporating movement through my daily routines, as I have recently dived into the long-term health effects of sedentary jobs through the introduction of the seat and laptop into society. I welcome walking calls with colleagues when possible and am employing phone-free walks 2-3 times a week to alleviate mental stress and mitigate information overload. This health-inspired shift helps to hone in on our own personhood and relationships, creating a thriving wellbeing community around us and the people we work with.

Ali Borowsky

This year I’m going to focus on the power of the little things to enhance the wellbeing of those I lead and serve. I’ve been starting to think of those small acts of kindness almost like a love language and trying to show up in those little ways more consistently. I also need to practice what I preach and start putting my own emphasis on those seemingly small moments of self-care — knowing the monumental effects they can truly have.

Angelica Marcela Frias

This year, I’m focusing on boosting my team’s and my well-being, inspired by the Salon’s insights. Current plans include outdoor activities,  including meetings and volunteer days, to promote health and community engagement. Additionally, I’ll block out time for quiet reflection, emphasizing mental wellness. These steps aim to cultivate a supportive, vibrant work environment that values well being alongside productivity.

Tina Atherall

Recognizing that wellbeing is a deeply personal and diverse concept, I am dedicated to reinvigorating my practice of an individualized approach towards enhancing the welfare of those I lead and serve. Significant impacts stem from the smallest acts of kindness and attention. Meaningful conversations, showing genuine interest and curiosity about their lives, and acknowledging their unique needs and aspirations is what counts. It’s about making a difference one person at a time — valuing quality interactions over quantity and understanding that sometimes, the most minor gesture can light up someone’s day.

On a personal front, I am committed to fostering my own wellbeing by allowing myself to be on the receiving end of support and care. It’s easy to fall into believing that leadership revolves around giving, but true growth and balance also involve embracing the benefit and strength found in receiving. This year, I aim to cultivate a culture of mutual support.

Vanessa Bishop

For many reasons mental health struggles are becoming an increasing threat to the wellbeing of both our staff and the students we serve, so this conversation was extremely important and also was only able to scratch the surface of what we can do as leaders — not only for those we support, but for ourselves. One of my biggest takeaways from the discussion was the power of discussing these challenges with anyone who will listen in order to connect and share resources. Another was the connection of burnout to mental health and the amazing suggestion to regularly review and reflect on what both you and your staff are doing, asking questions such as, “What am I/we doing that if we stopped doing it, no one will notice?” 

Susan Mason

As the campaign manager for a congressional campaign, I’ve been organizing meet and greets with constituents. One lesson learned from the salon I attended is the importance of selecting ADA-compliant and accessible venues. I’m prioritizing intentionality beforehand rather than realizing the need for changes afterward. Thank you for the invitation — I consistently gain valuable insights from NationSwell events that I can apply in both my personal and professional life.

Pamela Nathenson

 My biggest takeaway from the event, besides wishing to have such an event weekly, is the responsibility of leaders to build the team’s ability to understand each other. When we start the leadership journey, especially for a cause, we may be familiar with the subject matter, but we don’t realize at the outset (or necessarily have every tool ready for) the responsibility we hold for our team’s journeys. We need to be thinking about our teams often, and specifically about where they are on their journeys. 

Michael Pope

The event was a powerful reminder of the essential need for empathetic leadership. It reinforced my belief that creating an office environment where every staff member feels seen, acknowledged, and valued is, quite literally, the role of leadership. The discussions highlighted the importance of tangible support systems that allow individuals to embrace and share their unique perspectives and experiences. As leaders, we must challenge ourselves and our teams to foster inclusivity and to see staff as whole people. The takeaway for me was clear: leadership is about empowering others to bring their whole selves to our shared mission, thereby enriching and expanding our collective impact.

Resources shared:

The Takeaway | AI x Climate: Our Make or Break Moment

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

On Tuesday, November 28th, NationSwell convened a panel of thought leaders, experts, and innovators at the intersection of AI and Climate to explore the transformative potential of AI in addressing climate-related issues.

Here are the takeaways from the event:

Where there lies opportunity for deploying technology to efficiently manage the impacts of the climate crisis, there also lies remarkable environmental risks. AI-driven technology solutions can generate positive climate progress. For instance, Amini AI brings data to smallholder farmers in Africa to drive their economic inclusion and supply chain resilience. And Pano AI uses AI-powered detection technology to mitigate and manage wildfires. While these types of solutions are needed, deploying AI may also increase environmental challenges. Consider this: if the global population switches from web-based Google searches to AI, increased electricity use would equate to the entire energy usage of the country of Ireland.

The tradeoff between AI-powered efficiency and climate impacts can be partially addressed with better alignment to our natural biorhythm. While AI is often celebrated as a tool for moving faster, speed is not necessarily equivalent to productivity in the context of climate action. Solutions like carbon-aware computing allow software companies to calibrate their operations in ways that work harmoniously with natural sources of energy (for example, increasing solar energy usage when it’s sunny, and decreasing usage when it’s not sunny). This type of technological fix can be applied to AI, and help companies advance toward their 2050 climate goals effectively and quickly.

