The Social Change Career Podcast

Are purpose and profit incompatible or possible? Adriana Dawson sits with Dr. Craig and Dr. Catalina to share how her vast experience in different sectors led her to her current position as Head of Community Engagment in one of the biggest private telecomunication corporations in the U.S. "Honor your skills" in terms of identifying what you bring to the table and "improve your narrative", learn ho...

In Episode 1 of Season 9 we sit down to interview Balkis Chaabane and explore how being a recipient of numerous Fellowships has helped leverage her impact career.   Originally from Tunisia, Balkis is currently doing her MA at the Lebanese American University and has received multiple prestigious fellowships.  In this conversation, she shares very honestly what do you gain when you end up in the NO...

Closing Season 8 I sit with Dr. Joshua Weiss who is one of the top scholars in the field of Negotiations in the U.S. and probably the world. If you are thinking about a career in negotiation, look no further.  A grad of the PhD Program at the Carter Center (GMU University), Dr. Weiss is the co-founder of the Global Negotiation Initiative at Harvard University. He is also the director and creator o...

Not a straight line. Not a boring life. The quest for meaning is not easy but is attainable as is the fabulous story of Jim O'Neil. After twists and turns Jim leaves his once engineering career to become an International Development professional for major INGOS such as CRS and Mercy Corps.   In Episode 19 of Season 8, listen how Jim leaves his engineer career, becomes an environmental activist; st...

How does a career in public policy look like? How can a PhD help enhance a career in public policy? To help answer these questions listen to Sergio Hernandez Mendoza story. Sergio has 10 years planning, monitoring and evaluation public policies with international organization and in his native Mexico. He was appointed as Senior Policy Adviser to the Minister of Education in Mexico.  Sergio is curr...

Eric Ressler is the founder and creator of Cosmic by Design, a design agency that helps social impact organizations look better, tell their stories better and become digital wizards and overall increase their engagement and impact. In Episode 17 of Season 8, listen to how Eric dropped out of college and freelanced his way to creating a super successful design agency whose sole purpose is to assist...

Dr. Josefina Echavarria has one of the coolest jobs on the planet.  She oversees the implementation and verification of Peace Agreements.  If peace processes were forests, she would be the "The Peace Ranger".  This is the first time a university-based research center has played such a direct role in supporting the implementation of a peace agreement, and the first-time researchers have measured th...

Devon is a Bay Area-native capacity builder with 12+ years of partnering with social entrepreneurs and founders. Be it a refugee crisis, youth empowerment, education, philanthropy, network building, systems change, and climate crises.  Devon is there to co-create strategy and implementation solutions for greater equity. In Episode 15 of Season 8, listen to Devon's grounding, honest and real journe...

" If you have privilege, use it to do good " is just one of the many tips that came out of an amazing conversation with poverty and development researcher Dr. Soumya Balasubramanya. Soumya's research focuses on poverty and development challenges in Asia and Africa at the nexus of water, food, health and energy.  Her methods include program evaluation, micro-econometrics and non-market valuation.  ...

Nonprofit executive turned parallel entrepreneur.  Yes.  Because life and careers turn up a bit different than plans.  Kelly Nagle, has over a decade of experience working as a senior NGO officer in leadership and development capacities and currently is running not one but two social enterprises. In Episode 13 of Season 8, listen to Kelly's fascinating career transition story.  From her days as an...

How does a career fighting social inequality look like? Look no further as I sit down with one of the world's expert in social inequality: Ben Phillips. Ben Phillips is the author of the book  How to Fight Inequality . He advises the UN, governments and civil society organizations. He is Launch Director of the Fight Inequality Alliance . He has lived and worked in four continents and a dozen citie...

This week's guest story starts with a healthy food business and evolves into one of the biggest most successful business philanthropy efforts working with 3k business and over 220M giving impacts called B1G1 . Masami Sato is originally from Japan. Masami has lived in over 30 countries in 5 continents. She is a teacher, translator, natural food chef (and a farmer!), author and award-winning entrepr...

