MBA Faculty

Program Director - Ralph Meima

Until he joined the Marlboro College Graduate School as director of the MBA program in December 2006, Ralph Meima held the title of Assistant Professor of Organizational Management in the graduate program of the School for International Training (SIT) in Brattleboro, where he taught various management courses, advised M.S. and M.A. students, and was engaged in a variety of professional and institutional service efforts. His doctorate focused on the organization of corporate environmental management in industry. Meima spent 14 years based in Sweden, where he moved as a strategy and marketing analyst for LM Ericsson AB in 1989. There, in addition to completing his doctorate and teaching at the International Environmental Institute (IIIEE) at Lund University, he managed international research projects for the European Commission, the Bank of Sweden, and several industry clients, and also operated a small communications consulting firm with clients in the EU and North America. He has written books and articles on environmental management and policy. Other research interests include simulation design, outdoor experiential education, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable industrial development. Meima is a member of the steering committee of the Greening of Industry Network, and is an active member of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and several community-based groups. A U.S. native, he speaks four languages and has lived in six countries on three continents. Meima began his career as an engineer in the IT industry. He is married with three children, and lives in Brattleboro.

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Bill Baue

Bill Baue has worked to advance sustainability for over a decade, most recently as Executive Director of Sea Change Media, and Executive Producer/Host of Sea Change Radio, a nationally syndicated show and podcast with a global audience.  He served as Senior Researcher on a joint fellowship for the Harvard-Kennedy School Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative examining The Accountability Web, or the intersection of Web 2.0 and corporate accountability, with fellow Senior Researcher Marcy Murninghan and Senior Advisor Bob Massie.

Bill is Co-Producer/Host of the Arc of Change podcast series telling the near 40-year history of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.  He produced and moderated the Future Scenarios: Energy & Economy panel for Audubon, sponsored by Shell.  And he's written and edited articles, reports, book chapters, and other content for organizations across the sustainability ecosystem: United Nations, Worldwatch Institute, Ceres, Investor Environmental Health Network, The Economist, Audubon Magazine, SocialFunds, CSRwire, 3BL Media, and Wal-Mart's Sustainability Report.

Bill lives in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts with his wife Jiyanna and daughters Clara, Emma, and Aoife.

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Barbara Charkey

In 2007 Charkey began her twentieth year as a Professor of Management at Keene State College, Keene, N.H. Her primarily academic focus is in Accounting and Finance, but she also has extensive professional experience in International Management, Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management. Prior to joining the Management faculty at Keene State, Charkey developed and managed her own small business and was employed as an auditor for a regional public accounting firm. Charkey has been involved in a wide range of innovative curriculum development projects related to financial and managerial accounting topics, international accounting issues and women’s entrepreneurship. Over the years her research and professional development projects have been funded by institutional and private grants and awards and have resulted in conference presentations and published case studies and papers. Most recently she has focused her research and curriculum development efforts on measurement and accountability issues relative to organizational sustainability initiatives. Charkey has taught Accounting and Finance courses as a visiting lecturer in M.B.A. programs both regionally and abroad. She enjoys tennis, hiking and fine dining, especially in conjunction with international travel.

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Peter Crowell

Peter is the founder of Context 360, Inc. Prior to founding the company; Peter held senior positions in various Fortune 500 companies. He was the SVP of Technology for the McGraw-Hill media companies, the CIO of CBS, Inc., the President of Chase Access Services a Chase Manhattan Bank, NA subsidiary, the Technology Architect for Chase Manhattan Bank, NA, and a Partner in CSC Consulting. He started his career as a computer programmer and moved into his first CIO position in 1976. In 1998, after working on Web strategies at McGraw-Hill and CBS, he moved completely into the Web world when he founded and ran an Internet Systems Integration firm, Spider Partners, LLC. During that time he also acted as the President of an Internet community building company, UniverseONE, Inc.

An aggressive adopter of new technology to drive business results; Peter’s work is currently focused on Leading Corporate Performance Transformations by consultatively applying his broad experience. He typically does this utilizing the roles of strategist, mentor, coach, teacher, advisor, program designer and implementer. He has held Chairman and President positions for the New York Chapter of the International Society for Information Management. He has taught courses in Information Technology Management, Business Strategy, Information Technology Strategy, eCommerce, Corporate Finance, and Process Reengineering in the MBA programs at Fordham University in New York City, Stevens Institute in New Jersey, and Metropolitan College in New York City.

