Line of Sight Podcast

How can maps help solve the world's toughest challenges? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Yarnold shares stories from his new book, The Geography of Hope, revealing how Geographic Information Systems (GIS) fuel collaboration and optimism worldwide. From women de-miners in Sri Lanka building livelihoods and status, to African conservationists balancing development and biodiversity, to city planners in Prague tackling urban sustainability, Yarnold shows how data and visual storytelling create common ground across cultures. He also reflects on career shifts, the power of showing vs. telling, and why every organization needs better storytellers. A compelling look at where technology, social justice, and hope intersect.

In this episode, we feature Mina Shahid, CEO and co-founder of Numida, a leading digital microfinance institution (MFI) in East Africa. Mina shares his personal journey, from his early experiences that shaped his passion for financial inclusion to the founding of Numida. Born out of a mission to empower micro- and small businesses (MSBs), Numida leverages proprietary technology and innovative credit processes to deliver convenient, unsecured working capital to entrepreneurs often left out of traditional financial systems. Tune in to hear how Mina's vision and leadership are driving real impact across the region—improving livelihoods while building a thriving, scalable business.

In this episode, Susan Namirimu shares how her passion for sewing became a catalyst for economic empowerment in Northern Uganda. Originally from Kampala, Susan moved to Gulu for university, where she saw firsthand the lack of job opportunities for young people. Determined to make a difference, she founded Mtindo, a training academy that equips vulnerable women—many of them young mothers—with fashion entrepreneurship skills. Beyond sewing, Mtindo provides life skills training, fostering confidence and self-advocacy. Graduates either secure jobs within Mtindo or launch their own tailoring businesses, building a future of financial independence. Tune in to hear how Susan is transforming lives, one stitch at a time. 

Andrei Iancu — Founder & CEO of Halo Industries Growing up in Communist Romania and earning a bachelor's in aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering at Iowa State University, Andrei Iancu had no concept of entrepreneurship. That all changed at Stanford, where he earned a PhD in mechanical engineering and became inspired to start a company and make a meaningful impact on the world. Drawing on his work in a Stanford research lab, he founded Halo Industries, which creates novel laser-based systems for materials fabrication to help manufacturers drastically reduce waste, improve quality, and enable next-generation technologies. And if that's not enough, his next big thing may be addressing gaps in childcare and early childhood education.

With a degree in mechanical engineering, Wes joined the Peace Corps in Nicaragua, seeking to learn Spanish and make a difference. He shares his journey from a Midwestern farming family to cofounding Cova, a social enterprise providing safe water solutions in Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. Named for the covalent bond between hydrogen and oxygen that creates water and the bond they foster with rural communities, Cova evolved from a product company to one offering water treatment as a service. Wes also discusses leadership, balancing work and family, exploring carbon offsets, and expanding into new countries to grow impact and manage risks in the face of political instability.

At just 19, Falon Fatemi became one of Google's youngest employees, joining shortly after the company went public. She recalls a time when wearing a Google tee in London prompted the question, “What's Google?” A decade later, she founded Node, the first horizontal AI-as-a-service platform driving predictable business outcomes, which was later acquired by SugarCRM. Today, she's cofounder of Fireside, alongside Mark Cuban, a venture named by Fast Company as one of the “next big things in media, entertainment, and social technology” for its innovative interactive tech on smart TVs. In this episode, Falon shares her entrepreneurial journey and offers valuable advice for aspiring founders.

With a career in corporate finance, Florence originally founded Nyota as a way to continue employing her nannies once her children started school. The company partners with smallholder farmers in rural Kenya to flash-freeze local produce and create specialty sauces, tackling food waste and boosting farmers' livelihoods. Nyota soon began employing more women in the community and moved production from Flo's kitchen into a commercial facility. In this episode, discover Florence's inspiring journey, including how she has evolved her previous no-nonsense, corporate leadership style to embrace patience, empathy, and camaraderie. Nyota's nutritious foods are sold in supermarkets across Kenya, with expansion plans for New York City.

