The Idealist.org Podcasts

Can you make the world more sustainable by working for a corporation?





According to Net Impact and its free, downloadable career guide Corporate Careers that Make a Difference, you can.


Everyday, business leaders make a positive environmental and social impact in their companies — both in dedicated green jobs, as well as in more conventional job functions.





On this episode of the Idealist Careers Podcast, Idealist’s Amy Potthast chats with Abby Davisson from Net Impact, a national nonprofit dedicated to engaging business in making the world sustainable, and Yonnie Leung, Principal of Environmental Sustainability for Shared Services at  Pacific Gas and Electric Company in California — and who is profiled in the Net Impact career guide.





During the conversation, they also briefly mention Net Impact's Business as UNusual Guide to MBA programs that have a focus on corporate citizenship. The 2011 Guide launches this week and is available at netimpact.org.





You can meet many of the schools mentioned in Business as Unusual at the Idealist Grad Fairs taking place across the country, gradfairs.idealist.org.


Finally, for a look at a range of businesses working for the public good, please check out Chinook Book, our Portland Grad Fair media sponsor.

Lara Galinsky, Senior Vice President of Echoing Green is launching an inspiring career guide for social-impact work called Work on Purpose.


Each chapter of Work on Purpose asks key questions for career seekers; illustrates the impact of these questions in the lives of Echoing Green community members; and offers a place for notes at the end for you to jot reflections from your own life.


In this episode of the Idealist Careers Podcast, Idealist's Amy Potthast chats with Lara Galinsky about the central message of Work on Purpose: finding work that uses your "Heart + Head = Hustle."


Lara shares the stories of the five people who illustrate this message:


Cheryl Dorsey, President of Echoing Green, who graduated from medical school and Kennedy School of Government, and chose social-justice over medicine. Mark Hannis, founder of the Genocide Intervention Network and the child of Holocaust survivors, who discovered as a college student that genocide still occurs, and that he could mobilize action to end it. Mardie Oakes, founder of Hallmark Community Solutions, combined her background in architecture, community housing, and finance to develop housing for people with special needs. Socheata Poeuv, creator of the film project Khmer Legacies, which documents interviews between Khmer Rouge survivors and their adult children. Andrew Youn, Founder of the One Acre Fund, who started out in a corporate consulting job but later used his business skills to develop a market system for farmers in a region of Kenya to prevent annual famines.


Learn more about Work on Purpose.


Learn more about Work on Purpose.

Posted as part of Nonprofit Career Month, featuring the diversity of career opportunities in the nonprofit sector. Listen to more shows in this series.

Today’s guest is Heather Calverase, Executive Director of Teach For America’s Newark, New Jersey region where she is responsible for growing sustainable base of financial, community, and district awareness and support including cultivating and stewarding donations, building strong ties with local school districts, and recruiting corps members.

Prior to her position with Teach For America, Heather worked in the business sector, including nearly a decade with Kaplan, best known for its test preparation books and classes.

Amy Potthast chats with Heather about what is appealing about what Heather brings to the nonprofit sector from her business sector experience, as well as her background on educational issues.

Posted as part of Nonprofit Career Month, featuring the diversity of career opportunities in the nonprofit sector. Listen to more shows in this series.

Today's Nonprofit Career Month podcast guest is Debbie Bower, Executive Director of Senior Resources Inc., a South Carolina nonprofit that provides seniors services, resources, transportation help, and Meals on Wheels so that they can live healthy and independent lives.

Debbie started her career with a Bachelor's degree in recreational therapy and soon found herself working as an activity director at for-profit and nonprofit assisted living facilities throughout the Midwest. When she relocated to South Carolina, she was drawn to the mission and programs of Senior Resources because the organization allowed her to continue to working with seniors, on issues that matter to their lives. She started there as a volunteer administrator and program director and over the course of many years has worked her way up to the Executive Director position.

Amy Potthast and Debbie talk about the skill sets required to lead an organization; the inspiring nature of nonprofit work and the passion it takes to sustain a career in the sector; what it means to make a difference in the lives of other people through your daily work; and Amy's grandfather who contributes his own poems to other seniors through Senior Resources programs.