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Cheryl L. Conner

cheryl conner

Cheryl Conner is a change agent, lawyer, economist, composer and integrative thinker.  As a young girl and daughter of a corporate CEO, she was drawn to address issues of poverty and controlling corporate America. In college and grad school, she offered relentless critiques, of economic thinking, which she had hoped would address, rather than assume away, these concerns. As an economist/researcher, she saw that most economists worked to support rather than change the system, so she pursued law to find a more “practical” way to promote economic justice. At law school, and then later as an attorney in both the private and public sectors, and at the state and federal levels, through litigation, legislation and policy making, she brought her humanistic and integrative thinking to bear. Only after study and practice under a Tibetan yogi for 15 years, she came to realize that these economic and legal tools would only bring the lasting benefits she sought if generated from a deeper consciousness. As a law professor and thought leader, she led others to integrate holistic and spiritual perspectives within legal education and practice. A health issue interrupted this work, and during recuperation, she began composing, painting and re-imagining new systems for the future. Her current consulting work at New Prospects Collaborative benefits individuals, non-profits and social entrepreneurs on legal, organizational and spiritual concerns. Her book-in-progress, The New Cosmeconomy, explores how new legal, economic and business systems will arise from a deeper social consciousness. Sustainability is an important piece of the puzzle.

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Pat Davidson

Pat Davidson is currently a Senior Staff Attorney at the Public Health Advocacy Institute based at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, where she researches and publishes in the areas of climate change, tobacco control and the obesity epidemic. Pat also teaches and co-directs a Public Health Legal Clinic for upper level law students at Northeastern and has taught a variety of courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels at other institutions. Pat focuses on the development and implementation of law as a tool to create, monitor and shape public policy, particularly in response to systemic challenges. Pat is member of the California and Massachusetts bars and has lived and worked in New England, Colorado and Washington, DC.

Her interest in climate change policy evolved from her participation in similar emerging public health policy issues involving a dynamic confluence of corporate and personal responsibility. Pat's teaching and learning approach reflects an underlying commitment to building public policy on sound science and a view of crises as an opportunity for paradigm shifts.

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John Ehrenfeld

John Ehrenfeld

Dr. Ehrenfeld is Executive Director of the International Society for Industrial Ecology. He is the author of Sustainability by Design: A Subversive Strategy for Transforming our Consumer Culture. He retired in 2000 as the Director of the MIT Program on Technology, Business, and Environment, an interdisciplinary educational, research, and policy program. He continues to teach, do research, and write. His current projects focus on industrial ecology and on sustainability. He serves on the adjunct faculty at the Bainbridge Island Graduate Institute where he teaches Radical Sustainability. In October 1999, the World Resources Institute honored him with a lifetime achievement award for his academic accomplishments in the field of business and environment. He received the Founders Award for Distinguished Service from the Academy of Management’s Organization and Natural Environment Division in August 2000. He spent part of the 1998-1999 academic year at the Technical University of Lisbon as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar and was Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Delft during the 2000-1 academic year. He serves on several external advisory boards. In 2005, he was elected to the Council of Trustees of the Society of Organizational Learning. He is an editor of the Journal of Industrial Ecology.

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John Fabel

john fabel

John Fabel's core work focuses on the practice and teaching of technology innovation and commercialization, with a particular interest in clean technology and sustainable development. He was originally trained as a climate scientist, and this perspective drives his work as an entrepreneur and educator. As an entrepreneur, he has started or assisted in the start-up of numerous entrepreneurial ventures in both for- and not-for-profit sectors including Sunethanol, Jattra Ventures, LLC, and InnovationPath, LLC. Among his many successes is the The Ecotrek Company, Amherst, MA. As Founder and President, John developed the concept, product line and marketing for this landmark line of outdoor equipment integrating high-performance, cutting-edge design with recycled and environmentally responsible materials and domestic manufacturing. The Ecotrek "Seed" model backpack is now in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Museum of American History. His current venture, Sylvan Cycles, LLC, makes bicycles and other high-performance products from sustainable wood laminate materials.

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Thomas Grasso

Tom Grasso is currently Senior Advisor with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) where he focuses on reforming the economics and management structures of ocean fisheries. Prior to joining EDF, from 1999-2008, he was Director of Marine Conservation and Acting Managing Director of Fisheries for the World Wildlife Fund. While there he led a team that worked in fisheries around the globe, especially Africa, Europe, and Asia. In 2006, Tom was selected as a Fellow with the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management's "Emerging Leaders for Innovations Across Sectors" Program, where he studied with Professors Peter Senge and Otto Scharmer. From 1995-1999, Tom served as Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Maryland office and from 1993-95 as their staff attorney. He has also held positions with the Union of Concerned Scientists, where he focused on national policy reform efforts on climate and energy, the National Wildlife Federation where he worked on reforming national transportation and energy policy, and the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (now known as EarthJustice), where he served as Project Attorney.