Founded in 2003, Next 10 works at the intersection of California's economy, environment, and quality of life, providing expert research and data to inform the public and policymakers. Noel explores the hidden energy costs of driverless cars, the development of offshore wind farms, and how to navigate California's complex ballot propositions. Discover insights from Next 10's annual California Green Innovation Index, which tracks environmental and economic trends, benchmarking California against other U.S. states and major global economies. This conversation offers valuable lessons not just for Californians, but for anyone interested in learning from the state's successes and challenges.

For many vulnerable communities, particularly women and children, in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond, access to school and the news can be difficult. Hear how Lifeline Energy is bringing news and educational curriculum to rural communities with solar and wind-up radios and MP3 players, often providing the only reliable source of outside information to their clients. Kristine shares her story of winning the 2005 Tech Award (co-sponsored by the Tech Museum of Innovation and Miller Center). The $50,000 prize was pivotal in helping her raise additional capital because donors like to be first to go second.

After college, Matt Wallace sought life beyond the Illinois cornfields where he grew up. He moved with his wife to Myanmar to teach English, where he was struck by the influx of young women migrating into cities to send money back to their families. This inspired him to co-found ONOW, which provides business training, financial skills, coaching, and digital tools to Myanmar's young entrepreneurs, especially migrant women. Discover Matt's journey with ONOW — how the pandemic actually helped the company scale, the impact of Myanmar's military coup, and how ONOW is integrating AI into its support tools to simplify financial reporting for its customers.

Mayor Matt Mahan shares his vision for San Jose, tackling some of the most pressing issues the city faces today — from the housing crisis and public safety to innovation and community-building. Raised in a small farming town by a school teacher and a postal carrier, Matt commuted up to four hours a day to attend a college prep high school in San Jose. A Teach for America educator and founder and CEO of a tech startup to engage voters, he was elected mayor of the United States' 13th largest city in 2022. Whether you're a resident or interested in urban leadership, this episode offers insights into San Jose's future.

Sahar Jamal, the founder of Maziwa, discusses the inspirations behind creating the Maziwa "Wema Breast Pump," her experience with Miller Center's accelerator program, and her upbringing.

From Summer Camp to Tech-Giant CEO to Nonprofit Advisor When Jim Morgan took the reins at Applied Materials, the semiconductor equipment company was on the verge of bankruptcy. During his three-decade tenure, he led its transformation into a multi-billion dollar corporation. Jim has also served as a technology advisor to three US presidents, been recognized for his global humanitarian work, and authored several books on leadership. And it all began at summer camp. Join us as Jim shares his journey and his latest book, Applied Wisdom for the Nonprofit Sector.

Martyna Malinowska, co-founder of GajiGesa, shares her journey from Poland to Indonesia, driven by a passion for financial inclusion. She was first inspired by Muhammad Yunus' concept of doing well by doing good. Working for a fintech startup in Indonesia, Martyna came to understand that most Indonesian employees run out of money between paychecks. This experience led to the creation of GajiGesa, a platform that provides on-demand access to earned wages as a safe alternative to high-interest, predatory loans and improves the financial resilience of workers.

Page Crahan is general manager of Tapestry, a moonshot effort under Alphabet focused on the electric grid. Today, information about the grid is fragmented across numerous organizations, making planning and management difficult. Tapestry's mission is to illuminate the electric grid. By providing visibility to all those who work with it, Tapestry aims to make the grid greener, fairer, and more reliable. Page shares some exciting developments on the horizon and how she brings her personal creativity to work.

David Wanjau, founder and CEO of Deevabits Green Energy, planned to be a research scientist before being encouraged by a fellow scientist to help “change the world.” Working for an NGO on food security issues and rabbit farming, he quickly realized that the farmers he worked with did not have electricity. Our host, Karen Runde, met up with David in Nairobi to learn more about his journey with Deevabits to provide clean, reliable solar solutions to rural Kenyan communities.

Founded in 2012, Access Afya provides high-quality, localized healthcare specifically designed to meet the needs of underserved neighborhoods in Kenya. Join our interview with CEO Daphne Ngunjiri as she traces Access Afya's journey to serve over 10,000 people per month through community micro-clinics and a suite of digital health apps and her personal journey and growth as a leader. The Economist recently highlighted its implementation of an AI-powered virtual healthcare platform to provide immediate and personalized responses to patients, health workers, and clinicians.