If you ask me who is the face of the XXI century peacebuilder professional, I would say its Manal El Tayar. Manal is a Rotary Peace Fellow, trilingual development professional with 7+ years of experience in project management and monitoring and evaluation skills in the fields of economic development and peace & justice transformation. Manal has represented Lebanon in a number of regional and inter...

How you can become an art curator, produce global art exhibits that travel the world and work with Peace Laureates. Sounds amazing right? It's hard but very possible and Ashley Woods tells you how he is doing it. Ashley Woods is an internationally recognized curator, project manager and producer. From his "Making Peace" exhibit that has been to 13 countries; to his Martin Luther King Jr exhibit in...

Episode 8 of Season 8 is possible thanks to the support of The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution and Coexistence . At the cutting edge of peacebuilding/development research and practice; winner of 2020 Book of the Year by the Conflict Research Society with the book  "Reclaiming everyday peace: local voices in measurement and evaluation after war...

After over a decade working in the medical humanitarian field, Ayako Tsujika, transitioned to work full time in peacebuilding. She is currently working at the Africa Department of JICA, Japan International Cooperation Agency, as a country officer since last summer, and is going to work on its governance and peacebuilding programs in Ivory Coast (in March of 2021).  Ayako has also worked with Médec...

Where philanthropy, impact investment, peace and equality meet we find Randy Newcomb. With a career trajectory that spans for decades in areas that range from urban local community-based organization (CBO) work in the city of San Francisco; to globally expanding the organization, Humanity United , which focuses on peacebuilding and human trafficking. In 2019, Randy accepted the position of Senior...

What happens when the inner markers of success do not match your calling? This is how Mariette Fourmeaux du Sartel initiated her counterintuitive and yet profound transformational journey to transforming the U.S. prison system. In Episode 5 of Season 8 listen how a profound meditation session led to a prison visit, which led to organizing TEDx Talks with inmates and ultimately creating a project t...

Now more than ever we need all hands-on deck to deal with and heal from deep-rooted divisions in our societies.  From practitioners with formal training in conflict transformation to every day folks, we need the tools to navigate the waters of disinformation, fear and intolerance. In  Episode 4 of Season 8 , I sit down with Melody Stanford Martin who have made this topic her career of choice.  Soc...

Burnout, grief, stress, grief.  These are the core of the issues that Jenn Weidman's social enterprise, Space Bangkok , is dedicated to solve/transform in the social impact professional community.   In  Episode 3 of Season 8 , listen how after 17 years of being a peacebuilding professional, Jenn "jumped" into the unknown and founded Space Bangkok.  How scary and fulfilling it has been to start a s...

After 2020 we all know a thing of two about disasters.  But there are folks like Yotam Polizer who have built amazing careers providing humanitarian relief at a global scale. Yotam Polizer is CEO of Israel's biggest humanitarian NGO active in 15 counties including Israel, U.S., Italy and currently very busy with Covid-19 victims.  Under Yotam's leadership, IsraAID have participated in several cont...

How can you study electro-mechanical engineer to then found a construction company focused on historical renovations to end up leading a cutting-edge research and policy driven organization focused on developing frameworks for peace? In  Episode 1 of Season 8 , listen to the interesting life and career story of Michael Collins, who leads the Institute of Economics and Peace in the Americas. Learn...

Dr. Young is an independent author, trainer, consultant, with many years practical and academic experience in the area of negotiation, mediation and conflict management skills. In  Episode 19 of Season 7 , listen to why Dr. Mark Young believes that humans urge to play is greater than humans urge to fight. Dr. Young has been thinking about and playing games for the past 19 years.  He is the founder...

In the U.S., a remarkable respected civil rights attorney; professor; inequality expert started his journey in difficult circumstances, escaping the horrors of war and international sanctions; being buried in quicksand and facing layoffs as well as rejection from grad school.  This is the story of Ehsan Zaffar . In  Episode 18 of Season 7 , Ehsan shares how he grew up in poverty as a refugee in th...

She is a female CEO and President of one of the biggest International Development/Education NGOs worldwide, IREX .  How did Dr. Kristin Lord arrive to the top? If you think she planned it all carefully, please listen how you can get to the top without planning every second of your life or having a 10-year plan.   In  Episode 17 of Season 7 , Dr Lord's explains how she worked full-time while finish...