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Lori Hanau

Lori Hanau grew up in New England in a successful entrepreneurial family that taught her a great deal about the central role that love, personal balance, and caring for one another plays in fostering strong leadership and healthy collaborative relationships. From a very young age she experienced a deep personal connection to what she calls the Mystery & the universal spirit. Her relationship to the intangible has played and continues to play a central role in shaping the direction of her life, in developing her capacity to “see” and “listen”, in her ability to stand in and trust the unknown, and in strengthening her commitment to being of service. Lori spent the greater part of her career in the business world, including presidency of a manufacturing company and had great opportunities to observe and engage with many different styles of leadership and a myriad of organizational systems. She developed a clear sense for what causes leaders and the social eco-systems which they create to be vibrant and sustainable or, alternatively, to fall into dysfunction. In time, feeling a calling she couldn’t ignore, Lori left the corporate world and allowed herself to enter a phase of deep inquiry and contemplation during which she attended a wide range of conferences and gatherings focused on different aspects of whole system change (including health, science, philanthropy, spirituality and business), observing and listening for what was emerging in the more conscious and innovative sectors of our society. Today Lori owns Global Round Table Leadership, a business whose mission is to call forth and support the shifts in consciousness, leadership and community needed to guide our creative endeavors and inspire us to support the emergence of a sustainable and collaborative world. Lori’s own entrepreneurial work is as a spiritual ally, guiding and supporting leaders, change agents and pioneers on their paths toward the mastery and artistry that comes through increased consciousness and in living in greater connection with self, community and Spirit. She works similarly with groups and networks as a spiritual space holder, communication bridge, and conversation facilitator, supporting the emergence of healthy collaborations and systems.

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Will Keyser

Will Keyser is a veteran entrepreneur and business startup counselor, as well as a writer and blogger on entrepreneurship. After a career in public relations and advertising he became a management consultant with a major French-based consulting firm, working in the socio-economic field--particularly in public enterprise and employment policy. He later established his own firm and ran it for 11 years before selling it to its 30 staff members for a nominal sum. The company specialized in employment and HR strategy, as well as management development and training. He worked with clients in banking, finance, oil and power generation and distribution, electronics, engineering and food manufacturing.

His recent US startup clients have included a green fashion retailing chain in the Southeast, an online fitness business, a Texas-based group of green cemeteries, a low-tech communication company for the speech impaired and a number of one-person enterprises. His website is a wealth of free material on sustainable startup strategies. With a partner, he is involved (as President) with a startup in the field of health and wellness.

Will has also been a UK government adviser in economic development, on the board of a regional venture capital company, a management association president, and a council member of an employers' federation.  He is currently on the board of the Brattleboro Food Coop (a $16m, 2-store grocery business) and is a panel member at the Brattleboro Community Justice Center. He is the author of several books on public enterprise in Europe. Will brings an international perspective having lived and worked in the UK, US and France. He attended the University of Westminster and the London College of Communication in UK, as well as the Universities of Besançon and Lille in France. As a teenager he went to Outward Bound Mountain School and as a 69 year-old went on Outward Bound again, sailing off the coast of Maine. He served as an officer in the British Army Intelligence Corps during military service.

 

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Cecilia McMillen

M. Cecilia McMillen has been working as an organizational consultant in the United States and Latin America for over twenty years. She combines her independent practice with management education, and has taught MBA courses and executive seminars, in business schools in the United States and Latin America. She is fluent in English and Spanish, and uses both languages in teaching and consulting. An important ingredient in her work is cultural awareness: understanding and making explicit the culturally-based assumptions that underlie organizational issues in different societies.

Cecilia's organizational consulting practice specializes in organizational development and change management. She has worked with international organizations in the private sector as well as in the non-profit and public sector. Lately, her clients have also included family owned and operated enterprises in Latin America. Typical assignments have included organizational change programs to align organizational design and practices with organizational strategy; organizational assessment and diagnosis through survey research and feedback; design and delivery of leadership and management assessment and development programs, as well as development of governance structures for family firms. As a trained experiential learning facilitator,  the programs she designs and delivers use highly participative metholodologies, including simulations, questionnaires and exercises,  as well as case study analysis and discussion.