Father Greg Boyle and Homeboy Industries Provide Hope and Healing. When Father Gregory Boyle became the pastor of Dolores Mission Church, the community had the highest concentration of gang activity in Los Angeles. In 1988, Father Greg founded Homeboy Industries to improve the lives of former gang members in East Los Angeles. Since then, it has evolved into the largest gang intervention, rehab, and re-entry program in the world. In this episode, Brigit and Don talk with Father Greg about Homeboy Industries, the Global Homeboy Network, and the importance of offering kinship and support to those who have been left behind without hope.

Growing up in the midst of the Salvadoran Civil War, Ariela Suster lived through car bombs in her neighborhood, shootings in her home, and the harrowing kidnapping of her brother. Early in her career, Ariela worked in high fashion in New York City, before founding Sequence Collection, an urban lifestyle brand that employs young men and women at risk of gang recruitment, to change the sequence of events that have led to violence and destruction in her country. Ariela shares her journey of building a social enterprise and connecting with her mentor, fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg.

While working in Morocco with the Peace Corps, Galen Welsh observed the disconnect between what communities need and what donors want to fund. With investment from his dad, Galen piloted his original Jibu model in Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. All three failed, but Galen learned quickly and adapted. From those early failures to a harrowing experience defending his brand, Galen recounts his journey to launch 160 franchises with 10,000 retail points in 8 African countries and provide opportunities for African entrepreneurs.

Welcome to "Founders of Impact," our Line of Sight spin-off series that delves into the remarkable journeys of founders who are redefining success by combining business innovation with a commitment to positive societal change. In each episode, host Karen Runde, Miller Center's Director of Alumni Programs, engages in candid and insightful conversations with visionaries who have dared to challenge the status quo. Discover the origins of their enterprise, strategies, challenges, and triumphs that shape the landscape of social entrepreneurship. "Founders of Impact" – Where purpose-driven innovation takes center stage. Subscribe and join the conversation today.

Brigit and Don welcome Malika Anand to discuss the mission behind Catalyst Fund, the transition in its business model and its impact thus far, her role as Head of Impact, core values that guide the Catalyst Fund in their transition to VC, key barriers to having the greatest impact, and how the Catalyst Fund incorporates ESG frameworks into its work.

Alison Taylor joins us as we break down the essence and implications of ESG from a critical lens through dialogue regarding common misunderstandings about ESG, the impact of the Larry Fink letters, polarization in business culture, and how her upcoming book addresses the dilemma of being an ethical business in a turbulent world.

In today's episode, Brigit and Don seek out the expertise of Allie Ottoboni as they dive into trust-based philanthropy and its unique approach, eBay Foundation's strategic planning focus on equitable entrepreneurship and what this entails, her career journey that led to earning the Woman of Influence award from the Silicon Valley Business Journal, and her outlook on the future of philanthropy.

Brigit and Don embrace the youthful, yet tenured perspective of the 10-year old Child's Rights Activist and Climate Campaigner, Faatiha Aayat, as they discuss Faatiha's first experiences working for climate change, why she values this cause so deeply, the connection between climate change and ethics, the target audience for her speeches, how others can support the mitigation of climate change, and her hopes for the future of the climate issue.

Brigit and Don connect with Jim Koch and Eric Carlson to discuss the unique value proposition of Miller Center's Accelerator, formerly the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI), the motivation to launch the accelerator, Eric's decision to get involved and his passion for this work, why the accelerator program fits so well within Santa Clara University, its impact, and why mentorship is essential for the social entrepreneurship program.

In this episode, Brigit and Don call on Gloria Duffy as they think through pre-eminent challenges to creating a more just, ethical, and sustainable world, the importance of balanced public information and dialogue about challenging societal issues, the Commonwealth Club's approach towards addressing equity, justice, ethics, and sustainability, the homelessness crisis and its implications on San Francisco, the common thread between organizations Gloria has advocated for, and how social entrepreneurs are nurtured.

In this episode, Brigit and Don chat with Kristi Bowers as they explore the mission, ingenuity, and journey of her data-driven agriculture company, Grape.ag; the implications of climate change on farmers across the globe, how Grape.ag ensures its ethicality and ESG duty as a startup, the value of working cross-culturally, ways that companies can leverage the Markkula Center and Miller Center to support their mission, and what success looks like for her company.