Companies at the forefront of developing and advancing AI climate tech should exercise their collective power to standardize an ethical code of conduct. A select few private sector companies are driving AI modeling for climate, positioning them as authorities in the space. Unlike other fields – such as engineering, law, and medicine – AI is not bound to a code of ethics. Companies leading the advancement of AI, particularly those making algorithmic decisions, have a responsibility to standardize safe and best practices. Specific AI climate concerns include implications for carbon emissions and effects on low-income communities.

There is a demand for talent that bridges AI and climate expertise, and job seekers can leverage new platforms for upskilling. Since ChatGPT went public, the market for AI startups has expanded; in the past year, over 100 AI and climate startups have been founded. There is high demand for talent at this intersection, but emerging positions require a unique set of green knowledge and skills. Platforms like Climatebase, Terra.do and Learn.greensoftware.foundation can help job seekers upskill and attain available jobs, meeting demand in the labor market.

There is a literacy gap between the general public and AI creators that puts consumers at risk of making poor and uninformed consumption decisions. One of the greatest challenges arising out of increasing public availability to AI and climate technology is a literacy gap. Consumers are unaware of what is needed to make informed and responsible decisions, and the risks posed by poor decision-making are unknown.

A consortium of collaborators is needed to accelerate companies’ climate progress. Companies are aware of the macroeconomic and moral case for investing in climate. Their incentives are molded largely by the Inflation Reduction Act, but their progress is halted by slow deployment of capital. To move forward with their ambitions, organizations can harness public-private partnerships to access shared values, support, strategies, and funding.

View the full panel discussion:

Thank you to our co-moderators Aimee Rawlins (Senior Editor, Fast Company) and Sid Espinosa (Head of Social Impact, GitHub) and our panelists Asim Hussain (Chairperson & Executive Director, Green Software Foundation), Claudine Emeott (Partner, Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund), Scott Gigante (Founding Engineer, Sightline Climate (CTVC)), and Jen Majernik Huffstetler (Chief Product Sustainability Officer and Vice President/General Manager, Intel Corporation Future Platform Strategy) for the thoughtful and insightful discussion.

This event was presented by NationSwell. To learn more, visit us at nationswell.com

Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert: “Our biggest impact has been modeling a different way of doing business”

Posted on by NationSwell Team

In the fall of 2022, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard announced a bold new experiment in for-profit business: the voting stock of his company would immediately transfer to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, with the remaining non-voting stock diverted to the Holdfast Collective, a 501c4 nonprofit, to ensure that all money not reinvested back into the company is dedicated to addressing the climate and ecological crisis. “Earth,” he proclaimed in a now-viral open letter, “is now our only shareholder.”

On September 18, 2023, as leaders from across sectors descended upon New York City for Climate Week, Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert joined NationSwell for an in-person fireside chat to unpack how the company is maintaining its commitment to being a purpose-driven business. Moderated by best-selling writer, podcaster, and NationSwell Council member Baratunde Thurston, the conversation explored how for-profit companies can pave the way forward on catalyzing bold climate action and what leaders can do to ensure that their personal and corporate values are in sync. 

Here are several highlights from the discussion:

Climate work is a lifelong commitment, and protecting the planet is our shared responsibility.

According to Gellert, too many CEOs would respond to climate conversations five years ago with the common refrain: “That’s not my problem.” Today, he says the tone of those conversations has shifted encouragingly, and those same leaders are now more likely to acknowledge their place in finding shared solutions — even when they aren’t sure of the best way forward. 

The future of climate will necessarily depend on more people — those in positions of power in particular — acknowledging their role in moving the ball down the field and making sure that climate work is “a 52-week thing,” and not just something to focus on one week out of the year.

Business sector leaders have an obligation to be the catalysts of change — but they can’t do it alone.

Since Patagonia shifted its ownership structure, Gellert shared that there have been many conversations with other companies interested in investing in purpose in a similar way — and that it feels like the guardrails have meaningfully shifted in terms of what’s possible in rethinking a business’s relationship to its employees, its community, and the planet.

“I believe the biggest impact Patagnoia has had has been modeling a different way of business,” he said.

And while catalyzing businesses to drive change will be of critical importance to the larger climate movement, the business sector won’t succeed on its own.

“I’d like to create a world where everybody understands it absolutely is our shared problem… and we’re all leaning in the same direction, from the business sector, with the government, with NGOs, with citizens, to clean up the mess we’ve created,” Gellert said.

For purpose-driven businesses to succeed, purpose and profits cannot be treated as distinct aims.

