Line of Sight Podcast

Vicki Saunders is an entrepreneur, award-winning mentor, advisor to the next generation of change-makers and leading advocate for entrepreneurship as a way of creating positive transformation in the world. Vicki is Founder of #radical generosity and SheEO, a global community of radically generous women supporting women-led Ventures working on the World’s To-Do List. Vicki has co-founded and run ve...

Dr Edward Mungai is a global thought leader in sustainability. An author, researcher, advisor, entrepreneur, and authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development, he is acclaimed for championing environmental excellence, sustainable consumerism and production, and the triple bottom line. Currently, Edward is CEO of Kenya Climate Innovation Centre (KCIC) Group, a transformation age...

Donella Rapier is the President and CEO of BRAC USA, the North American affiliate of BRAC, one of the largest humanitarian and development organizations in the world. Founded in Bangladesh, BRAC now touches the lives of more than 100 million people throughout Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia. Donella brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in finance, fundraising, and strengthening and...

Anita Varma, PhD leads the Solidarity Journalism Initiative at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, where she is the assistant director of Journalism & Media Ethics as well as Social Sector Ethics. Her research, teaching, and public engagement all focus on how marginalized communities are represented in public discourse, and how these representations can improve. Varma serves on the board of th...

Lisa Willems joined AlphaMundi Group in 2013 and is currently a Managing Director at the impact investment firm. She established AlphaMundi Foundation in 2016, a nonprofit sister organization to the group that supports social entrepreneurs with technical assistance, business first gender-smart interventions, and impact measurement. Beyond her investing experience, she spent four years working as a...

Joanna Thompson was born in Alexandria, Virginia and raised in Rockville, Maryland - always staying true to her East Coast roots. She is a criminologist, receiving her B.A. in Criminology & Investigations from West Virginia University and her M.A. and Ph. D. in Criminology, Law, and Justice from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Before joining us here at SCU, Joanna lived in Chicago for 8 yea...

Elizabeth MacBride is an award-winning journalist and an entrepreneur with deep expertise in finance, technology and international business. She has talked her way into Gaza for a story, reported on business in refugee camps and written stories about entrepreneurs everywhere from Northern Idaho to Helena, Arkansas, to Cambodia. She is the co-author of The New Builders and founder of Times of Entre...

About Janine: Janine Firpo is an author and speaker who spent more than 20 years in executive roles at Hewlett-Packard, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and more. She is a values-aligned investor in companies that make the world a better place and is passionate about teaching women to learn how to invest their own money. Embodying these principles, Janine is releasing her first...

Elizabeth serves as the Senior General Partner at Dev Equity, a venture capital fund investing in B-Corps in low income housing, urban revitalization, and sustainable agriculture in Latin America (Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru). She works closely with her portfolio companies to take their businesses to the next level while also making positive social changes in their c...

In an effort to raise awareness about the rise of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl that unfortunately ended the life of their youngest child, Charlie Ternan, Mary and Ed Ternan join Brigit and Don to discuss the urgency of this problem that is infiltrating the lives of young men and women. Throughout the episode they elaborate on what happened to Charlie, the magnitude of which synthetic drugs are...

Anzetse Were is a development economist with over ten years of experience working in Africa on Economic Research, Analysis and Strategy Development with a focus on Macroeconomics, Manufacturing, Private Sector Development, Financial Sector Development, and Trade and Investment. She has a Masters in Economics from the University of Sydney (Australia) and a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University (U...

Brigit and Don welcome Dr. Ruth Goodwin Groen to discuss the impact of the Better Than Cash Alliance, addressing the challenges of cultivating responsible digital payment methods, G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion, how Dr. Ruth Goodwin-Groen began advocating for women’s financial equality, how digitization can relieve systemic corruption, Covid-19’s heightened impact on women, and t...