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Meg Mottmeg mott

Meg Mott is a Professor of Politics at Marlboro College where she teaches classes on political theory. Since 2008, Meg has been writing a column for the Brattleboro Reformer that brings old and new philosophers into current political conversations. Meg's research interests include the tensions between social justice movements and environmental limitations and the role of poetry in articulating particularly thorny problems. Her publications include: Catholic Roots and Democratic Flowers: Political Systems in Spain and Portugal (with Howard Wiarda) and "Who Cares?" in the Fall 2009 issue of Environmental Philosophy.

 

 

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Jeff Rosenjeff rosen

Jeff Rosen serves as the Director of Finance for the Solidago Foundation and its affiliated Foundations, where he oversees all of the financial systems for these progressive foundations, as well as managing the MRI and PRI portfolios. His past experience includes pioneering the development of project or policy scale evaluation methodologies for sustainability, working in the private sector as a serial entrepreneur, developing and selling several food sector businesses, and serving as a chief financial officer for several restaurant chains and food manufacturers.

In the not for profit sector he has worked for numerous sustainability focused organizations including the New Alchemy Institute, The Cape Cod Center for Sustainability, Sustainable Maine and most recently worked as a founding member to launch PVGROWS, a local food movement hub located in Western Massachusetts. He is also an adjunct faculty member in the Green MBA program at Antioch University New England.  Jeff lives in Northampton MA, with his wife and three children.

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Jeffery Saari

Jeffrey Saari has been a life coach at Inner Connections since October 2006.  He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Holistic Studies from Vermont College in January of 2005 where his main focus was modern spiritual philosophy and meditation.  After school he took a year off to pursue music performance.  Then, while searching for a way to bring his interests of psychology and spirituality together Jeff found life coaching, and at the end of 2005 he enrolled at the Coach Training Alliance, a life coaching school where he obtained his degree in June of 2006.  Jeff then started his own company, called Visionary Coaching, which led him to dialogues with Chris Cotton.  Chris’s work with young adults and families inspired Jeff so much that he agreed to become part of the Inner Connections mission and family.  Jeff’s training in and love of meditation continually supports his development of one of the most crucial aspects of coaching:  deep listening.  He enjoys drumming, reading, and sports of all kinds.  He lives in Keene, NH with his wife Melissa and daughter Sophie.

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David S. Timmons

Dave holds a B.A. in international studies from the School for International Training, an M.S. in community development and applied economics and graduate certificate in ecological economics from the University of Vermont, and is currently a Ph.D. student in resource economics at the University of Massachusetts. Dave’s background is in renewable energy systems, and during the summer of 2007 led an SIT program to Iceland, looking at renewable energy sources and utilization decisions in that country. Work experience includes campus facilities management and use of green building technologies. Current research interest is sustainable agriculture, in particular the economics of local food systems: what environmental, social, security, and other benefits accrue from local food production, and how do these compare to the benefits and costs of industrial-scale food production for the world economy?

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Valerie VoorheisValerie Voorheis

Valerie Voorheis is a Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the Department of Economics and a Visiting Professor at Marlboro College. Val has also held positions at the School for International Training, the Labor Studies Masters Program at UMass, as well as other undergraduate institutions. Her research interests includes household production, gender, labor and discrimination. She has recently been focused on the history of industrial organization and comparative industrial policy. Val lives in Franklin County with her two young daughters and her partner.

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Beverly Winterscheidbeverley winterscheid

Beverly C. Winterscheid, Ph.D., is Founder and Executive Director of The Institute for Nature and Leadership, a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC that promotes the sustaining effects of nature on human interaction and achievement. She holds a Ph.D. in Strategic Management, has done post-doctoral work in ecopsychology, and her career has included international and U.S. postings in both the private sector where she focused on strategy and human resources, and academia. Her publications focus on the development of core competencies, and organization learning processes.


She was co-developer of an innovative Master’s degree in Mission-Driven Organizations at the School for International Training in Vermont, and has taught Strategic Management, Social Accountability in Organizations, Management of Innovation and Technology, International Management and Human Resources Management. She has been on the faculties of The European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management, Baldwin-Wallace College, Vrije Universiteit – Brussel, and Boston University – Brussels. Beverly assisted in the creation of the Cleveland World Trade Center and was a founding member of the Board of the Sustainable Business Network of Washington DC.

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