The days of businesses setting up a corporate social responsibility department and making impact work solely that group’s jurisdiction are over. In order for businesses to fully realize their role in creating a more sustainable, equitable future, Gellert said, they must necessarily make it their responsibility to create a culture where every person in every area feels incentivized to show up and do the work.

“I don’t think you can separate purpose and profits, period,” he said. “Under pressure, every single business gravitates toward profits. So the two have to be entirely connected, or you have to call it what it is.”

Acknowledging that it had created an “incomplete culture” was instrumental in helping Patagonia to hone its approach to social issues.

In the weeks after George Floyd’s murder, Patagonia, like many other companies, took a hard look at its internal culture and where it fell short of its values. What Gellert and other leaders leaned into during that moment was a commitment to “transformational change even where there’s no end in sight” — and on improving systems and processes in ways that relied more on common sense than external optics and politics.  

“Listen, show up, and do the work,” Gellert said. “And I think slowly and steadily, that’s given us the momentum to do the work internally and externally.”

Consumerism and “business-as-usual” have created many of the problems we currently face, and need to be interrogated. 

According to Gellert, we’ve outgrown the Milton Friedman-backed idea of shareholder primacy — it’s precisely business as usual that has created the environmental crisis we currently find ourselves mired in. 

Universities and business schools have a vital role to play in helping to build thinking, morals, practices, and systems that address how consumerism contributes to natural resource depletion, pollution, and other deleterious climate impacts. Businesses, meanwhile, must interrogate how circular business models can help shrink their environmental impact and deliver value to a new set of stakeholders — including customers, employees, and the planet.

Sometimes the best way into climate awareness isn’t doom forecasting or even direct action — it’s connection.

In response to an audience question about the best way to help children connect with the complicated and dire implications of the climate crisis, moderator Baratunde Thurston said that sometimes, the best way into climate awareness, “…isn’t always direct work and action, (but) climate connection — to highlight our relationship to nature in a beautiful, local way.” 

“Kids are naturally curious, they play with bugs, they splash in the water… we don’t need forecasts of doom and gloom, we can achieve the same purpose through a celebration or an exploration of that connection,” he said. “When we become more interconnected, saving the planet becomes the most selfish thing we can do — it becomes about saving ourselves. And if we can plant that seed early with kids without being heavy-handed with it, then that could do something amazing.”

The Takeaway | Ethical Tech and the Future of Social Impact

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

Whether it’s a future of work powered by software that supports workers and businesses alike, technology infrastructure to manage sustainable supply chains, improving digital access and safeguards for our democratic process, or removing bias in data and AI platforms that impact marginalized communities, the actions we take in the present to invest in equitable digital platforms will determine whether our collective grasp will ever extend outwards to our collective reach.

During a NationSwell virtual roundtable on May 25th, a group of cross-sector leaders gathered to discuss the role of emergent technologies like generative AI have to play in advancing that impact and what leaders can do to implement ethical digital and technical solutions in order to scale solutions and provide equitable access.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Organizations must stay disciplined when it comes to asking larger questions about who they’re using AI to serve and what they hope to accomplish. In order to bridge gaps between intent, strategy, and the actual digital products and services that end up being built, companies must establish clear mandates and decision matrices about how to best serve the populations they’re working for. One of the first steps to guaranteeing alignment should be to make sure that clear lines of transparency and clear moral imperatives are present throughout the entire organization. 

The adoption of an “ethical ombudsman” can help to ensure a shared ethical responsibility. Rather than adopting “shiny new tech” just for the sake of doing so and then allowing the ethical buck to get passed on to the tools themselves, companies and individuals should take a more active role in assuming the ethical burden by creating a new position designed specifically to oversee projects at the organizational level and evaluate the potential risks and harm that new technologies can pose to individuals and communities.

Train new systems with humanitarian concerns, not just technological ones. The tech we use broadly everyday (internet, social media, etc.) was created by a relatively small group of people, technologists who are good at making things, but not necessarily experts at holistically considering the ecosystems and people that will use that tech in everyday life. To solve for this gap, we’ll need to build better and more intentional methods to ensure that public interest is baked into design — potentially by hiring folks with humanitarian backgrounds to serve as model trainers and by ensuring more cross-sectionality in design phases.

Drawing distinctions between the types of potential harm that new technologies can cause will be critical to mitigating the damage. We need to think about potential technological harm as falling into two distinct categories: acute harms and institutional harms. The former includes harms done to the individual, while the latter includes harms to communities and populations. These different types of harm will require unique interventions, and getting clear on which is which will be the first step to any mitigation strategy. 

Pathways to widespread adoption of potentially transformative new technologies must be established in order for underserved populations to thrive. In addition to ensuring pathways to adoption, it’s also imperative to bring in the people who stand to be most affected by the digital divide during the design process and incorporate their feedback into the build. Bringing boots on the ground into the regulation process and having the right people around the table to help in the decision making can also be a way to reduce inherent bias.