Maggie Dugan is an international business and innovation facilitator. With over fifteen years of experience in broadcasting as a journalist, a marketer and a manager, Maggie has an incredible grasp on the industry and innovation in corporate settings at large. She was Director of Marketing, Advertising and Promotion for WAAF-FM, President of the American Comedy Network, and Vice President of its p...

Professor and entrepreneur Dr. Maya Ackerman is an award-winning Artificial Intelligence expert, named “Woman of influence” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Ackerman is an Assistant Professor at the Computer Science and Engineering department at Santa Clara University, and CEO/Co-founder of WaveAI, today’s most advanced musical AI startup. Interviews with Dr. Ackerman appear on NBC News, Ne...

Vinnee Tong is the managing editor of news at KQED. She was the founding editor of The Bay, a storytelling news podcast from KQED. Previously, she was a producer on the Bay Curious podcast. Before KQED, Vinnee was a print reporter at the Associated Press and newspapers where she covered local news from City Hall as well as business news from New York, like the financial meltdown of 2008. She has w...

Fiona Macaulay is a serial social entrepreneur that is committed to helping individuals achieve their potential. Through multiple leadership roles such as a keynote speaker for global conferences, a professor at Georgetown University for the McDonough School of Business, an avid leadership writer, and the founder of the Women Innovators & Leaders Development network (WILD), Fiona has actively work...

Thane and Don introduce Miller Center's new Executive Director, Brigit Helms. With over 30 years of experience in global development and economic inclusion Brigit brings insight on the big trends in social entrepreneurship, ethical issues in impact investing, the significance of mobile money, cultivating sustainability, and using social entrepreneurship to fight pandemics.

Victor Som is the founder and CEO of SCM – The Break Station and has traveled to over 52 countries advocating for sustainability and social responsibility. Thane and Don sit down with Victor to discuss consumer responsibility, conflict minerals, Victor’s personal transformation journey, and how companies can operate with greater social responsibility.

Jean Nyembo is a Jesuit priest and the head of CARF (Arrupe Center for research and training), in Lubumbashi, DR Congo. CARF promotes sustainable development through research and education. In this conversation, Thane and Don explore the issue of mining for minerals used in electronics, which often deplete the natural environment and involve unethical labor practices. Jean discusses how the mining...

Dan’l Lewin is the CEO of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. He has 30-plus years of leadership experience in Silicon Valley with Microsoft, NeXT, Apple, Go Corporation, and Sony. Don and Thane discuss the ethics of new technologies, the Computer History Museum’s role in Silicon Valley, which innovations will make the biggest social impact, and how leaders can evaluate new technologies.

Katica Roy is a gender economist and the CEO and founder of Denver-based Pipeline, an award-winning SaaS company that leverages artificial intelligence to identify and drive economic gains through gender equity. Katica is driven by a passion to eradicate economic inequality and champions the rights of refugees, women, and children. Thane and Don talk with Katica about how to achieve gender equity,...

Alex Dehgan is the CEO of Conservation X Labs, an innovation and technology startup focused on ending human-induced extinction. Alex recently served as the Chief Scientist at the U.S. Agency for International Development and helped launch the Global Development Lab there. In this wide-ranging conversation, Alex, Thane, and Don discuss how to prevent future pandemics, Alex’s recent book “The Snow L...

Sammi Bennett is a 2019 Santa Clara graduate '19 and recently completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Bangalore, India with Pollinate Group. Thane and Don chat with Sammi about female entrepreneurship, clean energy, vocational discernment, local and global citizenship, and stories of creativity and resilience from around the world.

Betsy Beaumon is the CEO of Benetech, a nonprofit that empowers communities with software for good. In this episode, Betsy talks with Don and Thane about transformative technologies, the ethics of data, misconceptions around new technologies, and how technology is impacting vulnerable communities.

Supply chain human rights expert Sarah Carpenter joins Thane and Don to share her experience on how to eradicate modern slavery, improve worker safety, and use innovative technology to make supply chains more ethical. Sarah has architected Assent Compliance's human trafficking and slavery solution, and consults with Fortune 500 companies on human rights due diligence.