In today's episode, Brigit and Don request Lisa Kloppenberg to discuss her book, The Best Beloved Thing Is Justice: The Life of Dorothy Wright Nelson, hone in on the significance of drawing leadership from mentors, highlight her proudest accomplishments as SCU's acting President, provide advice that she may have for aspiring leaders on how to deal with adversity, and reveal her next ventures as she completes her time as the acting President.

Sha Duncan Smith joins Brigit and Don as they discuss what drew her to the role as the VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at SCU, what it takes to be an anti-racist institution, how to build empathy and craft a culture of listening, differences she's noticed between social norms in Silicon Valley v.s. the MidWest, taking accountability on properly recruiting diverse talent, and how she stays resilient in her work in light of obstacles.

Brigit and Don invite Dalia Cohen to indulge in the complexities of her upcoming fund, the investing landscape in Africa for women, exploring ESG companies and what this investment sector entails, the colonization of funding, social and societal impact of mobile money in Africa, and growing up in Zimbabwe.

In today's discussion, Brigit and Don welcome Joyita Mukherjee to decipher the complexity and urgency of COP26, the imbalance of geographical carbon emissions, industrial animal husbandry practices and the environment, the discouraging nature of climate change and ways to cope, mitigation and adaptation, and social entrepreneurship's role in combating climate change.

Brigit and Don welcome Mary Ellen Iskenderian to tackle the core themes within her upcoming book, There Is Nothing Micro About a Billion Women, such as the field of financial inclusion, the complexity of an untapped market, clearing the roadblocks and making a business case for financial inclusion, gaining support for this business case at scale, the ethical responsibility of policymakers to address financial inclusion, and the implications of data privacy and predatory lending practices in making this change.

In this episode, Brigit and Don welcome Sharon Vosmek to explore the ongoing issue of funding for diverse female founders, the entry point for changing the system that enables funding disparities, why inclusive teams perform better, eliminating “unconscious bias” from the investment process, adapting to language barriers in global opportunities, and how her career path led to where she is today.

Mohini Malhotra sits down with Brigit and Don to delve into her focus on women's economic empowerment, the correlation between leadership and international development, implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts into her leadership course, her interest in working with female artists, and the advice she would give to her younger self and students at Georgetown.

Lindsay Smalling joins Brigit and Don to discuss the meaning behind the name “60 Decibels” and its mission, making sense of qualitative research data, Lindsay's passion and motivation, 60 Decibels' significant impact working with NGOs and social enterprises, ethical issues that arise in this field, and her outlook for this work in the future.

Brigit and Don welcome Ronnie Lott and Will Smith as they explore their work with LEAD (a social enterprise focused on Leadership, Education, Athletics, and Development), what they hope to accomplish, and plans to expand LEAD into the US to further its vision and impact. They also discuss the beginning of Ronnie and Will's friendship, the dichotomy of pursuing an ethical initiative and abstaining from falling into the white savior trope, and Ronnie's experience with NFL leaders and how these qualities are invaluable for leaders everywhere.

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 ventures in Europe, Toronto and Silicon Valley and taken a company public on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Vicki was received numerous awards for her work at SheEO including; UBS Global Visionary in 2020, YWCA Women of Distinction Award in 2020, Business Leader of the Year 2019 by the Toronto Regional Board of Trade, 2018 Startup Canada Entrepreneurship Promotion Award and was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 2001. In this episode, Brigit and Don invite Vicki Saunders as they immerse themselves into her world of creating positive transformation through entrepreneurship, being the Founder of SheEO, the media's unrealistic glorification of venture capitalist funding, what differentiates SheEO from mainstream approaches, the meaning of radical generosity and its importance, and her vision for a better financial system that serves humanity.

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 agency working at the intersection of sustainability, entrepreneurship, and innovation. He is co-founder of KCIC Consulting, a consultancy, and think – tank-helping clients to integrate sustainability into their businesses also founder of Inspire leadership that helps people unlock their potential. He has authored several books, the latest being Impact Investing in Africa: A guide to Sustainability for Investors, Institutions, and Entrepreneurs. He teaches Corporate Sustainability and innovation to executives at Strathmore Business School and sits on several boards. A health and fitness enthusiast, he has participated in numerous global marathons such as Boston, Chicago, New York, and Berlin marathons but also bagged over 21 medals so far including the Abbot Marathon Majors. Edward holds a PhD in Sustainability from Strathmore University Business School; MBA from Scandinavian International Management Institute (SIMI) in Copenhagen, Denmark and undergraduate degree in business management from Moi University, Kenya Dr. Edward Mungai joins Brigit and Don to discuss his experience in accessing the potential of social enterprises to solve challenges across Africa, the challenges that social entrepreneurs are facing and possible solutions, COVID 19's impact on the social enterprise sector in Kenya, key lessons he's learned during his time as the CEO of the Kenya Climate Innovation Centre (KCIC) Group for the last 9 years, and the mismatch between the supply and demand of capital.

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 scaling nonprofit organizations. Before joining BRAC USA, Donella served as the Chief Development and Administrative Officer at Accion, a pioneer and global leader in microfinance and financial inclusion. Prior to that, she was the Chief Financial Officer at Partners in Health, a global healthcare organization working in remote places where healthcare alternatives are limited or otherwise nonexistent, such as Haiti, Rwanda, and Malawi. Earlier in her career, Donella spent more than a decade in senior leadership roles at Harvard University, including Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development and Chief Financial Officer for Harvard Business School. Donella received her MBA from Harvard Business School and began her career at Price Waterhouse. In this episode, Brigit and Don welcome Donella Rapier, President and CEO of BRAC USA, to highlight BRAC's impact on Bangladesh, Sub Saharan Africa, and South Asia, what attracted Donella to BRAC USA, their mission and approach to global expansion, innovations pioneered by the organization, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed's everlasting mark on BRAC, and the outlook for their future.

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 the Society of Professional Journalists (Northern California Chapter) and she is the research chair of the Media Ethics Division for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She believes storytelling can help change the world. In this installment, Brigit and Don welcome Anita Varma, the assistant director of Journalism & Media Ethics and Social Sector Ethics, to explore the essence of solidarity journalism, the dichotomy of journalistic neutrality and acknowledging social justice, the difference between empathy and solidarity in reporting, what solidarity reporting for India's surge in Covid-19 cases would look like, how both journalists and audiences have been exhausted by the incessant trauma displayed in the news, and the implications of vicarious traumatization.

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 management consultant in New York, predominantly at Oliver Wyman. Lisa has traveled extensively and worked with social entrepreneurs in Ghana, Honduras, Tanzania, and the Dominican Republic. With a BAs in Economics and Public Policy from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, Lisa is an adjunct professor at American University, where she teaches a graduate course on impact investing. Brigit and Don sit down with Lisa Willems to discuss the ethicality and profitability of gender lens investing (GLI), AlphaMundi's mission to address the need for female founders and comparable funding for their ventures, business first gender-smart interventions, the biggest challenges of GLI, key success factors, identifying the signs of growth in companies for investments, Silicon Valley's influence on international venture capital markets, and advice for other investors who are looking to get started with GLI.

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 years where she taught criminology courses at UIC for 6 years and worked at Center on Halsted--an LGBTQ community center--for 1 year. Her mixed-race (half-Black/half-Latina) and queer identities make her passionate about intersectionality and social justice. As Director of the Office for Multicultural Learning, Joanna is excited to help educate and transform the SCU community when it comes to multicultural and multiracial issues. Brigit and Don invite Joanna Thompson to indulge in the significance of social justice, spearheading diversity equity and inclusion work, her role at Santa Clara University as the Director of the Office of Multicultural Learning, actively striving to address urgent social issues on campus and nationwide, teaching empathy, the multi-faceted implications of the capitol riots, and having the temerity to live in all of your identities.

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 Entrepreneurship, a weekly web publication covering entrepreneurs beyond Silicon Valley, launched in Feb. 2020, with support from the Kauffman Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation. Elizabeth has written or edited for Quartz, Forbes Magazine, Atlantic.com, Stanford GSB, CNBC, HBR.com, BBC Capital, Advertising Age, Newsweek and many others. Her stories have been viewed by millions of people worldwide and translated into languages including Arabic, Turkish and Armenian. Her recent work includes a viral story: “Why Venture Capital Doesn’t Build What We Really Need,” for MIT Tech Review; an award-winning feature on the lack of diversity among investment advisors for Investment News, the most efficient form of aid for Syrian refugees for Quartz, and a feature for CNBC on one of the few successful economic development projects in Bethlehem, led by Greek businessman, Samer Khoury.Elizabeth's work for corporate and startup clients includes thought leadership with Andy Rachleff, co-founder of Benchmark Capital and Wealthfront, as well as a number of internationally known Stanford professors in management and finance, including Huggy Rao and Benham Tabrizi. She edited two books on investing for Charley Ellis, founder of Greenwich Associates, and the author of the classic Winning the Loser's Game.

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 book, Activate Your Money - Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World in April of 2021. The company Janine founded, SEMBA, will create a community for those looking to take control of their investments and bring them in line with what matters most to them.She is one of the lead investors in the Next Wave Impact Fund, an impact angel fund designed to help more women become angel investors. Janine also sits on the board of Zebras Unite, an organization developing the capital structures, community, and culture that non-unicorn start-up businesses need to thrive.A graduate from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) with a BA in Biology, she earned her Masters Degree in Zoology and Computer Science from the University of Florida.

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 countries. Elizabeth started her career in rapidly growing, innovative technology companies. She served as a Product Manager for Microsoft Word when Windows was first launched and participated in forming the original Microsoft Office product. After graduating as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School, she joined Yahoo! as one of the earliest employees-- quickly rising through the ranks to lead the business side of several divisions including Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Auctions, Yahoo! Classifieds, Yahoo! Greetings and other properties. Most importantly, she was a founder of Yahoo! Shopping and became a leader in developing and shaping Yahoo’s e-commerce strategy. Since that time, Elizabeth has dedicated the past 15 years to impact investing and corporate social responsibility-- demonstrating that strong financial performance and positive social change are inherently connected. During the Covid-19 pandemic she created a new social enterprise, DignityMoves, with the purpose of creating innovative and scalable solutions for homelessness in California. Her first DignityMoves housing site has been funded by the State of California’s Project Homekey program and additional sites are in the works for Santa Barbara, San Francisco and elsewhere across California.

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 harming the youth, why synthetic drugs are on the rise, the dangerous chemical properties of fentanyl, decoupling the fentanyl problem from the opioid crisis, the tendency for college students to self medicate with pills, and their strategy to educate the youth about the dangers of synthetic drugs.

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 (USA). Over her career, Anzetse has worked with African governments, private sector, development finance institutions, non-profit organizations, as well as academia and think tanks. She is currently an Economist at FSD Kenya. In this episode, Brigit and Don welcome Anzetse Were to highlight how innovation within Africa can address social injustices, M-Pesa as an active element of shifting financial norms in Africa, promoting competition in an environment full of monopolies, using the technological ecosystem to create a sense of ownership in which Africa is playing a role in its innovation, fostering innovation in the private sector, prominent ethical issues within the work that she does, and the implications of COVID 19 to Africa’s economy and society that delve deeper than businesses closing: the bigger picture.

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 the ethical issues and implications of the lack of international access to identification. Dr. Ruth Goodwin-Groen is the Managing Director of the United Nations based Better Than Cash Alliance, leading its efforts to accelerate the global shift from cash to digital payments by governments, companies and international organizations. This continues her work on poverty reduction as it helps to increase transparency, efficiency and provide a pathway to financial inclusion, driving inclusive growth. She represents Better Than Cash Alliance at the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion, is a member of the World Economic Forum Financial Inclusion Steering Committee and a member of the Reference Group of the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development. Previously, Dr. Goodwin-Groen was the Australian Co-Chair of the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion and the Financial Services for the Poor Adviser at the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). She has also advised organizations in the field of financial inclusion including the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, the World Bank Group, the Soros Foundation, the UK Department for International Development, the FinMark Trust (South Africa), the German Technical Cooperation, Women’s World Banking, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as well as Cambridge University in over 15 different countries. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Bath, UK, an M.B.A. (Distinction) from Harvard Business School, USA and; a B.Sc. Hons. (1st) from the University of Western Australia.